Hary Janos, the Hungarian Munchausen.
At the request of the Universal publishing house in Vienna, Kodaly himself described the message behind Hary Janos: "Every Hungarian is a dreamer. He flees from the sad reality of the centuries. ...into the world of illusions. Yet, Hary Janos' boasting is more than a dream: it is also poetry. The authors of heroic tales are themselves no heroes but they are the spiritual kin of heroes. Hary Janos may never have done the deeds he talks about, but the potential was always there. Janos is a primitive poet and what he has to say he concentrates in a single hero: himself. After we have listened to the heroic feats he has dreamed up, it is tragically symbolic that we see him again in a grubby village inn. He appears happy in his poverty: a king in the kingdom of his dream. "
Costumes designed by Tivadar Mark, Hungarian States Opera 1952.
The hussars may seem like toy soldiers in the fairy tale of Hary Janos, so unrealistic do their miraculous feats appear, but the chorus of soldiers and the recruitment music (Intermezzo) radiate the nation's self-confidence and pride, which was still intact after 450 years of foreign domination. In Hary Janos Kodaly wanted to use adaptations of Hungarian folk songs in order to make the country's fold tradition familiar to an international audience. This goal was ultimately achieved not through the opera but the new famous orchestral suite, which contains the opera's best numbers.
