In Hungary opera has been performed for over 300 years, just as in France, Germany and Austria. At first operas were performed by German and Italian theatrical troupes on the stages of aristocratic manor houses. The earliest datum is about 1677: It relates of a pastoral play which was performed in the mansion of court Forgách Ádám in Pozsony. In the eighteenth century a number of aristocratic theatres were founded, the most famous of which were the operas established in the residences of princes Esterházy, first in Fertõd and later in Kismarton. This latter became the most celebrated due to the fact that Joseph Haydn had worked here for 30 years as composer and conductor: Here was the world premiére of Haydn’s several operas. Another important theatre was that of the bishop baron Patasich Ádám in Nagyvárad, where the opera company was directed by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf. In a later period, when opera was attended by the middle class as well, between 1785 and 1789 the opera of count Erdõdy János in Pozsony achieved a great reputation. At the end of the eighteenth century when the plays were performed before beurgeois audience in German language, on the repertory of the theatres were operas too. In this epoch, the first opera was performed in 1784 (it was Salieri’s ’Die Schule der Eifersüchtigen’) in the Rondella in Pest. Then, after 1787 the opera performances became regular in the Castle Theatre of Buda. Much more favourable were the conditions in the German Theatre of Pest which opened in 1812. Its enormous auditorium of 3000 seats could be more or less filled only during musical performances or when famous guest actors from Vienna were playing.
The professional drama playing in Hungarian began in 1791. Both the company of Kolozsvár and that of Pest produced musical pieces. (The first opera in Hungarian language, Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi’ by Chudy József was performed by Kelemen László’s company of Pest in 1791). The strolling troupes which were recruited from the two companies had on their repertory such operas of Rossini, Méhul, Grétry, Weber, Cherubini, Boildieu and Mozart which were composed for smaller ensembles and in which Mrs Déry Széppataky Róza, the first Hungarian opera singer achieved a nationwide reputation. In Kolozsvár the first Hungarian opera was produced in 1822. It was ’Béla’s Escape’ by Ruzitska József. However the opera playing in Hungarian became regular only in 1837, with the opening of the Hungarian Theatre of Pest (from 1840 it was called National Theatre). The first opera performance here was Rossini’s ’The Barber of Sevilla’ in 1837. In the beginning the members of this company were the great personalities of the opera’s heroic age. When the company was completed with famous foreign quest actors the theatre became a real rival to the German Theatre of Pest which existed until 1847. The young conductor of National Theatre, Erkel Ferenc gradually improved the ensemble and arranged the repertory which induced operas of Rossini, Bellini, Weber, Auber, Donizetti, Mozart, Cherubini, Meyerbeer and above all, those of Verdi. However the greatest merit of Erkel is that he brought into being the Hungarian opera, without having any precedents behind. His compositions, Hunyadi László and ’Ban Bank’ are to this day the most popular pieces on the Opera House repertory. Erkel was mostly attracted by the Italian music, and this is the reason why, after 1846 he took almost all of Verdi’s operas into his repertory.
Nevertheless he had an aversion to Wagner, that’s why the audience had to wait for the ’Lohengrin’ to be produced until 1866. A momentous stage in the course of his company developing work was when Erkel in 1853 established the Philharmonia Society. The aim of this corporation which was recruited from the theatre orchestra was to improve the music playing of the orchestra and also to make the art of the musicians develop. Not only the opera, but the ballet also began to develop, in the National Theatre, although somewhat slowlier than the former. In 1847 they engaged the Viennese Campilli Frigyes (who was of Italian origin) as ballet-master. He then was the choreographer of National Theatre and even of the new Opera House for 40 years. In the years of absolutism which followed the suppression of the revolution of independence in 1848-49, the opera performances became more significant, despite the fact that the censorhip even from operas erased every allusion to the independence or national identity. After the Ausgleich of 1867 in the rapidly growing capital of Hungary, it was more and more difficult for the National Theatre to satisfy the general public’s need for theatre-going.
Even after enlarging the institution was not big enough to perform the dramas, the musical plays about peasants or the operas.
In addition to it, in 1860 the operetta a new artistic form developed and met with success. By that time the idea of separating drama from opera was taking shape. In 1872 a committee was established to take the preliminary steps in separation, then they conducted a competition for planning which was won by Ybl Miklós. The building of the Opera House was started in 1875 and lasted for 9 years. The curtain after the last opera performance in the National Theatre fell in June 1884. After that the opera and ballet company removed to a palace on Sugár street and they began to make arrangements for the opening night. The ceremonial opening of the Opera House was held on 27th September 1884. Since Erkel Ferenc hadn’t managed to complete his opera entitled ’István the King’ by that time, they produced the first act of the ’Ban Bank’, the overture of the ’Hunyadi László’ and the first act of the ’Lohengrin’, the orchestra was conducted by Erkel Ferenc. In the beginning they continued to play their repertory of the National Theatre, but with new scenery, since use of the old scenery was not possible and because of the dimension and structure of the stage. This repertory was extremely varied: It included 37 operas and 7 ballets. Goldmark’s ’Queen of Sheba’ was the greatest success, just as before. The first world premiére was that of ’István the King’ in 1885, which was Erkel’s last opera. Soon the first troubles in running the House manifested themselves. The former opera ensemble of the National Theatre neither in quality of playing nor in number could comply with the requirements of everyday performing, so the management was forced to engage regular quest actors. The numbers of both the orchestra and the the chorus had to be increased. Besides the crisis of art soon a bankruptcy too was overhanging the Opera House. The audience of Pest not a portion of expences of running the House could cover; it proved fairly costly, altough both the government and the royal court made a considerable contribution to it. In addition to that, all the aristocratic intendants who succeded after Podmaniczky Frigyes were non-competent and even prodigal. To solve the problem they decided to engage a new art director who is ambitious and gifted above par. They found Gustav Mahler for this position. He then directed the Opera House from 1888 to 1891. The period of his direction was the first „golden age” of the Opera House. His achievements both in creating a new company and making up an up-to-date repertory proved long-lasting. It was under his direction that they produced the first two pieces of Wagner ’s ’Ring Tetralogy’ in Budapest then scarcely a few weaks after this world premiére the ’Rustic Chivalry’ of Mascagni was performed too. This latter, after having a great succes in Budapest, began to sweep the world. Several years later Nikisch Arthur took over the duties of Gustav Mahler, which gave the company a new stimulus in their artistic work. It was then that they produced Puccini’s composition ’Manon Lescaut’; thus creating a basis for the future permanent cooperation of Puccini and the Budapest Opera House. Puccini in person taught the company of Pest play the parts of ’Madama Butterfly’ and those of ’La fanciulla del West’.
After his departure from 1900 the company was guided by Kerner István. In 1912, count Bánffy Miklós, a versatile person who was known not only as an excellent writer and painter but also as designing engineer took over the direction of the Opera House. He signed on the brilliant opera director Hevesi Sándor and the superb Italian conductor Egisto Tango, whereby a new golden age commensed in the history of the House. After 1910 the career of the prominent new opera singers, Sándor Erzsi, Medek Anna, Haselbeck Olga, Basilides Mária, Némethy Ella, Környei Béla, Pataky Kálmán and Székelyhidy Ferenc started. During the First World War the development of the theatre was very much hindered. The Opera House even closed down for a year. Newertheless, during the years of the war two of Bartók Béla’s dramas, ’The Wooden Prince’ (1917) and ’Duke Bluebeard’s Castle’ (1918) were produced in the Opera House. A third drama of Bartók, ’The Miraculous Mandarin’ was first put on the stage in Budapest only decades later, in 1945. The period between the two world wars was both economically and politically a very hard one, nevertheless an inprecedented flowering of art began in the Opera House. The House then was directed by two outstanding personalities coming after each other, the one was the composer Radnai Miklós (from 1925 to 1935) and the
other Márkus László a writer, stage director and designing engineer (from 1935 to 1944). By engagement the conductors Sergio Failoni and Ferencsik János, the stage director and designer Oláh Gusztáv, stage director Nádasdy Kálmán, and Fülöp Zoltán, the stage designer, the costume designer Márk Tivadar, and the ballet masters Jan Cieplinski and Nádasi Ferenc, they had artists whose influence on artistic activity of the Opera House lasted for several decades. Besides the first-rate opera singers such as Báthy Anna, Rigó Magda, Tutsek Piroska, Rösler Endre, Losonczy György, Jámbor László, Maleczky Oszkár, and Székely Mihály, the arias of the extremely varied repertory were brilliantly performed by a number of renowned guest actors, too. The very cream of contemporary opera performance, such singers as Maria Jeritza, Ebe Stignani, Beniamio Gigli, Jan Kiepura, Alexander Kipnis, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Helge Roswaenge and Richard Tauber were regularly playing in Budapest, while the company of the Opera House with several succesful guest performances (they went to Nürnberg, Florence and Rome) were continually enhanting the reputation of opera culture. During the last phase of the Second World War the German occupation of the Hungarian capital, then the siege of Budapest paralyzed the activity of the theatre.
The building of the Opera House fortunately sustained only minor damages during the battles, so they could reopen a comparatively short time after in March 1945. After the war there were considerable changes in the life of the theatre. In 1946 Tóth Aladár, the outstanding musical critic took up the post of the director, who, after long-drawn pursuit in 1947 engaged Otto Klemperer as conductor. The three years of the Klemperer period were characterized by fabulous performances of Mozart and Wagner operas in which a new generation grandiose singers achieved success: Gyurkovics Mária, Takács Paula, Mátyás Mária, Szecsõdy Irén, Delly Rózsi, Palánkay Klára, Joviczky József, Simándy József, Radnai György, Melis György and Faragó András. To satisfy the significally increased need of public for opera, in the end of the 1940s, in 1951 they added to the Opera House the Town Theatre which had 2400 seats. From 1953 the Town Theatre was called Erkel Theatre and functioned as additional scene of the Opera House for playing. The ballet company began considerably to develop, too. From the fifties of the last century famous Soviet ballet masters and choreographers were engaged by the Opera House, they then made the company acquainted with the traditions of classical Russian ballet dancing. The young talented dancers of that period - Lakatos Gabriella, Csinády Dóra, Kun Zsuzsa, Fülöp Viktor, Róna Viktor and Havas Ferenc captivated the audience in splendid
choreographies of Harangozó Gyula, which were great success. An outstanding personality of Hungarian modern ballet is the choreographer Seregi László. In 1959 Nádasdy Kálmán entered on the duties of director. To the repertory were added several compositions of the twentieth century, such as ’Wozzeck’ and ’Lulu’ by Berg, Albert Herring and the ’Midsummer Night Dream’ by Britten, ’Katjerina Izmajlova’ of Sostakovich, and also some preclassical operas, they were: ’The Coronation of Poppea’ and ’The Return of Ulysses to His Country’ by Monteverdi, ’Rodelinda’ of Handel, and ’Orpheus’ by Gluck. At the beginning of the sixties several important Hungarian operas had their world premiére. Among them the most excellent were: the ’Bodas de Sangre’ of Szokolay Sándor and ’C’est la Guerre’ of Petorvics Emil. The opera playing in Budapest by and by became again part of the international opera. After an interval of one and a half decade, in the sixties again several renowned foreign singers appeared before the audience of Budapest. Among them were Giuseppe Taddei, Giuseppe di Stefano Theo Adam, Giulietta Simionato, Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, Boris Christoff, Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Luciano Pavarotti and Giacomo Aragall. The orchestra of the Opera House was taught many performances such world-famous conductors as Lamberto Gardelli, Giuseppe Patané and Jurij Simonov. Under direction of Lukács Miklós who succeded after Nádasdy Kálmán more frequent were the guest performances. More operas were added to the repertory and there were further important world premiéres of such operas, as ’Hamlet’, and ’Samson’ by Szokolay, the ’Crime and Punishment’ and ’Lysistrate’ by Petrovics. ’Together and Alone’ by Mihály András. The company was complemented by new young talented members. It was then that Kincses Veronika, Tokody Ilona, Sass Sylvia, Gulyás Dénes, Kelen Péter, Miller Lajos, Gáti István, Kováts Kolos and Polgár László became members of the theatre.
They are steady members of the company up to the present. When Lukács Miklós retired and Mihály András took over his duties, he found a critical situation. The renovation of the Opera House had been postponed several times and for many years, so in spring of 1980 it had to be started. During the four years of reconstruction the company could only play in the Erkel Theatre. The performances were considerably reduced, and the repertory became scantier. This extremely hard period ended only when the renewed within and without equipped with most modern technology Opera House reopened on 24th September 1984., on the centenary of its first opening.