"És hogyha száz szívem volna, száz szívem vérével írnám a mennyboltra: Viktória, Viktória"
Literally:And if I had a thousand hearts, I would write with the blood of my thousand hearts on the sky: Victoria, Victoria
from the operetta Victoria and her hussar by Pál Ábrahám
It happened sometime
in February or March of the year 2015. Meritre was once again overexcited, we
all knew the signs, she is going to the theater again. She has a soft spot for
musicals. ’Is it going to be Elisabeth again’ I asked, thinking that I was very
well informed. ’No’ she replied ’This time it’s not a musical but an operetta.
Care to come along?’ ’ Arabella made a face. ’What a cruel thing to say! Of
course we would love to come along but we are not allowed to come you never
take us with you!’ This wasn’t exactly true but poor Arie was the only one who
has never been to the theater. ’It’s a really unconfortable journey, that’s why
I tend to leave you at home. Now, whoever wants to come should be right there
next to that black bag in ten minutes!’ She hurried away and left us alone to
discuss the event. ’I’ll go’ Arie said in a determined voice. ’Me too.’ ’I want
to go as well.’ ’Seems like all of us will take part of this trip.’ Ten minutes
later Meritre was back and carefully packed us all in a separate bag. ’It’s so
cramped’ Miss Jasmine complained ’and dark as well’ ’It is always like that’
Rosemary replied.
After a while we were
released but Arabella expected daylight and had to discover that in the theater
it was as dark as in the bag. ’Be careful and remember that you are not here to
be seen’ Meritre warned us but it was too late. BAMM! Arabella walked against
something hard. ’What on earth is this?!’ she asked. ’It’s there to prevent people
from falling down’ ’And dolls.’ ’Yes, dolls, too. Now sit down and be quiet,
the performance starts.’ The beginning was quite sad and tragic, it shoved a
compound from the end of the first world war. But the main character was freed and
it became much happier. The scene changed. ’Look, lots of Mulans!’ Rosemary
cried. ’No, no no, Mulan is from China and those are japanese people since this
scene takes place in Japan.’ Meritre didn’t mention that excited shout but gave
Miss Rapunzel a silent warning by pressing her hand. Dolls are not supposed to
move or talk like humans. We followed the love story of Victoria and Stefan
Koltay, Hussar Cavalry Master with
much excitement. Those two were complicated people. Victoria thought he had died
in the compound and so shemarried another man an ambassador from the USA called
John Cunlight. The
hussar found her by chance in Japan as the wife of the ambassador. They were giving
a Goodbye party since they were about to be moved to Russia. The ambassador had
asked Victoria to marry him severel times before she finally said yes. He was a
kind man and maybe she felt a little sorry for him so she agreed to marry him. She
received just before saying yes the news that her lover, the hussar was killed.
So no wonder she is surprised when she sees him in Japan. Now she doesn’t know,
what to do. First, she declied that she knew the hussar to save her marriage.
The hussar is of course shocked and angered by her behaviour. This song is
about his disappointment:
(this video is from a concert, not a performance)
He lets himself to be captured by a russian officer whom he wounded
when he escaped from the compound. It looked like she would stay with John Cunlight and the hussar would die as
a captive. But in the end she couldn’t betray her heart. The ambassador
understood this and let her go and they divorced. Victoria went back to her
hometown in Hungary. Once again she thought her lover was dead. But she
receives a letter from her former husband that said she forgot something very
important back in Japan and he’ll bring it to her. It turned out that this
something very importand was the hussar. The ambassador made an agreement with
the Russians and they exchanged the Hussar for a russian captive. The end was a
bit bittersweet, Victoria and the captain found their happy ending, but we all
felt sorry for John
Cunlight, though he knew Victorias background story from the start and told
Victoria that if she is unhappy they’ll divorce without any bitterness and
everything would be fine.
The hussars batman and Victorias chambermaid got interested in each
other as well and planned to get married in the end. They were really funny. And
great dancers, too.
During the break Meritre took us with her so we could look around a
bit. Arabella of course looked at the outfits of the people. ’Look at that
dress! If it would be blue insted of pink…’ She was a fashion girl through and
through. She loved the costumes most in almost all pieces we got to see
pictures of.
 |
| Arabella on the lookout for new fashions |
Some photos, not made
or owned by me, they are from the theatres website:
Oh, yes, I forgot, the
piece is called "Victoria and Her Hussar" in english but in hungarian
it is simply called Viktória. (that’s how the name is spelled in hungarian)
Snow Queen Elsa
classic doll was named after the heroine of this piece.
Here is a little
trailerlike video, it is not the same theatre but it was diracted by the same
person and the Hussar is played by an actor (Attila Dolhai)who played the role
when we were at the theatre.
And here is my
favourite part, Victoria trying to refuse talking to the hussar:
That night I thought
about this love triangle for a long long time. They all deserved to be happy
but that’s not how it works in this world.
