János Malina: The saving of traditions and change
Bartók Seminar and Festival in Szombathely – thirty-first time
After the third performance in the evenings we could not call it (simply) a concert. In it – in the coproduction of the Maladype Theatre and the Qaartsiluni Ensemble – they performed the Great Sound in Rush, the “half-serious opera” by László Sáry, which was inspired by Sándor Weöres’ poem, by the Topic and variations. And it has not only inspired László Sáry – form whom these kinds of things have not been far away even before – with the example of a combinatory play which is used consciously all through it, but we can hear those more and more surreal permutations of the text too that are in the poems, in very different kinds of realizations, during the more than one-hour long performance. Meanwhile eight performers are the singers of the Qaartsiluni, the others are the actors of Maladype, and everybody plays an instrument and sings on the one hand, and acts and dance in the other hand (then we have not talked about the acrobatic elements – an artist troupe could be the part of the performance too), that is why the music director of the musical group, Lajos Rozmán, who is the music director of the performance at the same time, while the artistic leader of the theatrical troupe, Zoltán Balázs is the director of this performance at the same time. So – which is not so unusual in case of an opera – here there is a double leading, but not exactly that way as it would happen in the opera house. It is less than this, because László Sáry is not that kind of traditional composer, who gives the score of the opera and then we can meet him at the reception after the premiere.
As many times before, Sáry has not given a fixed score into the hand of the performers, but a series of musical plays instead, and more exactly the rules of these plays, which – mostly improvisations that are combined in – and with accidental moments – and they general a kind of procedure; a circular musical story, which is edited professionally or goes on in some kind of space – the possibilities are endless. And they are endless in reality, if we take into consideration that on the stage there are permanent movements, activities, and marked conflicts, different stable and changing configurations are formed, the roles, the places and the most variable properties are continuously changing. So, the musical dimension has multiple layers on their own, it is combined with visual dimensions that are happening at the same time, without any limits, so that way all happens on behalf of Weöres.
The plays, the exercises, the polyphone musical and spatial processes are very complicated and hard many times; the performance is the result of the work of many months, and if somebody takes care only on the playfulness, on the movements, which seem to be easy and spontaneous, it can be surprising too. However, here every moment is very controlled, and they need great concentration; for some moments it becomes very obvious too, for example, when according to some order, they circle, throw up with double hand the pair of teak woods and they never let them fall down, or when for long moments, three women characters blow up again and again a colourful feather (you mustn’t touch it!) which from those situations, when it seemingly almost falls down onto the floor in a beaten situation can fly up again and again. And of course, these are just the very obvious moments, other times they have to intonate clearly or perform irregular rhythms in different physical and other kinds of positions, during complicated movements. We can feel: these challenges can make the performance vivid, the beat of them is the main joy of the performance.
All of it from many points of view widen the borders of the artistic ideas – from this point of view Sáry can always be connected to John Cage. But there is a basic constitutional difference between them: these are the discovering ways in case of Sáry – even if they are not lack of deepness, or as it is written in the programme, something is also formed, which is “heart-breaking and cathartic”. So, the playfulness is always important part of Sáry’s discovering ways, and they are always filled with the gaining of experiences, the dizzying joy of learning.
As a chronicler I have been circulating around the performance for a while, without being able to write down what is exactly happening in the really small theatrical arena. Anyway, what is happening that is so enchantingly various, unexpected, teenager like, imagined, erotic, comic, human, surprising, that it is totally impossible to show it by words in its concrete way. But I promise, that all of it is always enjoyable and we are unable to get bored with it.
There are eight absolutely substantial musicians and actors, whom we can thank for the excellent performance, they are: László Borbély, Lajos Rozmán, Anna Rákóczy, Anna Petrovics, László Kéringer, Ildikó Duffek, Kata Huszárik and Ágota Szilágyi.
János Malina, Muzsika, 2015
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
After the third performance in the evenings we could not call it (simply) a concert. In it – in the coproduction of the Maladype Theatre and the Qaartsiluni Ensemble – they performed the Great Sound in Rush, the “half-serious opera” by László Sáry, which was inspired by Sándor Weöres’ poem, by the Topic and variations. And it has not only inspired László Sáry – form whom these kinds of things have not been far away even before – with the example of a combinatory play which is used consciously all through it, but we can hear those more and more surreal permutations of the text too that are in the poems, in very different kinds of realizations, during the more than one-hour long performance. Meanwhile eight performers are the singers of the Qaartsiluni, the others are the actors of Maladype, and everybody plays an instrument and sings on the one hand, and acts and dance in the other hand (then we have not talked about the acrobatic elements – an artist troupe could be the part of the performance too), that is why the music director of the musical group, Lajos Rozmán, who is the music director of the performance at the same time, while the artistic leader of the theatrical troupe, Zoltán Balázs is the director of this performance at the same time. So – which is not so unusual in case of an opera – here there is a double leading, but not exactly that way as it would happen in the opera house. It is less than this, because László Sáry is not that kind of traditional composer, who gives the score of the opera and then we can meet him at the reception after the premiere.
As many times before, Sáry has not given a fixed score into the hand of the performers, but a series of musical plays instead, and more exactly the rules of these plays, which – mostly improvisations that are combined in – and with accidental moments – and they general a kind of procedure; a circular musical story, which is edited professionally or goes on in some kind of space – the possibilities are endless. And they are endless in reality, if we take into consideration that on the stage there are permanent movements, activities, and marked conflicts, different stable and changing configurations are formed, the roles, the places and the most variable properties are continuously changing. So, the musical dimension has multiple layers on their own, it is combined with visual dimensions that are happening at the same time, without any limits, so that way all happens on behalf of Weöres.
The plays, the exercises, the polyphone musical and spatial processes are very complicated and hard many times; the performance is the result of the work of many months, and if somebody takes care only on the playfulness, on the movements, which seem to be easy and spontaneous, it can be surprising too. However, here every moment is very controlled, and they need great concentration; for some moments it becomes very obvious too, for example, when according to some order, they circle, throw up with double hand the pair of teak woods and they never let them fall down, or when for long moments, three women characters blow up again and again a colourful feather (you mustn’t touch it!) which from those situations, when it seemingly almost falls down onto the floor in a beaten situation can fly up again and again. And of course, these are just the very obvious moments, other times they have to intonate clearly or perform irregular rhythms in different physical and other kinds of positions, during complicated movements. We can feel: these challenges can make the performance vivid, the beat of them is the main joy of the performance.
All of it from many points of view widen the borders of the artistic ideas – from this point of view Sáry can always be connected to John Cage. But there is a basic constitutional difference between them: these are the discovering ways in case of Sáry – even if they are not lack of deepness, or as it is written in the programme, something is also formed, which is “heart-breaking and cathartic”. So, the playfulness is always important part of Sáry’s discovering ways, and they are always filled with the gaining of experiences, the dizzying joy of learning.
As a chronicler I have been circulating around the performance for a while, without being able to write down what is exactly happening in the really small theatrical arena. Anyway, what is happening that is so enchantingly various, unexpected, teenager like, imagined, erotic, comic, human, surprising, that it is totally impossible to show it by words in its concrete way. But I promise, that all of it is always enjoyable and we are unable to get bored with it.
There are eight absolutely substantial musicians and actors, whom we can thank for the excellent performance, they are: László Borbély, Lajos Rozmán, Anna Rákóczy, Anna Petrovics, László Kéringer, Ildikó Duffek, Kata Huszárik and Ágota Szilágyi.
János Malina, Muzsika, 2015
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)