Let’s start with the argument: Both Lucretia’s Violation and The Vampire were not sounded to be Hungarian premieres on the Mezzo Opera Festival. The opera performing of the XIX. century in Hungary was sensitive to the new things, so much, that even in the year of the premiere, only nine months after the premiere in Leipzig, The Vampire was performed in Hungary too on 29th December 1828. In the German Theatre in Pest, in German language. One of the unexplainable anomaly of the Hungarian theatre history, that sometimes even today it does not take into consideration the theatre making in German language, which was before the constant Hungarian one, and then worked parallel with it. As it would be unpleasant, that in Pest-Buda, The Magic Flute was performed during a very long series, or that for the opening of the German Theatre Beethoven composed background music for the stage (Ruins of Athens, King Stephen). It is especially strange today, when opera has become, what it has always been, even during the high time of national schools: an international genre, which is above the nations. If the French opera house performs a piece by a German composer in Hungary, with a Hungarian director and Estonian conductor, and with singers from every parts of the world, then what kind of national pride and provincial reservedness can make us deny the happy fact, that an important opera was performed in Budapest after its premiere for the second time in the world? Especially if we are talking about a composer, whose career began in Bratislava, with the leading of Klein Henrik, who thought Erkel too, and whose plays – his first opera too – was performed in this city, where mostly German people lived, instead of Hungarians and Slovakians. We should be proud of it, even if his beginning Hungarian connections have disappeared with the growing of his career. Not all of Marschner’s mature operas have been performed in Hungary, and after his death, only the "The Templar and the Jewess" was performed in Hungary, which he composed according to Ivanhoe, the Scottish novel – in the Opera House. When Mahler was the manager, and it was performed six times.

But let’s put argument aside: we should be happy, that after a hundred and eighty years we could watch this important opera again in Hungary. It is an important opera – I am writing it, then add fast, that now it is not the synonym of a “masterpiece”. I have listened to it many times before the performance, then after I have watched it, I have been getting more and more sure, that the values of Marschner’s opera we should search from the point of view of its place in music history, rather than on its own.

Nowadays, when we talk less about the history of a branch of art, or taking smaller one, about a history of a genre, and instead of it we put against each other parallel stories, alternatives (as you can see it under the headword: The histories of Hungarian literature), especially in a country, the opera history of which cannot be written down as a uniform process, instead as a rare scale of independent accidental masterpieces – so here and now we have to be surprised by the fact that a German opera can be so suitable to the traditional, linear historical usage. The Vampire is a totally romantic piece: about the world destroying role of dark powers, about the demons that raise up inside humans, about the fight and victory of cleanliness and heroism against darkness – so it goes on with the opera historical direction, which was began with Weber’s Magic Hunter and brings on until Wagner. Almost all moments of the play can be connected to the analogue scenes of the Magic Hunter or of the The Flying Dutchman. The beginning, the appearance of the vampire master and the witches’ sabbath can be connected to the scene of the Wolf’s glen and Samiel’s appearance from the Magic Hunter. Emmy Vampire-ballad at the beginning of the second act can be an obvious preview of Senta’s ballad – not only because of the text about the legendary creature, but because of that dramaturgical sudden ending, that the summoned person appears soon on the stage too. But this associational net can be continued and widened to the operas before Weber too. Aubry, Malwina and Sir Humphrey – father, daughter and the dismissed groom – their trio makes us remember not only the trio of Fidelio Leonóra–Marcellina–Rocco, but of Pamina–Tamino–Sarastro from The magic flute – all of it points towards the quintet of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. Everything is connected to everything: the long scale of familiar situations and characters place The Vampire into the partly knowing context of the German opera history – at let us improve our knowledge about the story.

Anyway, in The Vampire everything is only similar, raises up or refers ahead, and makes us remember something else – between the many parallel things I cannot really find Marschner’s real character. His music is wonderfully worked out, it has high standard, but it is lack of true originality and sound inventions. He writes melodies, but they are not characteristics, they do not remain in the ear of those, who listen to it once or many times – and it is not independent from the fact, that the characters of the play cannot become real characters. Marschner raised up very difficult questions with his play (between others, about the problem of acceptance and acceptability of difference on social and face to face level, which we can see again in the Dutchman), but I think, that he could not put them into a perfect artistic form - The Vampire is more like an interesting try, searching for way, which – fortunately – could find wonderful followers, like Wagner and his career.

But these problematic plays can become the basis of a really exciting performance. Partly this happens now: Zoltán Balázs’s performance is an extraordinary sophisticated and inventive work – an indisputable talent of an opera director marks his place here. The inventive nature, which is more technical now, cannot cause a real catharsis, it can be the reason of the mistakes of the play. The fact, that he puts the story, which originally happens in Scotland to Japan, can easily solve the biggest problem of the staging of the opera, which has many empty places, that way he can fill the empty place to make them natural. The Japanese theatre has more stressed ritual in it than the European one, so it makes natural and even necessary the fewer and more characteristic movements – for example Lord Ruthven’s, the vampire’s play with the samurai sword too, which can cause horrific moments to the viewers without any outlook forming, horror-tools (while the listeners can listen to the sweet-melodic aria about the beauties of drinking of blood). The doubled and tripled roles are important elements in the performance. Many singers have one role (the most important one is the connection of Emmy and Janthe, the two victims), but there are more scales of parallels: we can learn from the director’s statement that Zoltán Balázs accepted Ruthven and Aubry too as inseparable characters – the positive and negative heroes are similar to Jin and Jang. The raising of the problem is excellent, but the play does not give real material to it – if Aubry appears as a Vampire master in the first scene, so he controls the lines from the beginning, and machinates the actions to get Malwina finally, then at the end there is only the possibility to prove it with a silent scene. And in reality: Aubry here takes the pearl necklace slowly out, in the performance, with which Ruthven has made the early two sacrifices – Aubry has reached his destination, he gets Malwina for himself. However, the music, anyway it is not so important, is punctual, and here composes a happy end – the characters are grateful for God because of their survival. I let myself not be calmed down by this ending, as similarly to The Magic Hunter, here a deus ex machina prevents the catastrophe – anyway I feel a little bit dissonant the ending of the performance and the moments, which have led there. But all these are little things, and I would repeat: the problems come from the drama itself, they have not been solved, and they come from problems of questions, which have not been worked out yet. It cannot change the fact, that Zoltán Balázs’ performance is the most memorable theatrical experience from the five performances of the festival.

Unfortunately we cannot tell the same about the musical solution. I have not been impressed by the performance of the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra: while in case of The Witches of Salem, they had performed with beautiful sounding, uniformly and in concentrated way, but in case of this performance they gave the impression of a more chaotic production, their sounding was not with such a high quality with this more elevated score, as in case of the performance of Ward’s mostly post-romantic music. Olari Elts, the conductor was more hard-working and dynamic tactic, it was less about the creature of the atmosphere of the play, and even about the creature of form.

Nabil Suliman, who plays the main role, rises high from the cast. His voice does not special colour, but it is powerful enough, and his singing technique seems to be reliable – from the point of view of his figure, he is perfect for the role.

Helen Kearns performs Janthe and Emmy – she is a perfect victim, her voice is fresh, youngish – but she does not have the ability to make the Vampire-ballad really frightening.

Vanessa Le Charlès’ voice seems to be too powerful and sharp for Malwina’s role, and her speech has been weaker than the other characters’.
Marc Haffner’s Aubry, if I want to, can be written dawn as the introduction of a young man, who has Wagner-tenor-like voice – but his ability to deal with the voice is missing from the performance, above it, except for the voice, many elements of the material do not promise an international career for the young tenor singer.

The artists of the Opera of Rennes have worked humidly, on a great quality level for the competitors’ production and the success of the performance. Anyway: the fact that a troupe from the “countryside” can solve a high-standard performance on such a level, that they can fulfil the scenic, which requires such a meticulous punctuality on such a level (set- and costume designer: Judit Gombár), it makes us thinking.

So with The Vampire, an important opera can be watched again in Hungary – it is an important opera but is not a masterpiece. It was good to know it – but it has become more painful, that there is not any Hungarian theatre, that feels enough courage in itself to perform gracefully The Magic Hunter.

Gábor Bóka, Opera-Világ, 2008

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)