Siegfried Idyll, or The End of a Friendship / Chrysanthemums, or The Death of Liù
Balázs Szálinger
Siegfried Idyll, or The End of a Friendship / Chrysanthemums, or The Death of Liù
Language: Hungarian
Current events
Commissioned by the Hungarian State Opera, Balázs Szálinger, one of the defining figures of contemporary Hungarian playwriting created two works. The play Siegfried Idyll, or The End of a Friendship, which depicts the reversal in the relationship between Wagner and Nietzsche, was directed by the recently deceased Péter Kálloy Molnár, and its revival – partly in tribute to his memory – also necessitates the return to the repertoire of the other piece, Chrysanthemums, written from the sad story of the scandal-ridden death of Puccini’s maid. The latter now arrives in a new interpretation by director András Almási-Tóth, artistic director of the OPERA and associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music. Like his earlier production of L’incoronazione di Poppea, this experimental staging makes use of the entire auditorium. This new and exciting approach to spatial design offers the audience an immersive experience, allowing them not merely to observe events from the outside, but to experience the drama unfolding in the Puccini villa at close range. The prose work, performed by stage actors, is punctuated by the string quartet Crisantemi by Puccini, performed by artists of the Hungarian State Opera, of course. Together with Siegfried Idyll, the production is presented at the Bánffy Stage of the Eiffel Art Studios.
Siegfried Idyll, or The End of a Friendship
Thirty years younger than Wagner, Nietzsche spent a full decade in thrall to the composer’s spell. However, their relationship must be regarded as something considerably more substantial and consequential than that between an idol and his admirer. Their correspondence and other documents reveal a wide-ranging discussion on topics such as generation difference, musical aesthetics, the great philosophical questions of life and even human weaknesses. And it also constantly returns to the subject of the uncannily beautiful music of Siegfried Idyll, which describes – in place of words, and in the gaps between them – a sense of life that, although yearned for, never in fact existed.
Chrysanthemums, or The Death of Liù
Torre del Lago, 1908. Elvira, the wife of the world famous composer Giacomo Puccini, is teetering on the edge of madness. After numerous – justified – attacks of jealousy, Doria, the maid, becomes the subject of her suspicions. As his family life becomes unbearable, Puccini, hidden away in a tiny village, decides to escape to Paris. Elvira doesn’t believe Puccini’s denials, and attacks the girl with ever increasing ferocity. Doria has been in their service for years but now leaves. With suspicion mounting in the village, she eventually seeks solace in suicide: she drinks poison and takes several days to die. Elvira flees from the scandal to Milan, while the autopsy reveals that the 21-year-old “little Liù” who was so close to Puccini’s heart, had died a virgin. Later the girl’s family initiates a lawsuit, threatening Elvira with five years in prison, until under pressure from the Puccinis they withdraw the accusations. 15 years later, as Puccini is dying, he writes the opera Turandot, writing the character of Liù in memory of the death of the innocent Doria. This would become the last page of music he would ever score
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