Brilliant pianist from Moldavia. She will be 21 in 2007.

Dutch discoverers of Hungarian music, led by Péter Scholcz. A chance to rediscover our own treasures!

The opera was first performed in Prague, in October 1787. The Hungarian première was in 1797 and it was first performed in Hungarian in 1826. The title role is also the leading figure in the dramaturgical sense. “Everyone is measured in this centrally-focused drama by their relationship to the central figure. We find very few parallels to this interesting dramatic system in Mozart’s age.” (Balázs Kovalik)
In the extremely powerful, dynamic and condensed exposition, Don Giovanni wearing a mask enters Donna Anna’s bedroom, while his servant, Leporello stands guard outside the house. Donna Anna’s cries of alarm waken her father, the Commendatore. He challenges Don Giovanni and after a short duel he is killed. By the time Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s betrothed arrives on the scene, Don Giovanni and Leporello have fled. It is not perfectly clear what happened in Donna Anna’s bedroom. The account of the events arouses doubt in Don Ottavio: why did Donna Anna think in the first place that it was he who visited her late at night (?), in disguise (?). Don Giovanni – one way or another – has awoken something in Donna Anna.
Don Ottavio, often portrayed as the prototype of the intellectual incapable of action, in reality is a man of the Enlightenment, who believes not in revenge but “in the power of the law. His procrastinating behaviour and uncertainty are not necessarily the product of his nature. He is not simply incapable of action but rather lacks the will to act. The cause of his lack of motivation is Donna Anna herself, for it is only lovers who act with blind determination, and it is this love that had been questioned.” Donna Anna has also become uncertain and postpones the wedding. “Don Giovanni, or rather the situation where he suddenly appeared in her room, released passions in her. Her actually hysterical behaviour (perhaps excessive, perhaps to hide something) caused her father’s death. This circumstance could explain her frustration, and her desire for revenge also arises more from frustration. She does not simply behave falsely, her social environment makes it impossible for her to speak with full sincerity. She does not know whether her desires are sinful or not.”
Donna Elvira – who had been seduced earlier by Don Giovanni with a proposal of marriage – is characterised by desperation. Zerlina, the simple peasant girl, “suddenly discovers that she has greater opportunities than she had thought and her feelings towards Masetto are shaken. Don Giovanni shows her the vision of another life. Later she realises that stability is more important and she no longer seeks love but security. She wisely sees where her place is. She and Masetto survive the whole episode: they go home and have supper.”
Don Giovanni is not brought to justice, the resolution of the drama comes from outside. “In the cemetery scene Don Giovanni flirts with death. He feels that he has reached the end of life and his descent into hell is suicide. Perhaps Leporello’s famous aria in which he lists his master’s conquests refers to this. In Spain he had one thousand and three women. Could this special emphasis on “and three” refer to Don Giovanni’s last three conquests, Donna Elvira, Donna Anna and Zerlina?”

The selection from what is perhaps the world’s most complete collection of artists’ stamps, the Budapest Artpool Art Research Centre, will be shown in the Museum of Fine Arts in spring 2007. Visitors to this unusual exhibition can see around 500 artists’ stamps created by 250 artists in 25 countries.
An exhibition titled Bélyegképek/Stamp Images was held in the Museum of Fine Arts twenty years ago to present the Artpool collection of several thousand international artists’ stamps. The past twenty years have brought general recognition for the artist’s stamp and the Artpool collection has also grown steadily. As the 20th anniversary of the highly successful 1987 exhibition approaches this seems to be the time to bring this exciting, mainly graphic medium once again to the attention of the Hungarian and international public, showing artists’ stamps and the great variety of uses to which they are put and the role they play in international arts communication. The exhibition will be held in the prestigious setting of the Museum of Fine Arts and will also include documentation on the history of artists’ stamps. Thanks to ten years of classification work carried out by Artpool, besides key pieces in the history of artists’ stamps and a selection of stamps created between 1987 and 2007, visitors will also be able to make a virtual tour on the Internet of the entire exhibition held twenty years ago. This means that a visit can be started or continued on foot in the museum or at home in front on a PC.