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Bohémélet Budapesten. La boheme at Budapest [ Author Michael Daniel Watson ] [ From category THE Articles ] [ Subcategory OperaRail 2014 ] [ Subcategory II Budapesta Opera ] [ Translator Simona Cazacu ] [ Article date: 2014-12-21 ] [ From city Budapesta ] [ Country Ungaria ]   Who said handball doesn’t get on well with opera? I’m exaggerating, of course, … nobody would dare say anything like that…:-) I went to Budapest to see the European Championship final for the women’s handball. Of course, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go to the Opera in Budapest, even if I had already been there two years before. And even if the performance of the handball weekend was actually “Bohemia”, and I say “actually” because I had seen it once again in Bucharest … just one day before leaving! As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have gone to the handball match if I hadn’t “caught” an Opera show, too! ;-) [Situation and question: You come from Budapest to Bucharest, you get off in Brasov having the intention to climb Tâmpa. You’ve got your suitcase with you and you don’t have time to let it at a relative or acquaintance, because it’s getting dark and you’ve got no time to climb the mountain. What do you do? ] Bohémélet Budapesten, igen! Read "ighen", translated "yes"! And if you read it "bohemelet", as the Romanian temptation would be, to read as it is written, nobody understood you! It is read "bo-hi-em-i-e-let", spelling it just as I divided the word! And that "en", meaning "at Budapest", is put at the end of the name of the city, emerging in this way a strange "Bohémélet Budapesten". Or, if you want it complete, "Bohemia at the State Opera from Budapest"... "Bohémélet az Állami Operaház Budapest"! Read... "bo-hi-em-i-e-let oz a-lo-mi o-pe-ro-haz bu-da-pest" :-) ) ) [ You don’t climb Tâmpa... No, it’s not the desired solution! ] Unlike the Hungarian language, Budapest (or Budimpesta, as they say in Serb) is a very beautiful city. Certainly, one of the most beautiful in Europe and which must absolutely be visited. I did it for the first time in 2010 and since then I have kept on recommending it, especially since it on the way to Vien, Prague, or Bratislava, practically on the way to the Western and Northern Europe. The most beautiful (and their biggest) building is the Parliament (on top of which the traditional Romanian shoe is said to have been hung), The Royal Palace, The Bridge of Chains, St. Stefan Cathedral, The Statue of Liberty of Gellert Hill (where the Romanian flag flew), Margaret Island, thermal baths, the old underground railway, and, of course, the Opera! :-) [You leave the suitcase at the station… It could be, if the service “Hand luggage” still existed...] Nevertheless, so far I haven’t “had a ride” in their underground, this was the first time! It is an event, because their underground network, initiated in 1896, is… the second most antique in the world, far after the one in London (1863), but before the one in Paris (1900) or New York! And if the new railway doesn’t have too much charm, M1 line is a very special one, the stations being very small, sustained by prop pillars made of iron which look like the faggots from Anghel Saligny’s bridges in Cernavoda, and the trains have got two cars and those are small, making you feel that you have gone back in time one hundred years! (From wikipedia: The railway, having a lenth of 3, 7 km, had 11 stations (9 underground and 2 at the surface) and, at that time, the trains followed one another every two minutes. It could convey 35.000 people a day. Today 103.000 people travel in it within a working day.) [ You leave the suitcase at a hotel... It is the solution any normal person would try... so this is not the answer in my case! :-) ) ) ] So... "Bo-hi-em-i-e-let oz A-lo-mi O-pe-ro-haz Bu-da-pest"! The setting was classical, and the production looked like the one in Bucharest. The brown house, a lot of snow all over, and at the back you can see the roofs of other houses covered by a lot of snow, too. The 4 people are dressed according to the period, the only one who is different is Benoit, who is wearing Tartan trousers, is unshaved, has got a hat thrown on his head and the looks of a drunkard. The voices are pleasant, but not remarkable, especially two days after seeing Teodor Ilinca in Rudolfo. ;-) (As a remark, Teo had sung exactly in the same show in Budapest a short time over a week before). Mimi has got a pleasant voice, Rudolfo is not bad either, and the other two are exactly what it needed. [Actually, a normal man wouldn’t get off the train to climb Tâmpa... :-) ) ) ] "Colline, sei morto? " – the Hungarians laugh a little. "Che gelida manina! " – washed out applause. "Si, mi chiamano Mimi! " – better interpretation, so as the applause. On the translation screen, next to the Hungarian variant is also the English one, which is appreciated, and at the same time, this indicates that a lot of foreigners come to the Opera in Budapest. [Clue... supermarket... ] "Ó, mily hideg e kis kéz! ". Read... "oo mii hidel e kiș kez"... Yes, "Che gelida manina! " :-) [ Contradiction... The suitcase doesn’t get in the boxes from the supermarket... :-) ] Menjünk! (read "Men-iunc! ") - Andiamo! – Let’s go! To Momus! The act of going out of the 4-5-6 takes place... just like in Bucharest, meaning to the terrace! Yes, I have recently read a remark that it is winter so the terrace doesn’t fit in, and I agree with this remark, but... in the Eastern Europe it seems that it is possible to stay out at the terrace in the middle of winter! :-) (We stood more outside in cold, including during the communist movement, so we are used to it. :D) There are high houses at the back, storeyed houses, nevertheless, this doesn’t give the impression of a crowded place, on the contrary. The costumes are from the 19th century, and Parpignol is dressed as a French general. Musetta appears, who has long pink and dark yellow clothes, made of silk I think, she is not too young and seems more suited for Alcindoro rather than Marcello. :D In addition, even her voice is closer to a soprano than a mezzo. "A komedi pompás" - "Comedia e stupenda" - "The comedy is brilliant", "A szémla" - "Il conto" - "The bill! ". My eyes keep running on the translation screen, even if I don’t have anything to see there, I pretty much know the lines and the English variant is does not interest me, but the idea of writing down a few Hungarian words comes into my mind. [ So, the solution is... ] The third act, at the border of the city, a house on the left, which has also got a lot of snow on the roof, the inn on the right, but the attention is caught by a large alley with street lamps and snowy trees on the left and on the right and which looked fairylike. "Högy Köhögés" - "What a cough! ", "Álmok" - "Dreams", "Boszorkány! " - "You witch! " (this sounds good in Hungarian :-) ), aria of separation between Rudolfo si Mimi, "packed" with the "bozorkaniurile" between Marcello and Musetta, it starts snowing slowly while Rudolfo and Mimi slowly go to the backstage on the fairylike alley, the audience feels that they are part of the atmosphere in "Soli in inverno" - "Alone in winter". [Yet still, there is! Solution! :-) ] The last act has, of course the scenery of the first – as it happens in the same place – but the houses at the back are covered by a grey curtain and only the inside of the room of the four people can be seen. A table, Marcello’s easel, a decorative screen, a chest, a small stove, but… no bed! "Rispetta la modestia! ", the funny phase between Marcello and Rudolfo, releases smiles. [ Solution: You take the handbag and put in it everything you have in your suitcase, you cram the handbag and everything that didn’t enter into the box for the luggage at the supermarket, you lock the box, you take the empty suitcase, you make a shoulder strap from a belt and you climb Tâmpa with it! :D :-) ) ) ] "Ügy fázom" - "I am cold". The bed was hidden behind the screen. "Alkony" - "The falling of the night", Mimi’s sunset, "rózsa fokoton"- "cufieta roza", and in the end, "Légy erős" - "Coraggio! " [ On the way, whenever I met somebody, I hid the suitcase at the back. So that people wouldn’t think that I was a fool. :-) ) ) ] Coraggio per venire a Budapest per vedere un`opera! The courage of coming to Budapest to see an opera! And Budapest, of course! The train from Bucharest to Budapest costs at least 29 euros, if you appeal to the ticket offer from Fortuna Tickets, which are unrefundable and must be bought three days before. The price is for the second class, for the couchette is 39 euros, and for the sleeping car 59 euros. In all these situations, if the departure takes place from Brasov, Craiova or Sibiu, the price is 10 euro less! Another “super” offer is Trip Tickets, which means 21+6 euros RETURN TICKET on Arad - Budapest or Oradea - Budapest, that is 21 to which the seat in the train is added, meaning 3 euros on the sense of direction if it is bought from the ticket office, so 10 euros, giving a total of 27 euros. I repeat, return ticket, on condition that the return is in maximum 4 days! [ Since 2006, at least once a year, there, at the top! On foot, not by cable car, climbing is exciting! This year, "attracted" by so many operas, I still hadn’t reached the top of Tâmpa! Does it have a meaning now? :-) ] For accommodation, there are two star rooms starting with 23 euros, the minimum offers being at hostels, 5-7 euros per person in a room of 8-12 beds, only in the opera area I found about 4 hostels! The total cost of a trip from Bucharest to Budapest with Fortuna Tickets and accommodation for 2 nights would be 29*2+3*2+23=87 euros for a person. Using the variant Trip Tickets you get a cheaper price, meaning that a return ticket to Arad (46 euros) + Trip Tickets (27 euros) + accommodation (23 euros) = 96 euros, the variant of two nights of accommodation. This means three days of staying there, time to see handball, Danube, the Parliament. And, of course, the opera! :-) Cast: Mimi: Polina Pasztircsák Rodolfo: Attila Fekete Marcello: Csaba Szegedi Colline: Miklós Sebestyén Schaunard: Zsolt Haja Musetta: Zita Váradi Benoit: András Habetler Alcindoro: Tamás Szüle Parpignol: László Beöthy-Kiss Conductor: Péter Halász Composer: Giacomo Puccini Librettist: G. Giacosa, L. Illica Director: Kálmán Nádasdy Staged by: Sándor Palcsó Set Designer: Gusztáv Oláh Costume Designer: Tivadar Márk Leader of Children`s Choir: Gyöngyvér Gupcsó Choir Master: Kálmán Strausz

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