Egy ur Velencéből, Casanova

Sándor Márai had written, in 1940, a novel, The Conversation of Bolzano (Vendégjáték Bolzanóban) of which he later made a version for the theater. When I had it in my hands, I was so fascinated that I put it to music in the form of an opera.

The action takes place in 1756: Casanova, barely escaped from “the leads”, the famous prison of Venice, takes refuge in Bolzano where the news of his arrival sets the city in turmoil. Struggling with the youthful and exalted Francesca and her old husband, the disturbing Count of Parma, Casanova encounters the temptation of Love that he ends up defeating it in his own way.

Due to the pressures which the new Communist regime exerted on him, Sándor Márai had been forced to flee Hungary in 1948. At first, I feared that the Budapest Opera would not accept the libretto of an exiled author, but András Mihály, the manager, comforted me in my project. I completed my piano reduction in 1980.

It seemed to me necessary that the author also give his approval. But Márai refused because he did not want to benefit from a privilege while the Hungarian press was subject to restrictions. Naturally, his veto forbade me to play my work in a public place. Looking for a solution, I had the idea of perform it in a private club, only with singers and a piano. My hope of hearing my music was definitely dashed when the minister, György Aczél, did not authorize the performance. My opera thus remained in the drawer of my desk.

Sándor Márai took his own life on 22 February 1989. His inheritors having lifted the prohibition on the distribution of his works in Hungary, I had the pleasure, 10 years after having composed it, of attending the première of my opera on 4 June 1991 at the Opera House in Budapest”. — Ferenc Farkas