King Matthias wandering

Original title: Mátyás király vándorúton
Opera for children in two acts
Libretto: Zsófia Tallér

Duration:
I. Act – approximately 35 min
II. Act – approximately 45 min

King Matthias’ Wandering is a two-act children’s opera and the final completed stage work by Zsófia Tallér. It was premiered on 6 April 2024 at the National Theatre of Pécs. The libretto, written by the composer, is based on two well-known Hungarian folk tales: The Judge of Kolozsvár and King Matthias Goes Stealing. These stories are brought to life with humour and vivid musical characterisation, blending traditional motifs with a fresh and accessible dramatic tone.

King Matthias is a central figure in Hungarian folklore, often portrayed as a wise and just ruler who roams the land in disguise to listen to his people and right wrongs. These tales continue to resonate with young audiences today, offering both entertainment and timeless moral lessons.

The opera pays tribute not only to this legendary king but also to the power of music and storytelling to connect generations.

Roles:

  • MÁTYÁS KIRÁLY, king – high baritone
  • TIBRILLI, jester – tenor
  • HORDÓ, fat monk – baritone
  • KÓRÓ, skinny monk – contra-tenor or mezzo-soprano breeches role
  • BANDZSA, short knight – bass
  • FINDZSA, tall knight – tenor
  • BÍRÓ URAM, judge – bass
  • BÍRÓ FELESÉGE, judg’es wife – soprano
  • FŐMINISZTER, minister – tenor
  • FŐMINISZTERNÉ, minister’s wife – mezzo-soprano
  • SZÉP CIGÁNYASSZONY, pretty gypsy lady – alto
  • BÚS KATONA, PACZOLAY GYÖRGY, sad soldier – high tenor
  • KAR, NÉP, KATONÁK, choir, people, soldiers – Puppeteers
  • KÉT HAJDÚ, JANCSI GYEREK, ÁRUSOK, 2 mercenary soldiers, Little John, merchants – Soloist form the group of puppeteers
  • KOCSMÁROS, innkeeper – non-singing role

Arrangement (Chamber orchestra):

  • 1 Flute
  • 1 Oboe
  • 1 Clarinet in B flat
  • 1 Bassoon
  • 2 Horns in F
  • 1 Percussionist (Triangulum, Toms, Tambourin)
  • Strings (2, 2, 3, 2, 1)

Performances at Pécsi Nemzeti Színház.

The sheet music is not yet available for public distribution.

Aprószentek

Opera in two acts

Libretto: Zsófia Tallér based on a novel by Szilárd Rubin, and its stage adaptation Where Even the Wolf is Good (Gábor Németh and Péter Gothár) , with the kind permission of the rights holders.

The opera has a duration of approximately 80 minutes.

Cast and Instrumentation

JANCSÓ PIROSKA – coloratura soprano
SZILÁRD RUBIN I. – actor, spoken role
SZILÁRD RUBIN II. / MIKES, firefighter – tenor
MRS. KOVÁCS – alto
TWO WOMEN – 2 mezzo-sopranos
SÁNDOR FARKAS, police lieutenant – baritone
SOVIET SOLDIER – high baritone
GUARD – baritone
BORBÁLA KARÁCSONY, prison guard – soprano
MAJOR BUNDÁS – bass
COLONEL RAGULIN – tenor
MARIKA DOBOS, victim – soprano
MARIKA KALOCSAI, victim – soprano
MRS. SÜTŐ – mezzo-soprano
DOCTOR – spoken role
ILKA CZENE (the Sütő family’s neighbour) – soprano (chorus)

Silent extras: Jancsó Borbála, her father, Józsika, Márton Sütő

Women’s and girls’ choir (approx. 20–24 singers, children and adults)

Chamber Orchestra
1 Flute
1 Oboe
1 Clarinet in Bb / Bass Clarinet in Bb
1 Bassoon
2 Horns
1 Trombone
1 Timpani
1 Percussion (tambourine, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle, cymbals, suspended cymbal)
1 Piano
1 Harp
String quintet (2 Violins, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double Bass)

About the Story

The stage adaptation of Aprószentek (Holy Innocents) was first presented in 2013 at Katona József Theatre in Budapest. Szilárd Rubin (1927–2010) was associated with Újhold, a defining Hungarian literary journal of the 20th century, and belonged to the same circle of writers and poets as János Pilinszky, Ágnes Nemes Nagy, and István Örkény. He shared a legendary, deep friendship with Pilinszky. Though a late-recognised talent, Rubin’s work finally began to receive its due recognition only in the final years of his life and posthumously. Péter Esterházy once wrote of Csirkejáték:

“It is rare in Hungarian literature to find such attentive scrutiny of one’s own darkness; a lack of sentimentality, a cold flame of dispassionate interest, something bare or pagan in its gaze—not objective, but direct and unhidden. Rare. There is composure, even in defeat, in shame, or in hysteria: things are as they are. This composure is what makes the book unique; a meteor, a Martian—yet fully present.”

The core narrative of Aprószentek is based on a true crime that occurred between October 1953 and August 1954: the disappearance of five teenage girls in the Hungarian town of Törökszentmiklós. Suspicion fell on 20-year-old Piroska Jancsó, who was ultimately convicted and executed. But in 1950s Hungary, the line between real investigation and political fabrication was dangerously blurred. Piroska initially accused Soviet soldiers of the crimes, later claimed she acted alone, and finally implicated her own mother.

Twelve years later, while searching for literary inspiration, Rubin encountered a photograph of Piroska and became obsessively fascinated by her. He believed the case was the product of a show trial and spent over forty years researching and writing his haunting, fragmented novel Aprószentek, which was published in 2012. Through the fog of mystery, legal proceedings, and his own profound emotional entanglement, Rubin crafted a Dostoevskian vision in which guilt and punishment are viewed through a strikingly different lens. Though rooted in a brutal crime, the opera’s emotional and symbolic structure echoes the world of Hungarian folk ballads and is shaped by mythological motifs. Its tone is infused with the quiet, piercing humanism associated with Pilinszky’s thinking.

Composer’s Note

I first saw Where Even the Wolf is Good in 2013, directed by Péter Gothár at the Katona József Theatre. I was deeply moved. The emotional complexity and sheer gravity of the subject—both the underlying tragedy and Rubin’s personal story—compelled me to create a work for ensemble and voices in operatic form.

Péter Gothár, Gábor Németh and Rubin’s literary heir, Péter Siklós, all gave their full support to the project. I was fortunate to have Gábor Németh’s assistance with the dramaturgy.

Peter Pan Suite

Original title: Pán Péter Suite

Orchestra Suite based on the children ballet under the same name.

Full instrument list:

  • Piccolo
  • Flute
  • 2 Oboe
  • 2 Clarinet in B-flat
  • 2 Bassons
  • 2 Horn in F
  • 2 Trumpets in B-flat
  • 2 Tronbones
  • Tuba
  • 2 Percussionist (Gran Cassa, Suspended Cymbal, Piatti, Bells, Tamburino, Tamburino piccolo, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Wood Bock, TamTam)
  • Timpani
  • Piano
  • Celesta
  • Harp
  • Strings

Composer’s Note

In 2007, I composed the ballet Peter Pan and the Lost Boys for children together with Csaba Faltay. The production was staged by several theatres across Hungary. The original score used digital instrumentation, created by Faltay, who was credited as co-composer for this contribution.

At the request of conductor Gábor Hollerung, I later arranged the ballet’s music into an orchestral suite for full symphony orchestra for the Dohnányi Orchestra. As the digital instrumentation was removed and replaced with new orchestration, Csaba Faltay is no longer credited as co-composer in the suite version.

The suite consists of six movements based on key musical scenes from the ballet. I selected moments that capture the essence of individual characters or dramatic situations, in hopes that children who saw the original ballet will recognise these themes. Beyond re-orchestration, I also enriched and condensed the material in some places.

Leander and Linseed

Original title: Leándersz és Lenszirom

„for my sons Marci and Zsiga”

 

Opera for children in two acts

Libretto by Barnabás Szöllősi based on the play of Andor Szilágyi

Performed by the Hungarian State Opera for 3 seasons with estimated 15 000 viewers.

original performance directed by: Sándor Zsótér

Released on DVD in 2016 under the name of Útravaló 2016 (Leánder és Lenszirom)

Duration: Act 1 approx. 40 minutes and Act 2 approx. 50 min.

Roles:

LEÁNDER (Leander) , goblin – bass-baritone
LENSZIROM (Linseed), princess – lyric soprano
BOGYÓ, servant of Leánder – baritone
CSIBECSŐR, servant of Linseed – soprano

BÖLÖMBÉR KERÁL, king – bass (bass-baritone)
BÖLÖMBÉR KERÁLNÉ, queen – mezzo-soprano
MAR-SZÚR HERCEG, prince, lord of the wasps – tenor (spinto)
TÖNDÉR NEGÉD, queen of decency and charm – soprano
VAKNADÁLY, lord of the lake – contra-tenor
CSÍJJEGŐS BŐREGÉR, blood bat 1 – alto
CSUJJOGÓS BŐREGÉR, blood bat 2 – tenor
HORLOLÁBOK (1 and 2), 2 guards – male choir members
MÉZELŐK,VÉRBÖGÖLÖK army of wasps – children’s choir

 

Arrangement (Symphonic orchestra):

1. Flauto
2. Flauto / Flauto Piccolo
1. Oboa
2. Oboa / Corno Inglese
1. Clarinetto in Sib
2. Clarinetto in Sib / Clarinetto basso in Sib
Fagotto
Contrafagotto
4 Corni in Fa
2 Trombe in Do
3 Tromboni
Tuba
Timpani
4 Percussionisti (Triangle, Bass Drum, Snare Drum,Tam-tam, Tenor Drum, Cymbals, Suspended Cymbals,
Roto-toms, Castagnets, Shaker,Tamburine,Wind Chimes,Wood Blocks, Crotales,Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel,
Xilophone, Marimba)
Arpa
Celesta
Cembalo
Archi:
Violini I
Violini II
Viole
Violoncelli
Contrabassi a cinque corde

Orchestral Suite

Original title: Zenkari szvit

duration: approx. 24 minutes

Arrengement:

Flute 1.
Flute 2./Picc.
Flute 3./Picc.
Oboe 1.2.
Cor Anglais
Clarinet in Bb 1.2.
Clarinet in Bb 3./Bass clar. in Bb Bassoon 1.2.
Horn in F 1.3. Horn in F 2.4. 4 Trumpets in C 3 Trombones Tuba
Timpani
3 percussionists (Gong, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals,Wood Block,Triangle,Tamburine, Glockenspiel, Xilophone, Windchimes)
2 Harps
Violin I Violin II Viola Violoncello Contrabass

First performed on 9th January 2020 at
Győr Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by: Zsolt Hamar

Composer’s comments:

I wrote my orchestral suite in 2015. It is based on my diploma piece composed in 1994, which was written for two soloists and an orchestra. I already felt the need for the rearranging the presentation of the vocal version, but I had to move away from the piece so much that I could start again with a clear mind, so by 2015 the composing of the final form and content was postponed. The first form of the piece made it clear that it was actually an orchestral work that didn’t really allow room for the two singers, and it wasn’t a matter of volume or instrumentation technique, there were much more substantial signs of that. Following this thinking, I redefined the musical texture, so the Orchestral Suite was born. Reflecting on the correlation between ballets and suites made from them, the title suggests a bit that there is a basic work that has this form of suite, but the free, often contrasting parts of the “suite” genre designation as characteristic items also applies to the piece.
In terms of structure, it has six parts. The brief introduction of 1st Movement is triggered by an English horn over an almost motionless string section, to which the woodwinds join. From this is born the movement, the dense, loud, dystopian, dramatic fresco, which is divided by woodwind and brass solo parts. The 2nd movement appears as a contrast, after the overwhelming, pulsating 1st movement, we actually hear a chamber music arrangement, over the ticking eighths of the harp and the xylophone a lyrical English horn is sung, to which the flute solo also joins. The disciplined lyric that sounds after the disintegrating drama does not bring about dissolution, but rather sits in a kind of waiting, focused silence. A soft, short, almost parenthesed item, a strong contrast to the first.
The 3rd movement is an extroverted, mosaic-colored music that actually operates with circus instrumentation effects. Its performance requires concentrated plasticity throughout due to the frequent successive character and instrumental changes. Although it has a saturated orchestration, it should still be light-hearted. This item clearly conveys a positive, playful atmosphere, but its playfulness is naive, so you can’t take the serenity really seriously.
The next movement, 4, is arranged around the sound of “F sharp”, which starts with a large unison and then dominates the music later. It contrasts with the saturation of 3rd Movement with its simplexity. This is again a slow, short movement, which is its 2nd pair, but here the seriousness of the message is indicated by large unison blocks. The main role of the woodwinds and deep strings is to articulate what they have to say, grouped in one way or another. Towards the end, the movement fades and simplifies, the flute ostinato fluttering over the bells of the harps, through this musical texture we hear the initial, large-scale melody on basses and cellos, English horns and bassoons. The movement dissolves into a quartet-like, pure harmony in D major, closing with a sentimental seventh interval sound familiar from movie soundtracks.
5th and 6th Movements play attacca . The loudness of 5th Movement is a bit reminiscent of 3rd Movement, but it is gloomy, masculine, bacchanalian based. Xylophone sixteenths signal the start 6th Movement, creating a curtain-like motif with great orchestral hits. It dissolves into a patch-like, less motive, quiet middle section, followed by the exposed, dramatic, over-romanticized climax, which can also be interpreted as the climax point of the whole piece.
The pairs arrangement of the piece structure is shown in 5th and 6th Movement. appears in a kind of cohesion, the extroverted and introverted elements build the musical process by condensing and interrupting each other. Eventually, the energies are extinguished, losing their strength, silent, almost giving up the struggle, without dissolving.
The work was made with the support of the Hungarian National Fund.

 

Pert Em Heru

Oratario for 4 solois, mixed choir and symphonic orchestra.

Commissioned by the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition, Debrecen.

Libretto by Zsófia Tallér based on the original German translation of Prof. G. Kolpaktchy

Duration: 45 min

Pert Em Heru – meaning: Coming Forth by Day. This is how the ancient Egyptians called the beginning of the soul’s journey after death. The Egyptian Book of the Dead contains the prayers, monologues, testimonies for the sublime and fearful moment of leaving earthly life, and they are bound to the soul becoming a god. The lines can be read into short chapters, divided into „magic formulas”, so-called Ra-U-s. Most of the many hundred-page Book of the Dead is 5,000 years old, but there are also lines between ten and fifteen thousand years old. They speak to us from a startling distance – at the same time they are shockingly experiential, they talk about familiar feelings, fears, anxieties, trusts, faith.
In contrast to the Christian Requiem texts, this collection does not focus on the grief of the survivors, the prayer for divine grace, punishment, forgiveness, the Almighty, his atonement or glorification, but the experiences of the soul who is the protagonist of the events. who had just „crossed the sacred threshold.” All this is done by in the first person, so in the form of experience, avoiding all lyricism, it practically reports on your journey. The power of the text is not given by the poetry of word usage, but by the always poignant nature of confession; a diary-like account of, moment by moment, what he feels, what the dead “live through”.

This fascinating memory of the death mythology of ancient people is able to appeal to modern man because the language of description is direct, pathos-free, practical. The soul, „stepping out into the radiant light,” reacts in a very authentic, human way: it is almost confused in fear, it simultaneously feels abandoned, euphoric, paralyzed, overwhelming strength, weakness, divine grace, demonic destruction. He feels like an infinitely vulnerable, weak being and omnipotent god at the same time. The text is an unstoppably flood of man’s experience of death, interrupted only in some places by a prayer or anthem.
The soul, having endured the trials waiting for him in the afterlife, and proved sufficiently sinless in the hall of the goddess Maat, avoids the second, final death and can truly step out into the full light of the day. He himself will be a god, „he is free to walk in the circles of the dead.” Now he is his own master, he decides whether to fly from planet to planet, or rather to quietly relax from the hardships of his life, or just return to Earth.

Due to the difficulties of translating the hieroglyphic text and the disappearance of the culture, a full understanding of the Book of the Dead, which is stitched with symbols and references and conveys extremely complex religious knowledge, is not considered possible today. Choosing from the ranks of this fantastic journey was not driven by a desire for scientific authenticity, nor by a religious vocation, but by the possibility of a musical situation inherent in the drama of the ancient text. The volume first came to my attention in the excellent translation of András Bánfalvi, who based on the work of Prof. Kolpaktchy, who translated the original Egyptian text into German. I also searched for this first German translation, and then delving into the German text, I decided to peel the poetic-translator’s creativity from the Hungarian translation, and made the most faithful but raw version of the original text possible. Treating the lines with complete freedom, I wrote the libretto, an aria composed of even the words of several independent magical formulas. This was also possible because the book does not proceed linearly in the presentation of experiences, presenting almost the same cavalcade of feelings over and over again, differently. In his preface, Bánfalvi calls him a „polyphonic fugue,” who accurately recognized the book’s relationship to music. I kept the experience of the text flowing like a stream, and I don’t pause in my forty-minute piece either. Without stopping, but perceptibly, I arranged the web of the items into three large parts, three „RA-U”.
Whether the accounts of the Death Book are true, whether eternal life after death is indeed open to us, or the visions of returnees from clinical death, and the experiences in the Death Book that are strangely consistent with it, are merely due to the fact that after the death of the body the dying of the soul is longer and more visionary – I end my piece with this open question.
My mother twenty and my father twenty-five years ago stepped out into the bright light or rather say coming forth by day. „Pert Em Heru” was born to them. I respectfully thank the work of everyone who undertakes to preforme my oratorio.

Zsófia Tallér

 

List of instruments used:

  • Piccolo
  • 2 Flutes
  • 2 Oboes
  • 2 Clarinets in Sib
  • Bass Clarinet in Sib 
  • 2 Bassoons
  • Contrabassoon
  • 5 Horns in F
  • 3 Trumpets in C
  • 2 Trombones
  • 2 Bass Trombones
  • Tuba
  • Timpani
  • Precussion 3 players (Bass drum, Taiko Drum, Snare Drum, Crasch Cymbal, Suspanded Cymbal, Triangle, Crotales, 
  • Roto-toms, Tam Tam, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Tubular Bells)
  • Piano
  • Celesta
  • Harp
  • Mixed Choir
  • 4 Soloists: Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Bass
  • Strings

 

First performed by:

Kodály Philharmonia Debrecen

Koály Choir Debrecen

Soloists:

Ildikó Katalin Cserna – soprano

Marianna Bódi – mezzosoprano

Zoltán Meggyesi – tenor

Géza Gábor – bass

Conductor: Máté Szabó Sipos

The Horse of the Prince

Original title:

A Herceg lova

Opera in two acts

Libretto by Zsuzsa Rakovszky based on the short story of Tolstoy

Dramaturgists: Zsuzsa Radnóti, László Marton

Concerto rigoroso

 

First performance:

Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, conducted by Gábor Hollerung, soloist: András Fejér (trombone), Olasz Kultúrintézet 2011

Other perfomance:

Savaria Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Isaki Masahiro, soloist: András Fejér (trombone), Szobathely 2012

 

Gulliver in the Land of the Dwarves

Ballet for children

Commissioned by Madách Musical Dance School

 

Performed at the Palace of Arts, Budapest

 

Peter Pan and the Lost Boys

Original title:

Pán Péter és a megtalált fiúk

Ballet for children, co-composed with Csaba Faltay

 

Performed at the Palace of Arts, Budapest