Ferenc Erkel

Ferenc Erkel (born Nov. 7, 1810, Gyula, Hung.—died June 15, 1893, Budapest) was the founding father of Hungary’s national opera in the 19th century and composer of the “Hymnusz,” the Hungarian national anthem.

Erkel’s family was of German descent but regarded itself as Hungarian and lived in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slvk.). His ancestors included many musicians and music teachers. Erkel first studied music with his father, and then from 1822 to 1825 he studied with composer Henrik Klein in Pozsony. From 1828 to 1834 he lived in Kolozsvár (now Cluj, Rom.), and in 1835 he moved to Pest. Until 1841 he performed regularly as a soloist and accompanying pianist. In 1835 he was the conductor at the National Stage at the Buda Castle Theatre, and in 1836–37 he led the German Theatre of Pest.

In 1838 he became the first conductor of the newly opened Hungarian Theatre of Pest (from 1840 the National Theatre). There he worked to develop Hungarian-language operatic performance with the intention of creating an opera company capable of competing with the German Theatre of Pest. In addition to staging works by Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, and Carl Maria von Weber, he revived József Ruzitska’s opera Béla futása (“Béla’s Flight”), which in 1822 had been the first Hungarian opera.

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After this production proved to be a failure, he began to write his own operas, synthesizing western European elements with Hungarian themes. His first original works were Bátori Mária (1840) and Hunyadi László (1844), both with librettos by Béni Egressy. Parts of the latter work, which enjoyed enormous and lasting popularity, were adapted as revolutionary songs. Also in 1844, “Hymnusz,” with lyrics taken from an 1823 poem of the same name by Ferenc Kölcsey and with music composed by Erkel, was adopted as Hungary’s national anthem.

To support his family, Erkel also wrote accompaniments and feature songs for popular plays (including those by prolific playwright Ede Szigligeti), and he became the music teacher of the daughter of Archduke Albert. After the Hungarian struggle for independence of 1848–49, Erkel revived the opera company of the National Theatre on next to nothing. In 1853 he assembled what would become the Philharmonic Society (legally established as an association in 1867), which performed concerts at the National Museum and later in the Vigadó Theatre. He also introduced new works by Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. His 1857 opera, Erzsébet (“Elizabeth”), was less than a success with audiences. In 1861 Erkel staged his most famous work, Bánk bán (based on a drama by József Katona, with a libretto by Egressy), which at that point probably had been ready for production for more than 10 years. However, Sarolta, his first comic opera, performed in 1862, proved to be another failure. Erkel’s 1867 opera, Dózsa György, displays Wagnerian stylistic touches in its use of leitmotifs, while Brankovics György (1874) employs Hungarian, Serbian, and Turkish musical material.

In his later operas Erkel began entrusting his sons Gyula, Sándor, and Elek with small orchestration duties and later with the writing of complete accompaniments to vocal scores and compositions. In 1871 Erkel announced his resignation as the lead conductor of the Philharmonic Society, but he stayed on for the next few years, gradually ceding the position to Hans Richter. In 1873 Erkel became director of the theatre’s operatic division, but he resigned after a year and thereafter conducted only his own works.

Erkel played a significant role in the foundation of the Academy of Music in Budapest (1875), where he served as director and teacher of piano. He remained director until 1887, and a year later he resigned from his teaching post. Composed during this period, his opera Névtelen hősök (1880; “Anonymous Heroes”) was based on Hungarian folk music. Erkel composed one of his last significant works, the Ünnepi nyitány (1887; “Festival Overture”), for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the National Theatre in Budapest.

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