Farsangi kabaré

It could be that even we ourselves often don’t fully comprehend how many ways the digital age has changed our relationship with music. Nevertheless, there remain themes that simply demand an analogue, more traditional approach. Active since the ’10s, singer-songwriter Gergő Szakács has transitioned over the years from monumental pop sounds to more intimate, live instrumental productions, and this journey will reach its next important milestone at Müpa Budapest.

Mozart was insatiably in love with life. He embraced everything considered “sinful”: wine, cards, billiards. And his passion extended to musical ornaments: flowery acciaccaturas, trills, cadences others dared not risk, and chromatic runs. But there can be no doubt the main objects of his desire were women. He dedicated several of his masterpieces to one or other of his lovers, who were thus immortalised by these concert and opera arias.

What would happen if Sándor Petőfi were to write János Vitéz right here and now, before our very eyes? In this new stage version, the story emerges from a giant laptop, from which the two-dimensional and living characters of the tale come to life to bring the world of Johnny Corncob and Iluska into being through spoken word and song.