A thus far exhilarating season at Carnegie Hall continued on the evening of Wednesday, October 31st, with the thrilling appearance of the superb musicians of the Mariinsky Orchestra under the brilliant direction of maestro Valery Gergiev, the first of two performances on consecutive nights. (Already there have been outstanding concerts given by the San Francisco Symphony, tenor Jonas Kaufmann with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, and the Czech Philharmonic.)

 

The program was devoted entirely to the complete score of the magnificent ballet,The Nutcracker,by the incomparable Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. While this ensemble has occasionally been under-rehearsed, on this occasion the artists were in absolute command of the material. Even though the enduringly popular Suite from the ballet that the composer prepared provides a more consistently ecstatic experience than the full score does, nonetheless this was a welcome opportunity to hear some of the wonderful music that is less familiar in recordings and in the concert hall—particularly from Act I—such as the turbulent “The Christmas Tree” section played immediately after the enchanting Overture and followed by the dazzling March, which was heard here at an unusually brisk tempo, a characteristic distinction of the conductor’s interpretation throughout the performance. Several less remembered passages ensued—throughout Gergiev emphasized the dramatic dimension of the music—before the act concluded with the magical Waltz of the Snowflakes (although omitting the wordless chorus), a genre of which Tchaikovsky was perhaps the supreme master.

 

The second act was even more glorious with most of it among the most famous music from the ballet. The most extraordinary part of the work is the collection of dances—each one a jewel—in the Divertissement, including some of the composer’s most original achievements such as the haunting “Coffee” (Arabian Dance), the delightful “Tea” (Chinese Dance), and the exquisite “Dance of the Mirlitons” closing with the transcendent Waltz of the Flowers.

 

The exalting Entrata from the Pas de deux that follows is probably the purest expression in the score of the composer’s intense romanticism, while another of his most astonishing creations is in this section, the ineffably charming second Variation, the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. The evening concluded with the gorgeous Final Waltz and Apotheosis, and the musicians deservedly received a rapturous ovation from an audience filled with a countless number of their countrymen. The following evening featured Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss and the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Johannes Brahms featuring the renowned Nelson Freire as soloist. One looks forward to the return of these great artists.

 

The exciting U.S. debut of the Hungarian State Opera continued strongly with their second and third New York appearances on the evenings of Thursday, November 1st, with a double-bill of János Vajda’s intriguing contemporary work, Mario and the Magician—adapted from the famous, eponymous novella by Thomas Mann and premiered in 1988—and Béla Bartók’s powerful, mysterious Bluebeard’s Castle, conceived here by director and set designer Péter Galambos as a diptych, and on the following night with Karl Goldmark’s magnificent, now seldom seen The Queen of Sheba. (Two nights previously, the company premiered their production of the great 19th-century Hungarian opera, Bánk Bán, which proved to be an extraordinary musical experience.)

 

With the first program, in both cases, the director modernized the settings—although to no obvious advantage—and in neither instance were the stagings visually effective or conceptually persuasive but the strength of the music alone—exceptionally performed by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and superbly conducted by Balázs Kocsár—sufficed to provide aesthetic satisfactions. I am not fully competent to judge a work composed in the advanced modernist idiom of Mario and the Magician but I nonetheless found it engaging, partly for its impressive orchestral writing. At least two of the singers were especially remarkable, András Palerdi in the lead role of Cipolla, the magician, and Orsolya Hajnalka Rőser as Signora Angiolieri.

 

More astonishing was the Bartók masterwork, one of the finest 20th-century operas, with a libretto by the important film theorist Béla Balázs, after the fairytale by Charles Perrault. Here, too, there was some marvelous singing from Palerdi in the title role of Bluebeard and, even more unforgettably, from Ildikó Komlósi as Judith.

 

The staging of The Queen of Sheba—an opera that deserves to return to the mainstream repertory—however, was much more satisfying, directed austerely but elegantly by Csaba Káel, with beautiful—if underexploited—Art Nouveau sets designed by Éva Szendrényi, attractive costumes by Anikó Németh, and inventive choreography by Marianna Venekei, executed by dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet. Musically, the presentation could scarcely have been bettered, with magisterial direction of the orchestra by János Kovács and thrilling assistance from the chorus.

 

The singers were first-rate with a mesmerizing performance by the sexy Erika Gál in the title role. Also wonderful were Boldizsár László as Assad, Eszter Sümegi as Sulamith, Zoltán Kelemen as King Solomon, Péter Fried as the High Priest, Eszter Zavaros as Astaroth, Lajos Geiger as Baal-Hanan, and Ferenc Cserhalmi as the Temple Watchman. The artists received an enthusiastic ovation. I hope this superior production will gain wider exposure.

Photo by Szilvia Csibi, Attila Nagy

 

On the evening of Tuesday, October 30th, at the David Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, the U.S. debut of the Hungarian State Opera inaugurated an exciting series of events (which will also include the debut of the Hungarian National Ballet) beginning with a stellar performance of the powerful, exceedingly beautiful 19th century opera by Ferenc Erkel, Bánk Bán. The program was introduced by the Hungarian ambassador to the United Nations and she highlighted several state dignitaries who were in the audience as well as legendary tenor Plácido Domingo who is serving as the Patron of the New York tour.

 

This magnificent work, which deserves an honored place in the classical repertory, is rarely staged outside of Hungary and was not performed in New York until 1984, in a version with a reduced orchestra and sung in English. The opera is striking in that, apart from a few elements, dramatically and musically it is solidly in the European mainstream—its exoticism lies in its subject matter, in this case that of the malign Meranian influence on the Hungarian monarchy in the 13th century, the deploring of which here becomes a vehicle for the expression of Magyar nationalism. The libretto is adapted from the eponymous historical tragedy by József Katona, often described as the greatest Hungarian drama its century.

 

The weakest aspect of this 2018 production, directed by Attila Vidnyánszky, was its visual dimension, a perennial problem in contemporary opera and theater—although there were a few effective moments of spectacle, the art direction by Oleksandr Bilozub on the whole lacked interest. However, the costumes designed by Viktória Nagy effectively evoked the medieval setting.

 

The event was most remarkable for its extraordinary cast, who deserve enumeration, beginning with the excellent baritone—there is a long tradition of the part being sung by a tenor—Levente Molnár in the title role. His co-star, soprano Zita Szemere—as Melinda, the viceroy’s wife—was the most glorious member of the ensemble.

 

Also outstanding were: Marcell Bakonyi as King Endre II; Judit Németh as Gertrud, his queen; István Horváth as Otto, her brother; István Rácz as Tiborc, the peasant; Zsolt Haja as Petur, the leader of the nobles; and Antal Cseh as Biberach, the knight-errant. Also superlative were the fabulous musicians and singers of the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus under the sterling direction of conductor Balázs Kocsár.

 

Bánk Bánis being repeated at the same location on the evening of Saturday, November 3rd and simply must be seen.