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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 850 851 852 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. + 170 +
