The Last Waltz

The Hungarian State Opera premiered this 1999 one-act opera by Iván Madarász (1949-) on 21 June 2003. The libretto, jointly written by Gábor Görgey and the composer himself, presents an elderly woman dreaming about the past. She, the people around her and her family members are all diminished beings. As one critic wrote, the “monomaniacal music” perfectly suits the characters' obsession. As Madarász explains, “The Wife spends the entire story trying to remember a melody she heard at her first ball, where she also first met and danced with her future husband. At the instant of her death, it comes back to her.”