The recent production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace at the Hungarian State Opera was a successful and important cooperation with a significant western European theatre. However, your article (Hungary’s staging of War and Peace puts spotlight on its Russia stance, 13 February) seems to suggest that it has something to do with current political affairs, thereby giving a misleading impression of the opera company and its production.
This opera had never been performed in Hungary, so when the Grand Théâtre de Genève looked for a cooperation partner in 2019, we jumped at the opportunity and produced the beautiful sets in our brand-new complex, the Eiffel Art Studios. The Catalan director, Calixto Bieito, is a real international star; his creative team are of German and Swiss origin. The production was presented in Geneva in 2021 and arrived in Budapest in 2023 according to schedule. Our conductor was a Kazakh artist; all roles were sung by Hungarians – that of Natasha Rostova by a Hungarian singer born in Transcarpathia, inhabited by Hungarians, in today’s Ukraine. Where it is forbidden to use the Hungarian language today.
If there is no problem with Geneva, there can be no problem with Budapest either. If there is no problem with Russian and American singers in Geneva, it is not possible to have problems with Hungarians. If there is no problem with Bieito, then there can be no problem with the Hungarian State Opera. If there is, you are applying double standards.
The essence of art is abstraction. When The Sleeping Beauty is presented at the Royal Opera House in London, Tchaikovsky’s music is not identified with political actors 150 years later. When Turandot is performed at Covent Garden, the chorus hailing China has no current political context. This is exactly the case in Budapest. With Aida, we do not celebrate the suppression of the Ethiopians; with Madama Butterfly, we do not pass judgment on the morals of the US navy. These are works of art, not opinion articles in newspapers. We do not burn books; we do not stigmatise cultures and peoples.
Dr Szilveszter Ókovács
General manager, Hungarian State Opera
