Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 25. (1996)

TANULMÁNYOK - F. Dózsa Katalin: Bánffy Miklós gróf, a színházi látványtervező 337-347

KATALIN FÖLDI-DÓZSA COUNT MIKLÓS BÁNFFY, STAGE AND COSTUME DESIGNER SUMMARY Miklós Bánffy was bom on December 29,1873 at Kolozsvár, (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and died on June 6,1950 in Budapest. He was a politician, writer and a successful dramatist by the name of Miklós Kisbán. Bánffy was a Parliamentary Representative between 1901-1918, Lord-Lieutenant of Kolozs County and Kolozsvár between 19061910, the intendant at the Hungarian Royal Opera and the National Theatre between 1912-1918, and Foreign Minister in the Bethlen goverment in 1921-1922. In 1926 he moved to Transylvania where he became the general editor of a literary journal, Erdélyi Helikon. The years he spent the head of the National Theater and the Opera were the golden age of those institutions. He gave every means possible to Sándor Hevesi, one of the greatest Hungarian directors, to create the modem twentieth century theater of Budapest. Bánffy actively took part in the work as a stage designer. " It is a great pity that neither Hevesi, nor Bánffy are able to give voice to the ages, otherwise the Budapest Opera would be the best opera of the world, " wrote the critic of Nyugat, the most significant Hungarian literary journal. The picturesque scene of Richard Strauss' "Salome" (premiered December 19, 1912), Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" (premiered January 19, 1913), and particularly the Mozart performances of "The Magic Flute" (premiered March 21, 1913), "Abduction from the Seraglio" (premiered March 15, 1913) and "The Games of Amor" (premiered May 3,1913) were regarded for decades by critics as models of modern theatrical production, staged in late Secessionist early Art-Deco styles, employing magnificent architectural elements enhanced by special lighting effects. Though Bánffy was not an avant-garde innovator, through his sheer artistic talent he was able to bring to the Hungarian stage the epoch-marking inventions of the great theatrical reformers of the nineteenth century, namely the Swiss Adolph Appia, the English Gordon Craig, and the Russian Leon Bakst. A short but very productive period of his life as a stage and costume designer enriched Hungarian theatrical life and gave new direction to the art of set design. 347