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IMRE KERÉNYI: STEPHEN THE KING, 1985 anthem (creating a frame with Beethovens Overture to King Stephen) was played on an electric keyboard and sounded not bombastic at all, while a shabby and faded red-white-green flag rose high at the back.°°* In spite of the low-key use of the elements of national identity, far from stirring up loud patriotism, some disputed the aesthetic character of this stage effect.°°® However, as Stephen was raising up the child at the same time, the sound and the image were as fully rooted in the dramatic situation as they had been at every moment before. ACTING Instead of hosting the cast of the 1983 production that seemed paradigmatic in terms of voices, the National Theatre relied almost entirely on its own resources to produce the rock opera. The composer, Levente Szörenyi was coaching the actors throughout the summer of 1985,*°° and they were “working with unprecedented hardness and intensity (at least on this stage)” during rehearsals.**’ In addition to the mostly young members of the company, the National Theatre signed a single guest: Gyula Vikidal, who had played Koppany in the City Park two years before. “Uniting spontaneous elements of folk dance and rock culture into a coherent composition of movement”,®** the choreography was based on “some simplified, rhythmic gestures” that had been transferred “from the effects of the monumental scenes full of dance” on King Hill.*°° It was executed by students of the College of Theatre and Film Arts as well as the actors’ studio of the National. Singing did not sound as the imitation of the movie soundtrack, and the not-specifically trained voices created “a new Hungarian singing style [...] from the contrast between the strange emphases of rock music and the singing of folk songs in dance 854 Cf, “The Anthem, which had been played previously with a huge apparatus at the end of the play and overemphasized by a mass of large tricolors and flags, is sounded on keyboard now, exquisitely and only as a reference to the centuries of history following Stephen. The overwhelming national tricolor is replaced by a faded, slightly tattered flag, worn in the storms of centuries.” Takacs: A döntés drámája, 6. 85: a Istvan Bélcs mentioned “forced and precarious devotion”, since some of the audience stood up, when they heard the Anthem, others remained seated, but felt forced to stand up still a bit later. (Gondolatjel, Kossuth Radio, at 11:00 a.m. on 29" September 1985. Transcript for the Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute.) According to Tamas Koltai, “this Olympic moment of announcing cathartic victory is aesthetically dissonant. It is breaking the style and harming the skin of music drama. Unexpectedly, we get excluded from the theatre event, we get outside of the theatrical consensus. Spectators immediately sense that they are expected to demonstrate so they stand up." Koltai: Történelem kontra Magyarország, 13. Fábián: István, a király, 9. Takács: A döntés drámája, 6. Koltai: Történelem kontra Magyarország, 13. Fodor: István, a király, 2. 85 a 85 S 85: ® 85 © + 171 +
