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PATRIOTISM TURNED INTO SOCIAL ISSUE
theatres of the time, where he had been brought in as a symbol of innocence by
Jözsef Ruszt’s mises-en-scéne of Shakespeare’s plays in the 1970s,** the final
image tended to make the act of (self-)sacrifice more emphatic and increased
the tragedy of Stephen, who was left alone in his victory with a sense of loss.55°
1he uncertainty surrounding the interpretation of the sacrifice made for the
consolidation of power also confronts us with the anomaly of “doublespeak”,
i.e. the inability to make stage signs unambiguous. The myth of the rock
opera was fueled from the outset by the fact that “the conflict of Stephen
and Koppany, Christian and Hungarian, can be projected onto quite a lot of
political situations”,%! so that János Kádár and Imre Nagy (executed after the
1956 revolution) can also be seen in them from both a “revolutionary” and
“counter-revolutionary” point of view.°°?
The end scene of the production, felt “overly elevated” throughout,*?
roused the poignancy over the historical necessity of “the world on a forced
course” (as the lyrics say), conjuring up the future at most in this way. At the
same time and in stark contrast to the film’s finale full of ribbons, the national
84 “The personification of the purity of childhood in this way is a common stage symbol now.”
Ibid.
Cf. “[The boy rolled in the black shroud] is lying like a sacrifice at the adult Stephen’s feet.
Stephen, the king, lifts his purer self into his hands and turns to the defeated. Towering over
Stephen, the dead Koppány and the others are already standing in the window of the back
wall. Stephen walks to them to show his sacrifice in front of their altarpiece." Mészáros:
Az ösi erdek, 7. - „[...] das symbolgeladene Schlußbild, als Stefan seine Ideale ‘zu Grabe’
trägt und doch nicht von ihnen lassen kann.” No author: Eine alte Geschichte spannend
aufbereitet, Neue Zeit Berlin, Vol. 44, No. 90, 15'* April, 1988, 7.
Matalin: A magyar rockopera.
In other words, either as the exposed weakness of the murderous “king” Janos Kädär, or as
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ideological reinforcement in the service of the reigning power: “rebellion is beautiful but
meaningless, the country can only survive if we follow Stephen’s path, the reality of history”.
Ibid. — “Moreover, according to the rock opera’s fiction, Stephen had nothing to do with
Koppäny’s death (contrary to the drama of Miklós Boldizsár, on which it was based), while
the execution of Imre Nagy remained the original, unnamed sin of the Kádár regime. From
the point of view of power, therefore, such an interpretation of Stephen the King seemed to be
the most perfect whitewash." Zoltán Orosz R.: Istvánban Kádárt, Koppányban Nagy Imrét
látták, http://24.hu/kultura/2015/08/20/istvanban-kadart-koppanyban-nagy-imret-lattak/
(accessed 2 August 2017). — The interpretation that denies the subversive nature of the rock
opera came out shortly after the world premiere in the City Park, published by Emericus
(Zoltán Krasznai). The article, “John the King - or the light of grace shines on us” stated
that “the authors and the director managed to create an image of King Stephen in line with
the conditions of advanced socialism, and more than that, ‘the idea of St. Stephen’ of the
Kádár regime." In Gábor Demszky (ed.): Szamizdat "81-89. Válogatás a Hírmondó című
folyóiratból, Budapest, AB-Beszélő Kft., 1990, 86—91.
Koltai: Történelem kontra Magyarország, 13. — In his review, Péter Molnár Gál mentioned
maliciously that deheroization had been in vogue on Hungarian stages, but there was an
853
attempt to “reheroize” now. “Deheroization answered the glorious glaze that the Hungarian
historical past had been given in the 1950s, while the bust of Matyas Rakosi had been gilded
and even made of lard. [...] A heroized past, however, is only good for masking everyday
contradictions and difficulties.” M.G.P.: Két zenés darabrél, 35.
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