Szatmári Gizella: Walks in the Castle District - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
demolished when Buda was recaptured from the Turks in 1686. The Carmelites, who undertook its reconstruction, consecrated the newly rebuilt church. Its frescos were painted by György Falconer, while the pulpit was the work of Károly Bebó. Joseph II dissolved the order in 1784, moving at the same time the Governor’s Council, the royal chamber, the seven-member Court of Appeal and a number of other offices to Buda from Vienna. He also decreed the conversion of the church into a theatre, and the refectory of the monastery into a club for use by the court bureaucrats. The conversion was managed by master builder Kristóf Hikisch and Farkas Kempelen, a prodigiously talented craftsman and polymath renowned for the invention of a chess-playing machine. The German-language theatre was inaugurated on 17 October 1787, and, across from it, Sebestyén Tuschl’s café also opened. Where the main altar had stood was now the stage, the cells of the cloister became the dressing rooms and into the crypt opened the traps after the remains of the dead buried there hade been removed to a nearby cemetery. The organ was given to the St. Anna Church in Víziváros, and the bells were melted down to be recast as cannons. It was here in October 1790 that the first Hungarian- language theatrical performance was staged by professional actors. László Kelemen’s company performed Kristóf Simay’s Igazházi, egy kegyes jó atya (Mr. Trueman, a Good and Gracious Father). Born in Rév-Komá- rom, Simay was trained as a Piarist teacher and was a member of the circle of reform intellectuals headed by Batsányi and Kazinczy. His first play was put on stage by his students in Kecskemét in 1777. His most popular piece entitled Házi orvosság (Home-made Medicine), “a comical play of much hilarity” was performed 27 times by professional companies. On 8 March 1800, the “doctor of music” Haydn’s Creation oratory was performed in honour of Palatine Joseph in the presence of the composer. Two months later the audience was treated to Beethoven’s music. The great musician was there for the public celebrations to mark the birthday of Alexandra Pavlovna, the first wife of Palatine Joseph. “The artist’s consummate skill at playing the fortepiano was most highly regarded by all,” noted the contemporary critic. On the same 41
