30

Just one number, the number of days I have been staying in my Budapest apartment, and a number that works for a blog post entry title without translation. I pretty much imposed a stay in shelter order on myself even before the official orders came out. I would not call this a quarantine, rather a limitation of movement, and of course the closure of shops, services that are not essential. Since I have always been working home alone half or at least one third of my life, – how else can you do composition? – this in fact only feels as half of a quarantine anyway. To be completely honest, it feels like our entire life became one big online-presence, hence the lack of urge of writing much here.

Since my last post, I managed to put the video recording of the March 13 concert online with Hungarian and German subtitles. I have been working on Peter Eötvös’ newest opera. I am telling you, writing a piano score for an opera is as creative as it gets with working with someone else’s music. The composer and I are in constant contact via email and one the phone, and I am enjoying the slow and meticulous work. I have composed a 7 minute movement for clarinet and piano, and one more movement is coming. My son, Vince, and his clarinetist friend requested the piece, and since I stopped composing ‘The Music Gene’ due to the cancellation of HSO’s concerts for the rest of the season, I could not wait to dive into this new creative activity. I have also created two librettos, one in Hungarian (for a possible one act opera on a historical theme) and one in French (for an exciting ensemble project in France in 2021).

There’s lost of reading and TV watching in my life, but I guess, that is nothing out of the ordinary nowadays. However planning for the end of August and for the fall have sped up considerably, just like planning of other future conducting and compositional work. This keeps me busy along with my usual daily walk, especially since the weather has been so beautiful. Luckily it is not too difficult to practice social distancing in this part of town while out walking. I have given a couple of interviews as well in the last couple of weeks, created a few videos for the HSO family, and also will be participating in at least two online FaceBook broadcasts. Check out the invitation to this upcoming chat led by Kornél Fekete-Kovács, leader of the Modern Art Orchestra big band.

http://facebook.com

In the meantime I am reading, watching, listening to people reacting to the COVID crisis in a million different ways. I guess unusual times don’t change people’s biases, preferences and desires. It seems most of us are waiting for a substantial change because of this world-lock down, just in very different ways. I for one believe in human nature with all its good and bad things included. I think we will rather quickly than slowly return to our ways of life, and then, in a few decades we will be able to see how this crisis initiated little, and perhaps substantial changes for the better or for the worse.

30 and counting.

30-nál tartok. Ennyi a napok száma, amit eddig budapesti otthonomban töltöttem. Mondanám, bezárva, de ez azért nem teljesen igaz. Karantén helyett inkább a korlátozás szót lehet használni. Ami saját életstílusomat illeti, eddig legtöbbször az történt, hogy az aktív koncertezési és utazási élet vette át a hatalmat felettem, és az otthonülős, olvasós, gondolkodós, de főleg komponálós Vajda Gergely felett. Ezért aztán valahogy úgy élem meg a nem magam választotta életmódváltást, mint valami furcsa egyensúlynak ha nem is a helyreállását, de mindenképpen a jó, vágyott irányba billenését. Persze, hiányzik az emberek társasága, főleg a muzsikusoké, meg a közönségé. Hiányzik mások előadását nézni, hallgatni. Hiányzik egy nagy családi vacsora a kedvenc éttermemben. Közben viszont az otthonülős, olvasós, gondolkodós, komponálós énem nagyon is jól érzi magát. Ezért sem tudom másként mint fél-karanténként megélni ezt a helyzetet.

Mióta utoljára posztoltam befejeztem a március 13-i UMZE koncerten bemutatóként elhangzott ‘Fuharosok’ mono-koncert-operám videójának editálási munkáit, megírtam egy jelenet teljes zongorakivonatát Eötvös Péter legújabb operájához, összeraktam két librettót (az egyik egy lehetséges magyar projekt alapja, a másik egy felkérésre készülő mű francia nyelvű szövege), komponáltam egy 7 perces darabot klarinétra és zongorára Vince fiam és kamaratársa számára, adtam pár interjút, készítettem jó néhány videó-üzenetet. Hamarosan egy, reményeink szerint izgalmas, online beszélgetésben veszek majd részt, amire mindenkit szeretett invitálok szerda este 9-kor. Részletek a fenti linken.

Mindeközben nézem, olvasom, hallgatom, ahogy mindenki saját vérmérséklete szerint reagál a krízishelyzetre. Ritka kivételtől eltekintve mindenki saját vágyait és félelmeit vetíti ki a COVID utáni helyzetre, ami persze érthető. Szerintem amint lehet, mindannyian visszatérünk ahhoz az életformához amit a krízis előtt éltünk, talán még fel is gyorsulnak majd a dolgok, habár kezet fogni, puszilkodni egy darabig biztosan kevesebbet és óvatosabban fogunk. Tíz-húsz év múlva aztán meglátjuk majd, milyen pozitív vagy negatív változásokat indított el ez a helyzet, amely most is csak azért tűnik a “normálistól” eltérőnek, mert nemhogy a száz évvel ezelőtti spanyolnátha járványról, de már a harminc éves HIV-ről is hajlamosak voltunk elfelejtkezni. Emberi természet.

8+1+1/2 Operas

The next year (this time I mean 365 days and not “next season”) is about to bring 8+1+1/2 operas. Let’s start with the +1. After the successful recording session and Hungarian premiere performance of Peter Eotvos’
Paradise Reloaded (Lilith)
http://eotvospeter.com
the composer, myself and the amazing sound engineers of the Hungarian Radio have just concluded the final editing of the studio recording of this work. This hopefully means that a commercial recording of the work will be out soon, most likely with the BMC (Budapest Music Center) label. A professional TV recording of the live performance at the Palace of the Arts will also be aired on TV sometimes in 2014. I will keep you posted.
The “half opera” is in fact an adaptation of the newest music theater work by Peter Eotvos. The world premiere is just happening at the end of June in Frankfurt, Germany. The opera is called ‘The Golden Dragon’
http://eotvospeter.com/commissions
and it is based on a play by famous writer, playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig. I’ll be doing the English language adaptation of this work originally written in German. This involves adapting the text to the music (I’ll be working from the official English language translation + a raw translation of the libretto) and also doing some compositional work in case it is needed.

In the next two weeks I’ll be working with one of the professional orchestras of the city of Budapest called Concerto Budapest.
http://en.concertobudapest.hu
They reside at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where we will be performing 5 chamber operas under the title “Operatic Sketches”. One of the works is entitled Roman Fever and was written by the head of the Composition Department, Gyula Fekete.
http://www.bmc.hu
The other four works are world premieres composed by students, sung by students of the Academy of Music. The stage director is my good friend (and writer of the libretto of my one act opera, Barbie Blue) Andras Almasi Toth.
More info here:
Operatic Sketches
http://zeneakademia.hu/en

In September 2014 I’ll be the conductor of the new fully staged production of ‘The Tenor’ by Ernest von Dohnanyi. This will be the first staging of this work since the 1930s and the season opening production of Erkel Theater. Another production I am doing at the Academy of Music is, guess what, yet another Eotvos opera. 🙂 A combined group of professional and student musicians and singers and myself are presenting ‘Lady Sarashina’
http://www.eotvospeter.com
as the closing performance of Cafe Budapest (Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival) in October, 2014. This will be the fifth Eotvos stage work I conduct.
In May 2015 I am conducting a shortened version of Ferrucio Busoni’s opera, Doctor Faust
http://en.wikipedia.org
as part of the “Faust Festival” at the Hungarian State Opera.

And finally “opera #8” and obviously the most exciting challenge for me in Season 14-15 is the World Premier of my own work
Georgia Bottoms, A Comic Opera of the Modern South
Naturally I will be posting a lot about this project. For now here is a link to the book ‘Georgia Bottoms’
Mark Childress
http://www.crazyinalabama.com

You may also look up and LIKE the page ‘Georgia Bottoms, A Comic Opera of the Modern South’ on FaceBook.