Hungarian National Ballet

Hungarian National Ballet (also known as Hungarian State Opera Ballet and Budapest Ballet).Hungary's leading ballet company which performs in Budapest's State Opera House and also in the city's Erkel Theatre. Its origins date back to ballet performances held at the Often Court Theatre and the National Theatre, but in its current form it was established in 1884 with the opening of the State Opera House. At first it was subordinate to the opera company and its early, rather parochial style evolved via the influences of Hungarian folk dancing and Russian ballet. Demands for higher standards led to the engagement of the Italian ballet master Nicola Guerra. He not only raised the company's technical and artistic levels but also choreographed nineteen works for the company between 1902 and 1915, including Adventures of Love (mus. Mader, 1902), Hungarian Dance Suite (mus. Liszt and Szikla, 1907), Prometheus (mus. Beethoven, 1913), and Games of Amor (mus. Mozart, 1913). After Guerra the company declined (though the Polish choreographer Jan Cieplinski created a couple of notable ballets) until 1937 when Ferenc Nádasi was engaged as ballet master. Under his regime technical standards rose dramatically (among the dancers he trained were Melinda Ottrubay and Ernö Vashegyi) and he also established a school within the Opera. Just as important was the emergence of Gyula Harangozó as a major choreographer. Scene in the Czárdas (mus. J. Hubay and J. Kenessey, 1936) was his first ballet on a national theme and he became internationally renowned for the ballets he created to music by Bartók, such as The Miraculous Mandarin. (See under Harangozó for list of works.) After the Second World War a new generation of dancers emerged such as N. Kovács and I. Rab, and in 1948 Charrat mounted Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes. In 1950 the Ballet State Choreographic Institute was founded (from which the company still takes most of its pupils) and during the rest of the decade many Soviet ballet masters were brought into the company to teach the Russian repertory, including Messerer, Zakharov, Lavrovsky, and Chabukiani. At first native artists like Nádasi and Harangozó were pushed aside, but then were re-instated as their quality was acknowledged by the Soviet authorities. During the 1960s and 1970s a new generation of Hungarian choreographers emerged including Imre Eck and László Seregi. The latter created many works for the company during the 1970s, some like Spartacus in the Soviet mould, others like The Cedar Tree more distinctively individual. Antal Fodor also created works for the company, introducing neo-classical and modern influences into its style, and during the 1970s the repertory also opened up to include foreign works by, among others, Ashton, Béjart, Balanchine, and Ailey. Since the 1960s the 120-strong company has toured regularly in Europe. Seregi was artistic director from 1977, Gabor Keveházi from 1990, and Gyorgy Szakály from 1992. Under their influence a new generation of Hungarian choreographers has emerged, such as Lilla Partay who created Anna Karenina (mus. Tchaikovsky, 1991), and Péter László who choreographed Derby (mus. Gyorgy Vukán, 1989). Political changes of the early 1990s have affected the funding of the ballet which has sought to stage productions in co-operation with the Opera company and with private funds.