Many people were probably surprised by the news: Zoltán Balázs staged a musical at the Budapest Operetta Theatre. And not just any musical: Nine, by Mario Fratti, Arthur Kopit, and Maury Yeston, based on Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½. We spoke with the director about his encounter with both the work and the genre, the application of his unique working methods in the context of operetta and musical theatre, and readers will also discover just how much Guido Contini resembles a real-life director.

– Let’s start with a tabloid-style question: what are your top three musicals and top three Fellini films?

– The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sunset Boulevard, Chicago. Amarcord, Satyricon, Orchestra Rehearsal.

– What turns 8½ into Nine? Is it just the music?

– The music functions as a mediator and a fictionalizing force; it elevates the personal references embedded in the libretto to a metaphorical plane. The number nine, however, gains its true significance from the punctuation marks that correctly interpret our intentions. It depends on what we wish to say about ourselves and how we wish to say it—whether we emphasize our thoughts with a period, an exclamation point, a question mark, or a colon. The one-half signifies “half,” that is, half of something. The real question is how we interpret the image of a glass that is “half empty” or “half full”: whether we view it through an optimistic or a pessimistic process of awareness. One could spend a long time discussing the historical, psychological, and cultural associations of the number nine that define the musical Nine—its symbolic role in Germanic, Celtic, or Greek mythology. We could speak about the nine Muses or the nine-year siege of Troy. We could also discuss how, for the peoples of Bali or Siberia, this number symbolizes magic and the superlative, while in Christian culture, as the threefold manifestation of the divine Trinity, it represents absolute perfection. We might mention the nine fundamental rites of the Confucian tradition and the endless network of superstitious associations connected to the number. The conclusion would remain the same: nine is a powerful number, a universal symbol of birth, renewal, and the striving for perfection.

– Musicality has always been a strong feature of your prose productions. You have directed operas and created unusual, genre-defying musical performances, and you have even taught students at the Academy of Music. Yet this is your first encounter with the musical genre. What experiences could you adapt to Nine, and what represented completely new territory and challenges? More generally, how did this genre avoid you for so long?

– I had previously held discussions with the former management of the Operetta Theatre about directing a musical or operetta, but strangely enough, this shared intention only materialized now. I believe much depended on the courage of the current leadership. It is well known that I am drawn to works presenting unconventional formal and thematic challenges, and my approach to staging them is equally unconventional. My distinctive choices of material and unique working methods promise artistic renewal for a theatre company, but they also involve risks in terms of programming and audience expectations. Paradoxically, the very qualities that attract artistic directors considering inviting me are also the ones that can seem intimidating because of their atypical nature: my unconventional, reform-minded perspective, my carefully structured creative strategy, and my workshop-style approach to directing actors. Given all this, it is understandable that the musical genre largely passed me by. Both in Hungary and abroad, it is strongly shaped by established performance traditions and by rules clearly defined by the authors, which significantly limit the creative freedom of directors. It is no coincidence that Nine—the musical adaptation of Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½—ultimately became the ideal project. Almost all of Fellini’s films belong to the category of “works beyond classification.” His innovative, extreme, and deeply personal artistic language continues to inspire creators across disciplines. Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s successful work embodies the same kaleidoscopic creative play, drawing from multiple cultures and genres. It demands from the director and collaborators an individual vision and stylistic versatility. For me, this work, which speaks in the language of total theatre, becomes truly meaningful and deeply human through the points of intersection created by personal impulses and its self-revealing, satirical mode of expression.

– You typically work intensively and over long periods with your own company, far beyond the standard six-to-eight-week rehearsal process. When you work as what we might call a guest director—especially on a musical and with multiple casts—how do you operate? How much room is there for experimentation? What compromises do you have to make?

– Because I have worked with many different ensembles around the world in addition to my own company, I learned quite quickly how to function as a guest director. In such situations, the only variable is the amount of rehearsal time available. The method, the tools, and the momentum remain constant because they are primarily generated by my personality. Regardless of genre, I have never had to compromise in applying them. The same was true of my work with the actors involved in Nine. I discovered collaborators who value collective thinking, deep engagement, and the understanding of complex relationships. During rehearsals, they freely and courageously contributed their childlike imagination to our creative explorations, without prejudice. The challenge of working with three separate casts never felt burdensome. On the contrary, it activated the variability of the characters as embodied by different actor types and expanded the range of relational impulses emerging between scene partners. My only task was to create the right atmosphere and working strategy for understanding the gradually unfolding network of relationships.

– Which of film director Guido Contini’s problems can a theatre director most easily identify with?

– Unfortunately, almost all of them. It is difficult not to empathize with the struggles of the protagonist in a work that examines both the anatomy of creation and the responsibility of the artist with such shameless honesty. I know what it feels like when certain circumstances take control of me. As a theatre director, however, I must answer a different question: how can all this become tangible for the audience? How can the subjective consciousness of a director suffering from creative paralysis be captured through theatrical means so that, through the chaotic swirl of memories and fantasies born under the sign of “beautiful confusion,” the audience can ultimately be guided back to the experience of the “blank page,” the purity of childhood? How can one speak authentically about Guido Contini’s relationships with women through the filters of dream and reality? How does the vortex-like descent built upon the “theatre within the theatre” motif acquire meaning within his divided consciousness, and how can the intricate mechanisms of his psyche be revealed?

– Which of Guido’s relationships was the most difficult to decipher, and which was the most straightforward?

– It is not easy to establish an exact diagnosis of the origins of the protagonist’s anxiety toward women. As a director, therefore, I prefer to offer audiences a deeper understanding of the causal relationships underlying his behavior. Truth, like art, exists from the observer’s perspective. So let the audience decide whether there is any “easy case” among Guido’s relationships.

– Nine was a major success in cinemas here as well, but Hungarian audiences had already encountered the musical through a production in Békéscsaba. György Szomor serves as a bridge between that production and the Operetta Theatre version, both as lyric translator and leading actor. How much attention do you pay to such connections? Do you build on them?

– Although my preparation always involves researching the circumstances of a work’s creation, its social and cultural background, the critical reception of various adaptations, and viewing significant productions, none of this influences the development of my own concept. While exploring the Hungarian history of Nine, I quickly arrived at the 2005 Békéscsaba production. I find it fascinating that after so many years György Szomor has the opportunity to play Guido Contini once again. I am certain that the life experiences he has gained since then will bring new emphases to his performance, and these will also be reflected strongly in the song lyrics he has newly adapted into Hungarian. What matters most to me is that the artists involved understand the personal motivations of their characters and engage in genuine communication with one another on stage.

– Audiences have not yet been able to see the production because of the pandemic, but the set design was already revealed in the Látványtér exhibition. How did this unusual floating space, designed by Éva Szendrényi, come about?

– The unity of the authorial and directorial vision is reinforced by the gradually emerging images of consciousness within the associative narrative. Starting from this idea, set designer Éva Szendrényi and I wanted to create a transparent and airy environment capable of natural transformations, where allegorical, symbolic, and surreal scenes could effortlessly give way to one another. Within the personal imaginative space of Contini’s mind, we entrusted the reordering of events and time to the concept of magical creation. We conceived the spa—the symbolic site of the protagonist’s external and internal transformations—as an organic whole expressed through rhythmic spatial composition. As a result, the production, which incorporates elements of futurism and fantasy, offers a seamless and continuous mode of storytelling that requires no map from the audience.

– When do you hope audiences will finally be able to see Nine?

– I sincerely hope that my Operetta Theatre production, which has already been delayed for nearly a year due to pandemic shutdowns, will not remain in rehearsal until my retirement, and that we will finally be able to premiere Nine at the end of September.

Interview by Tímea Papp, Papageno, 2021

translated by: Zsuzsanna Juraszek