Foreign premiere of concert theatre performance Twenty-Six Years – Private Petőfi

On May 2nd, actor Bálint Adorjáni together with his creative partners, singer Hanga Kacsó, literary scholar Anna Juhász and dulcimerist Dániel Szabó, will evoke Sándor Petőfi through a concert theater performance at the Liszt Institute in Brussels. One of the special features of the production, which was launched as part of the Petőfi bicentennial celebration, is that it approaches Petőfi from a personal perspective, as the subject of the show himself was an artist whose biography is a work of art. The personal viewpoint is framed by the fact that the two main performers are a couple both on and off stage.

"There are many types of music that can be used to approach Petőfi but we felt that the most fitting approach would be to present his poetry and tumultuous life in the context of authentic folk music. Bálint Adorjáni recites Petőfi's works, while his wife, Hanga Kacsó, one of the best folk singers in the Carpathian Basin, joins him with authentic folk songs," said Emese Asztalos, literary historian and editor of the performance.

The performance composed for four voices tells the diverse life of the hero of the Reform Era, Petőfi and the women associated with him - his mother and his loves - in just over an hour, all narrated through the voice of the Eternal Providence. As Petőfi himself confessed, he could never bear to be subordinate. He roamed for a long time, and his dependence on independence brought him into conflict with schools. He was a soldier, a traveling actor, he published his first poem as an actor. The Kiskunság, the Great Hungarian Plain, Pest and the Pilvax were all major players in his life, as was his desire for love and freedom. He was a revolutionary, an innovator and a brave leader. His life motto was "a beggar's staff and freedom!" Twenty-Six Years – Private Petőfi presents the poet, his surroundings, his emotions and the turning points of his life with the power of music, storytelling, song and verse. The story unfolds through Petőfi's poems-turned-folk-songs, verses and travelogues. The concert theater presents a more complex and sensitive Petőfi than ever before to the audience.

"The sold-out premiere in Budapest confirmed to us that we were on the right track by selecting texts for the performance that included letters, journals and poems alongside those that were adapted from Petőfi's poetry into folk songs. This made the image even more sensitive, where we didn't have to explain or re-explain Petőfi but could get closer to him and through him, to our heritage as well." - said literary scholar Anna Juhász.

Twenty-Six Years – Private Petőfi is a production owned by Petőfi Literary Fund.

Participants of the production:

Bálint Adorjáni - actor
Hanga Kacsó - singer
Anna Juhász - literary scholar
Dániel Szabó - dulcimerist 

Editors: literary historian Emese Asztalos, literary scholar Juhász Anna

Date: May 2, 2023. 7 P.M.
Location: Liszt Institute in Brussels, 10 Treurenberg, 1000 Brussels

Entry to the production is free but registration is required: https://forms.gle/omAsa1g7NtaXoXT3A

photo: Gergely Máté Oláh

Further information:

Anna Juhász +3670/564 7124

anna.juhasz@petofiugynokseg.hu