Iván Madarász 70 Presented by Liszt Academy

It is easy to spot the character traits of the protean personality in the compositional build of Iván Madarász. An ‘all-knowing’ creative individual with broad horizons who studies his vocation with a researcher’s interest, a person who, if the situation arises, is capable of taking on completely unexpected forms. A fellow artist said of him that Iván Madarász is a multilingual composer. When his compositional achievements were recognized with a Kossuth Prize, the laudation cited his versatile creativity and “rich career maturing significant works in several musical genres”. In every key segment of this career Madarász has composed an opera, and the three works fundamentally differ from one another both stylistically and in their relation to genre traditions. His third opera based on Gábor Görgey’s stage work Afternoon Tea premiered in the Hungarian State Opera in 2003. But Madarász is not only inspired by existing theatre; he is just as gripped by scenes of imagination as possibilities of language, singing or speech that may in future become elements of a new opera style.