FRA DIAVOLO, BANDIT OPERA IN TWO PARTS

The OPERA presents a production that is special in many ways: special because the operas of Daniel Auber are rarely heard by the Hungarian opera audience – and Fra Diavolo has not been performed at the Opera House since 1962. It is also special because it is directed by Miklós Szinetár, whose first work as an opera director was this very piece. Now it is being staged again and he is looking back on it from seven decades later, and once again staging it with young singers. With Fra Diavolo, Auber reached his zenith as a composer, converting Eugène Scribe's sparkling comedy into his opera score with a hilarious musical humour (perhaps best known in Rossini). It is no coincidence that, after the overwhelming success of its world premiere in Paris in 1830, it was continuously on the repertoire until 1907. The title character is a real anti-hero, something like Don Giovanni: he pulls the strings, every scene and every character in the opera depends on him in some way. “Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine, is an entertaining, amusing ‘bandit opera’ – with catchy music and hilarious scenes,” says Miklós Szinetár himself.