ERKEL: Hunyadi Laszló (Brilliant Opera Collection) [CD de audio] Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Erkel and Domonkos Héja

Only two years after joining the Hungarian Theater of Pest as its director (which was only a few months after it was established), the young Ferenc Erkel staged his own opera, Bátori Mária, the first composed for a Hungarian libretto and which effectively transformed the theater into a national symbol. However, the work itself still did not fit into the national category, neither in its theme nor in its music. Prompting the acceleration of events in Hungarian theatrical life, it paved the way for Erkel's next opera, Hunyadi László, based on a libretto by the contemporary writer, actor and composer Béni Egressy. It was with this work that Hungarian musical drama was finally born. Hunyadi László's text focuses on a tragic moment in Hungarian history, captured through the fate of the Hunyadi family and which gave the nation a hero of European significance for his role in the wars against the Ottomans. László Hunyadi does not triumph; He waits, dreams and suffers, and his longing for happiness and independence struck a chord with a nation that had been living under the yoke of foreign powers for 300 years. By 1884, the play had been performed an astonishing 250 times at the National Theatre, and its musical material and subsequent insertions as performed at the time of the premiere remained in use until 1927. After 1935 it was greatly revised, its libretto modernized and the scenes reduced to three acts. This 2012 recording conducted by the then newly appointed musical director of the Hungarian State Opera Domonkos Héja, who has done much to promote the music of the country's great national composer, sees the performers return to the original version, which, despite his archaic style and often criticized clumsiness, speaks more authentically about the era that created the national opera and made Hunyadi László an integral part of the identity of Hungarian spectators.