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| (Photo: Zsigmond. Éva Marton as Gertrud) |
"Los Angeles Opera will present the 19th century Hungarian opera Bánk bán as part of the 2011-12 season. The Hungarian reports stated that Plácido Domingo, who serves as general director of L.A. Opera, will conduct the performances. The announcement was made by Hungarian State Secretary of Culture Geza Szocs and Domingo, who was recently in Budapest."
Synopsis and video of operatic film version, featuring Éva Marton and Andrea Rost, after the jump. | |||
| Hungarian State Secretary of Culture Geza Szocs and Domingo |
The opera Bánk bán, composed by Ferenc Erkel, tells a story of political and moral power struggles in medieval Hungary. The year is 1213: while King Endre II is waging war abroad, his foreign-born queen, Gertrud, has seized power and is using her influence to benefit her own people. As conspiracies against the Queen begin to be organized, the King's personal deputy, Bánk bán, tours the countryside and discovers the ruin into which the land has fallen. Meanwhile, Bánk Bán hardly suspects that his faithful wife, Melinda, has become the object of the lecherous desires of Otto, the Queen's brother.
