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Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Erkel: Bánk bán
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:
If there is any one lyric theater work that captures the spirit of Hungarian nationalism, that work would have to be Bánk bán (1861) by Ferenc Erkel (1810-93). He composed the Hungarian national anthem. Erkel was primarily a composer of operas, and he drew upon the idiom of Hungarian folk music in his compositional style.
Erkel composed Bánk bán ("Lord Bank") in 1852. An earlier nationalist opera of his, Hunyadi László(1844) I broadcast on Sunday, May 31, 1990. Bánk bán, however, is regarded as Erkel's masterpiece. At the time of its writing the Hungarian nation was struggling to achieve independence within the Hapsburg empire. Erkel looked back to the thirteenth century when the German-speaking Counts of Tirol made their bid to rule Hungary outright. This imported minority of exploiters became intolerable to the native Hungarian aristocracy. The noble Lord Bank joined a revolt against the Tiroleans. But the revolt failed and Lord Bank was executed for the leadership role he took in the uprising. When Erkel finished the score for Bánk bán it was suppressed by the imperial Austrian censors. The opera had to wait nine years for its first staged production. By then a more tolerant regime had come to power in Vienna. A few years later Hungarian nationalists worked out a compromise or Ausgleich that granted partial autonomy.
The language barrier has kept this gorgeous lyric tragedy from being performed internationally. Who could sing it correctly outside of Hungary? In 1973 Hungaroton, the former state record label, issued Bánk bán as performed by the cast and chorus of the Hungarian State Opera. János Ferenczik conducted the Budapest Philharmonic. I broadcast the old three-LP Hungaroton set twice before, first on Sunday, June 19, 1983 and again on May 31, 1987. The boxed set of vinyl discs is still in our WWUH classical music record library. The modern commercial Hungaroton label reissued Bánk bán on two compact discs in 1994. I obtained it for my own collection and presented it on Sunday, September 15, 2018. Listen to the CD reissue again today.