Page 170 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 170
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
estate, Bodrogremete (Bodrog county + hermit) is naturally fictional, but
Bodrog county actually exists, and following the Trianon Treaty much of it
was detached from Hungary to became part of Czechoslovakia.
A mediocre operetta’s finale gained disproportionate popularity in a
complex geopolitical situation that made the impossible world of the work
seem realistic by comparison. Since the libretto does not make it clear
whether the male lead is yearning for his squandered wealth, for the idea
of a grand past, or for the fulfilment of his romantic love, the lyrics utilise
the aesthetic and causal impossibility of the operetta genre, and express a
yearning for something non-existent, just as the Hungary of the 1780s was
by 1922.
Where is Hungary?
The Hamburg merchant on holiday in Baden-Baden does not understand
where exactly count Choltay invited his daughter: “/in slightly broken Hun-
garian/ Hungary? Where is Hungary? Does beautiful Hungary still exist for
real? The land of hussars? You saw it with your own two eyes?”2
The question invited an unexpectedly wide array of interpretations in
1922, and the redrawing of national borders turns this playful, meaningless
operetta banter into a question of national identity politics. Discussion of
loss and wartime trauma spilled over from increasingly numerous irreden-
tist publications, and found a peaceful medium in operetta, a popular genre
that reacted rapidly to current events. “Where is Hungary” is merely a cue
before the finale, and Choltay sings the now-famous number as a response.
Here I find it is necessary to quote the first verse and chorus of the song, in
order to follow the commingling of the real, but unprocessable geopolitical
situation, and the impossible but familiar world of operetta.
Verse
Where a bright wind, a light wind plays along the river Tisa
There live a people, a legendary people, there my homeland lies.
The ancient Carpathians protect the sleep of the faithful chieftain Csaba,
Who returns to us, again and again, on the celestial path of stars.
When his trumpet calls, we await his coming.
2 Ernő Kulinyi and Zsigmond Vincze, Hamburgi menyasszony [Libretto – prompter’s
copy], trans. M. Jakfalvi (s. l. n., 1922), 36. Széchényi National Library, Archives.
168
estate, Bodrogremete (Bodrog county + hermit) is naturally fictional, but
Bodrog county actually exists, and following the Trianon Treaty much of it
was detached from Hungary to became part of Czechoslovakia.
A mediocre operetta’s finale gained disproportionate popularity in a
complex geopolitical situation that made the impossible world of the work
seem realistic by comparison. Since the libretto does not make it clear
whether the male lead is yearning for his squandered wealth, for the idea
of a grand past, or for the fulfilment of his romantic love, the lyrics utilise
the aesthetic and causal impossibility of the operetta genre, and express a
yearning for something non-existent, just as the Hungary of the 1780s was
by 1922.
Where is Hungary?
The Hamburg merchant on holiday in Baden-Baden does not understand
where exactly count Choltay invited his daughter: “/in slightly broken Hun-
garian/ Hungary? Where is Hungary? Does beautiful Hungary still exist for
real? The land of hussars? You saw it with your own two eyes?”2
The question invited an unexpectedly wide array of interpretations in
1922, and the redrawing of national borders turns this playful, meaningless
operetta banter into a question of national identity politics. Discussion of
loss and wartime trauma spilled over from increasingly numerous irreden-
tist publications, and found a peaceful medium in operetta, a popular genre
that reacted rapidly to current events. “Where is Hungary” is merely a cue
before the finale, and Choltay sings the now-famous number as a response.
Here I find it is necessary to quote the first verse and chorus of the song, in
order to follow the commingling of the real, but unprocessable geopolitical
situation, and the impossible but familiar world of operetta.
Verse
Where a bright wind, a light wind plays along the river Tisa
There live a people, a legendary people, there my homeland lies.
The ancient Carpathians protect the sleep of the faithful chieftain Csaba,
Who returns to us, again and again, on the celestial path of stars.
When his trumpet calls, we await his coming.
2 Ernő Kulinyi and Zsigmond Vincze, Hamburgi menyasszony [Libretto – prompter’s
copy], trans. M. Jakfalvi (s. l. n., 1922), 36. Széchényi National Library, Archives.
168
