Béla's Flight

Originating a little over two decades (in 1822) after the premiere of Prince Pikkó, the lost first Hungarian opera, Béla's Flight is the earliest such work for which the music and libretto still remain. The piece was based on the play Belas Flucht by August von Kotzebue, a highly influential writer of the time, and was transplanted to the opera stage by János Kótsi Patkó, the leading actor of the ensemble in Kolozsvár, today known as Cluj-Napoca. The opera was later performed, with tremendous success, in nearly every city in Hungary, and it was allegedly one of the Cluj performances that inspired Ferenc Erkel to write historical operas.

Hungarian-language discussion programme