Carnival Sunday
Carnival at Müpa
"If a person has a good friend, a good acquaintance, he invites them over, shutting out his sorrows and worries at the door for this brief period, and uncorks his wine. ‘Let it flow', goes the lament he releases into the wind, ‘Let it run dry; since the carnival is short anyway, and the fast is long: why not be merry when we can?” This is how, with his usual perceptiveness, the great Hungarian writer Mór Jókai captured the essence of the period between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday in folk culture. And this is exactly the same thing that the new production from the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble is doing, with dancing, music and drama.
This new premiere from the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble, Müpa Budapest's ensemble of the season led by Kossuth Prize-winning dancer and choreographer and Artist of the Nation Zoltán Zsuráfszky, offers a glimpse into the unbridled and cheerful fun of the carnival. Reflected in each other in this large-scale work by director/choreographer Zoltán Zsuráfszky and associate director/choreographer Zsuzsa Zs. Vincze are both the old and the new, the archaic and the modern, in a show proving that the centuries-old folk customs have not lost one bit of their power. Because it doesn't matter whether we live in a village or a city: we all bury the winter in the same way and call out as one for the long-awaited spring. The carnival, held over the last three days of the pre-Lenten period, was the highlight of the entire season, with non-stop dancing and festivities taking place all across the countryside. The world would have seemed like it had been turned upside down, taken over by merry debauchery, loving mockery and imaginative parody. The young team of the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble evokes the cheerful and inimitable doughnut-scented atmosphere of the carnival with virtuoso dances, a complex musical world and vibrant spectacle. And as viewers both young and old alike watch the dances in amazement, we can all join together in hoping that the harsh winter will finally pass, giving way at last for the brightness of a green dawn.