A curious, but straightforward, tale. János Valuska is a simpleton living in a small town, with a snobbish mother, Mrs Pflaum, ashamed of him, and a politically active Aunt, Tünde, who becomes Mayor. A newspaper deliverer and messenger, he sees good in everyone and is fascinated by the stars and cosmos, which leaves him to be ridiculed and exploited by others. The Aunt, trying to improve the town's standing, books a noted circus to give a series of shows, including their two prized attractions, a giant stuffed whale and a strange creature with deformed limbs and no speech known as the "Prince". This figure, despite never appearing, creates excitement amongst the mob who riot, dragging János into their activities. The army is sent in, and martial law established. János is imprisoned in an aslyum. His only visitor is Tünde’s husband, a retired and embittered Professor.

This is the basis of (now 80 year old) Péter Eötvös new Hungarian language opera, his first in his native language. The story is fundamentally about the end of civilisation, the conflict between the crowd and the individual, and the perspective of someone innocent who can see what is happening but comprehends nothing. It was staged in a simple way and this depicted a powerful story well. Musically it was excellent - the solo pieces, with Zsolt Haja singing the title role were genuinely moving, contrasting with the mob like choruses and other set pieces of interaction from the other characters. I was heavily reminded of Peter Grimes, which contains both mob scenes and beautiful solo arias. It was an interesting piece and I am encouraged to discover more of Eötvös's work for the voice. The core story from 1987 has also been filmed (in 2000 by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky in 2000 under the title Werckmeister harmonies). Eötvös has also written a German language version which will be premiered this month.

Watched on OperaVision via YouTube.