Gryllus Samu - Varga Vince - MuPATh (AT)

Host_Opera

Trafo passes are accepted

A documentary opera abduction about the limits and rules of freedom.

Host_Opera is a new version of a production of Vienna's MuPATh Geiseloper (Hostage Opera), which was also performed at the Trafó in 2023. It will be presented by local instrumentalists and a small choir – now the Choir ’Tarka’ from Budapest - of local community members.

The Hostage Opera is a socially themed work created in international cooperation, applying both the contemporary theatrical and musical experience in an original way, and using the knowledge of the traditions of the genres and their current formulation. The performance enables the audience to grasp a deeply human and tragic situation through music and theatrical interaction giving the spectators a very special emotional experience.

Who pays the price of freedom? How does it feel to be a hostage? Kidnapped by the sons of a senior party member who want to leave state socialist Hungary behind and flee to Austria. What happened during the five nights in 1973 when two young men imprisoned fifteen girls without water or food? Hungarian writer Csenge Hatala has unearthed the documents of the hushed-up history of her hometown and conducted interviews with the living participants. We invite you to join us in the search for possible answers to the questions that this historical event has been posing for 50 years.

Vince Varga has been working as a theatre maker in Hungary for ten years and has also performed in Austrian, German, and Swiss theaters. His works are born at the confluence of audiovisual storytelling, graphic design, theatre, sound design, composing, and live performances. At Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, the audience could meet his media design and composers' works in performances by TÁP Theatre, Anna Biczók, Csaba Molnár and László Fülöp, among others.

https://vincevarga.net/

MuPATh - music performance art theater was founded by Rupert Bergmann and Samu Gryllus in 2008 with the mission to support new creation in a multidisciplinary artistic field.

www.hostageopera.com

The vocal performers of Host_Opera are two opera singers and two actors: Tara Khozein, Iranian-American soprano, Kornél Mikecz, Bass-Bariton living in Brno, the Vienna-based actor Josefa Beil; and Dominik Förtsch, Vienna-based composer, actor, active member of the MuPATh association.

The world music Choir ’Tarka’ was founded in 2023 under the leadership of Annamária Oláh (Meszecsinka). Their repertoire includes Annamari's favourite songs - be it flamenco, Hungarian folk, Mexican or Serbian songs - which she transcribes into polyphonic choral pieces. The choir's name is inspired by the musical diversity of the choir, but also by the fact that the members of this cheerful, accepting community come from a wide variety of backgrounds. The absolute common point is love

of music and the joy of singing together.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561101356421

Hatala Csenge's first documentary novel, News Blackout: The Hostage Drama in Balassagyarmat, was published by Athenaeum in 2015. The curiosity of the book is that most of the former victims of the hostage crisis speak about their experiences here for the first time.

https://hatalacsenge.hu/

Samu Gryllus is an original and versatile artist of his generation. As a composer often works with musicians coming from diverse music-social backgrounds. His main interest is multidisciplinarity in performing arts, with focus on the performed musical identity. Since 2010 he counts as an expert of Soundpainting - a sign-language used in education and performing arts.

www.samugryllus.info