King Stephen

About

Introductory presentation with video screening (Hungarian-language discussion programme) about Ferenc Erkel’s opera King Stephen. The Opera premiered Erkel’s work, originally commissioned for the institution’s inauguration the previous year, on 14 March 1885. The libretto, based on Lajos Dobsa’s tragedy King Stephen I, was credited to Antal Váradi. Long considered to have been composed jointly with his son Gyula Erkel, more recent research indicates that this was not the case. The opera reveals qualities similar to those of Bánk bán and Hunyadi László and was tremendously successful with the audience. The work is set in the period between 1030 and 1038, the last years of King Stephen’s reign, and ends with the apotheosis of the title character.