Summary Ferenc Erkel


FERENZ ERKEL

1810-1893

Erkel – the founder of the Hungarian national romantic opera and the largest of its representatives throughout the XIX century. In plots taken from the history of his native country, he stressed what directly echoed modernity, with the struggle of advanced people of Hungary against national and social oppression. It is no accident that Erkel’s operas were subjected to the persecution of Austrian censorship, and some melodies became revolutionary hymns.

Ferenc Erkel was born on November 7, 1810 in the town of Gyula in the southeast of Hungary in the family of the manager of the estate – a great music lover. He studied in Pozhoni (Presburg – now the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava) from G. Klein – a friend of Beethoven. In 1830-1837 he worked as a pianist, conductor and teacher in Kolozhvar (now Cluj, Romania), where he began to compose – mainly on Hungarian folk themes. Since 1838 – the conductor and

the head of the opera troupe of the recently opened National Theater in Pest. In an atmosphere of social uplift, the patriotic works of Erkel appear one after another before the revolution of 1848. He pays most attention to opera (he has written 8 operas). The first of them was “Maria Bathory” (1840), then – “Laszlo Hunyadi” (1844) and “Bank-Ban” (1852).

Erkel spent a lot of time in social activities: he was the organizer of the Philharmonic Society, the Singing Society, directed the concerts as a conductor, for 14 years remained the director of the Musical Academy, where he conducted a piano class. His later operas were written in collaboration with his sons and also differed in patriotic orientation and social acuity, although they were inferior to the previous ones. Gyorgy Dozh (1867) narrates about the peasant war in Hungary of the 16th century, Gyorgy Brankovic (1874) – about the hero of the national – liberation struggle of the Serbian people against the Turkish invaders, “Heroes of the Nights” (1880) – about the revolution of 1848-1849, “King Istvan” (1884) – about the formation of the first Hungarian kingdom in the history of the country.

Erkel died, surrounded by recognition and honor, June 15, 1893 in Budapest.


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Summary Ferenc Erkel