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FREEDOM FIGHT FOR LOVE, AN EXCELLENT FARCE AND SOME MUSIC BY LEHÄR production of the Operetta Theatre, with another 94 performances in front of more than 100,000 spectators. The decay of the production, which we can assume by the audio recording, may have started then and culminated in the next series in 1963, since neither of the directors took part in these revivals.**° However, the revised version of Lehar’s operetta remained popular even later, and not only at the Operetta Theatre, where it was staged three times by other directors between 1963 and 2017. The adaptation of Békeffy and Kellér has almost utterly replaced the previous Hungarian version of The Count of Luxembourg. (This Ur-version was only played in Szeged in 2005, directed by Péter Horvath.) The revised and musically reduced The Count of Luxembourg has become Lehar’s most popular operetta in Hungary, outstripping The Merry Widow, which sets much higher demands on singers. René and Angéle have appeared in more than fifty productions on Hungarian stages since 1952, directed by Läszlö Vámos, István Iglódi, Ferenc Sík, István Szőke, József Bor, László Seregi and Tamás Ascher among others. Aschers 1996 staging in Kaposvár stands out from the reception history of the operetta, not only because of its high quality of acting and mise-en-scéne, but also because of its many references to the tradition created by the 1952 show. After all, Luxi and especially the roles of Madame Fleury and Sir Basil have become “lieux de mémoire” (Pierre Nora) for a style of playing operettas that linked the second half of the 20th century to the first, with interrupted continuity, of course, and in which the spirits of Hanna Honthy and Kamill Feleki have remained alive to this day. 430 After “a revolutionary meeting of the company” on 30 October, 1956, Gyorgy Székely resigned as chief director of the Operetta Theatre and became employed in the Library of the Theatre Association from 1* January, 1957. (Cf. Dr. Székely: Operettszínház — 1956, 30.) Margit Gáspár wanted András Mikó to be chief director earlier, but "the company did not really like him and eventually Mikó left us offended and stayed at the Opera". (Venczel: Virágkor, Part 2, 40.) + 94e
