Valuska

Introduction

Valuska, the newspaper and lunch delivery man, a naive admirer of cosmic order, helps the retired, eccentric music teacher with profound empathy – together they form a unique intellectual microcosm. As a result of anarchy incited by a “freak” who escaped from a circus and the ensuing political machinations, Valuska ends up in an asylum and loses all his illusions. Péter Eötvös has not only incorporated the aura of László Krasznahorkai’s literary world – the experience of alienation within one’s own world, marginalization, and the apocalyptic sense of impending catastrophe – but also the atmosphere of Béla Tarr’s film Werckmeister Harmonies into the opera. An additional point of interest is that this is the composer’s first opera in Hungarian: here, the Hungarian language itself also serves as a musical network. The music teacher visiting Valuska sums up their shared fate as follows: “We made a painfully embarrassing fiasco in your universe, where we have less and less place. We have failed.” Yet it is a rather adventurous intellectual journey that leads up to this failure.

Zoltán Csehy

The composer’s thoughts

I never thought of composing an opera in Hungarian when I started out for several reasons. On the one hand, following the success of Three Sisters, I kept getting commissions for operas in different languages. On the other hand, Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók, which I have conducted several times, is so powerful and unique that I didn’t dare touch a Hungarian text. When I was honoured by the Hungarian State Opera with this commission, it was obvious that they were thinking of an opera in Hungarian. Furthermore, I already felt much experienced having composed 12 operas that I gladly accepted. Finding a suitable material always takes a long time. Moreover, I am less interested in the subject-matter than the characters I intend to bring as much out of on stage as possible, characters that are different from the ordinary, or their problems are such general social problems that are characteristic of our time, but the audience of the future will also understand.

Krasznahorkai’s language is quite special, it is a series of thoughts mostly and the formulation of a non-scenic plot that I found exciting to be turned into a stage action. Of course, I read almost all of his books with my wife, Mari Mezei, who has worked with me on the librettos of my operas since the beginning. The Melancholy of Resistance, published in 1989, provides me with two characters that I already hear inside my head while reading. First, my imagination was captured by the figure of the Prince, who does not even appear. For a long time, it was difficult to understand who this is, whom he controls and why, and what motivates him. But meanwhile, there are so many similar figures in international political life that it wasn’t hard to get answers. The other important one is our title character, Valuska, whose purity, „not-for-this-world” innocence is a counterpoint to all the other figures, and you can do a lot with it musically.

My previous operas were all written in different languages, so the first musical information was not the meaning of the words, but the rhythm. In the Hungarian language, it being my mother tongue, the meaning is the primary thing for me. Therefore, it was important to disregard it a little and deal more with its rhythm. Above all, Krasznahorkai’s unusual word connections, the musical quality of the rhythm of words and sentences were the basis for the selection of the text. The chorus uses the vowels of words, regardless of the original meaning of the text, for instance, or a series of words with a similar pattern that form a rhythmic model. Thus, the card game in the book becomes a game of words in which the winner is the one holding the card featuring the word with the most syllables.

The opera stage requires some kind of dramatic story, dialogues, and powerful characters. With Krasznahorkai, everything is hidden in the narration. I owe a debt of gratitude to dramaturg Kinga Keszthelyi, one of the librettists, for finding and highlighting the dialogues that are suitable for the stage. Almost every word and sentence are the author’s original text, only pieced together differently. Some changes have been made to the characters: some had to be left out and the remaining ones gained stronger or softer qualities, or influence in some instances. This is how, for example, Tünde became a mayor instead of the leader of a simple women’s association. She is in control of the whale team from the background, it is her that issues the order for the military to enter, all in order to strengthen her own position, of course. There are also some unique expressions in Krasznahorkai’s texts that must be recited unchanged on stage and be comprehensible to the audience. Therefore, we established the Narrator/Hagelmayer role, a spoken role that guides us through the story, occasionally quoting from the original book.

I see the emphasis in the conflict between the crowd and the individual, as well as in the growing manipulation from the background typical of our age worldwide. The technique of manipulation is highly developed, it can subtly drive the masses to most astonishing acts. For example, the unseen Prince can fanaticize them gradually to destroy entire cities. Everyone seems powerless against him, and in the end, when everyone is captured, he manages to escape. It is enough to watch Euronews to see what is happening in the world... Including a chorus in the opera was a request at the start, and it is suitable indeed for emphasizing these elements of the plot. There are 35 male singers on stage, with varying intensity. Balance plays an important role in the structuring of the scenes, in Valuska’s solos, the duets, the tercets, and the ever-growing formation of the chorus.

As the subtitle “tragicomedy with music” suggests, I regard the music of this opera as a transition between prose theatre and opera as a theatre. It was also probably influenced by the quality of the auditorium at the Eiffel Art Studios. The orchestra is characterized by the music-noise-buzz effects of the theatre, their seating arrangement is stereophonic: the left and right side are arranged in a mirror symmetry, which is very effective. On both sides, there are 2 double basses, 4 brass instruments with 4 woodwinds in front of them, 4 percussion instruments in front of them again, and 16 string instruments in the middle. The most important part of the composition was writing Valuska’s two grand arias. I had to find the musical characteristics that expressed exactly what I wanted him to convey. It was really helpful that Zsolt Haja had taken on the role as I had worked with him before and known his voice well. His especially velvety voice, soft high register and floating quality predestined him for the role of Valuska, the pure-hearted, all-seeing but incapable boy, whom I bestowed pantheistic qualities on in his monologue. I have read somewhere that pantheism is related to the pentatonic scale, so Valuska’s monologue with the whale’s eye also begins with pentatonic notes.

How does it fit in with my previous operas? Just like my first opera to the second one, and so on. Each of my operas is different. Different cultures, different languages, different themes, and different musical worlds to correspond, but at the same time, all of them are my musical world. Their common trait is that I only deal with contemporary writers and contemporary themes, and from this point of view it is now the next opera by Eötvös. In addition, perhaps we can also say that „the next two operas by Eötvös” right away as I simultaneously composed the German version of Valuska as well, which will be presented in Regensburg in February 2024. Now that both versions are completed, I must say that I really liked working with the Hungarian text, it has much more tragicomedy suggested by the subtitle in it than in the German translation. I hope the audience will love it, too. I am grateful for the Hungarian State Opera for being open to all my requests and for providing such an excellent cast and creative staff.

Péter Eötvös

A life’s work crowned

It is always a significant moment in the life of an organisation when one of its productions receives an award. Valuska, the final opera by the twice Kossuth Prize-winning, world-renowned composer Péter Eötvös – commissioned by the Hungarian State Opera – won the International Opera Award in 2024 in the World Premiere category. The International Opera Awards was founded in 2012 by British businessman and opera enthusiast Harry Hyman, with the aim of promoting opera as an art form, highlighting operatic achievements, and providing financial support for emerging talents. The list of nominees is compiled by a jury of recognized professionals chaired by John Allison, editor of the London-based Opera magazine. A total of twenty categories are awarded, including conductors, directors, female and male singers, recordings, as well as new productions, world premieres, companies, and festivals.