POULENC: The Human Voice
EMIL PETROVICS: Lysistrata
Zita Váradi – soprano
Ingrid Kertesi – soprano
Klára Kolonits – soprano
István Horváth – tenor
Hungarian National Choir (choir master: Csaba Somos)
Hungarian National Philharmonic
Conductor: Zsolt Hamar
The women make a vow to withhold marital relations from their husbands until they end the war – an exciting conflict ensues, though the final outcome can hardly be in doubt. This one-act comic opera based on Aristophanes's comedy premiered in its reworked format in 1971. It is not a theatrical work in the traditional sense, but rather a concert-style series of linked, but logically-sequential songs. "Lysistrata does not depict the horrors of battle: mockery is just as potent a weapon against war. This basic idea defines the tools at the disposal of the composer. The music of this concert comic opera has an appropriately unresolved, gentle, almost frivolous sound, with a lively rhythm at times reminiscent of jazz, archaic, Gregorian-like melodies and intricate instrumentation," the music historian János Breuer wrote of the work. To perform this effective, entertaining and easily accessible opera created from this music, we could hardly have a more devoted conductor than Zsolt Hamar, who graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music after being taught by the composer himself, Emil Petrovics. The first part of the concert will feature a performance of the Frenchman Poulenc's one-act opera, which premiered in 1959. The work is special not only because it was written for a lone vocalist, but also because of its theme: the 'material' is the final telephone conversation between a man and a woman, with all of the emotional complications and personal tragedy that follow.
Buy tickets
