Szatmári Gizella: Signs of Remembrance - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)

■ "The talented Mr Erkel." Chief Muiical Director of the Opera Home

folk-songs that he had collected during his Kolozsvár years. He worked the tunes of the Rákóczi song into a composition dedicated to Franz Liszt. It was on the basis of this that Berlioz later composed his Rákóczi March. 27 January 1844 saw the world premiere of the opera Lá&zló Hunyadi. The attentive opera-goer was able to spot a political message of a contemporaneous relevance in certain parts of the libretto. Composed at a later time, the well-know and well-liked overture was not performed before 1845. The part of Erzsébet Szilágyi was sung by Mrs Schodel. The famous La Grange Aria was composed in 1850. That was when the coloratura Anne de la Grange, to whom Erkel composed the bravura aria, first appeared on the stage of the Pest National Theatre. The French soprano sang the part of Erzsébet Szilágyi in Hungarian.

The first time ever that chords of the award-winning National Anthem were struck up was in 1844, when "our Kölcsey and our Erkel united their lyres to create that magnificent people's hymn”, as the magazine The People'& Delight reported at the time.

1861 was the year the opera Bánk Bán was first performed. Preceding the event and preparing the ground for its premiere was the writing, by the com38