Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1974 - 13

Bank Ban, Erkel Theatre - National Opera, Budapest. Gabor Forray, Designer

discussed in the Dec. 1973 issue of Theatre Design and
Technology, for those readers unfamiliar with them.)
Around the studio, in addition to all these materials
and tools, are such items as plaster casts of the Venus de
Milo and Michelangelo's David. A tapestry hangs on a
wall. Forray waved his hand at these beautiful things: "I
keep my fantasy alive with all these images and textures
around me. I couldn't work in a sterile studio!"
He also insisted he couldn't work in a studio far
removed from the construction and painting shops. There
is a possibility, however, that this may come to pass. The
handsome old National Opera, opened 24 August 1884,
and designed by Miklos Vbl, may be closed for cleaning
and renovation in a couple of years. The tarnished
goldleaf and paintings of the lofty auditorium will be
retouched. The grand double staircase and impressive
foyers will be thoroughly checked and repaired. Emperor
Franz Josef II's private staircase and sitting rooms, now an
opera museum, will get the same treatment. The stage,
however, will be completely modernised, and an engineer,
Forray explained, has proposed moving all the shops out
of the old house to a new shop complex.
"If you have new, snow-white scenery, and it is raining,
how are you going to get it to the theatre without ruining
it?" he asked. As most of the scenery for the seventy
operas played each season at the Nationa I Opera or its
sister house, the Erkel Theatre, is stored in a suburban

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THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

warehouse until the week it is to be used, it would seem
that once the scenery is a bit used Forray should not be so
fussy. (Actually, painters are always touching up the
scenery. Changes may even be made from time to time, if
Forray thinks an improvement is needed.) Agreeing that
there is some transfer wear-and-tear, Forray returned to
the defense of scenery in the theatre. "What if you have
an eighteen meter scenic leg? How can you get that in and
out of this theatre?" He explained that, in additiol] to
storage for the weekly repertory, the backstage area has
special docks for outsize scenic elements.
In any case, Forray wants to remain next door to the
shops. It is, he feels, the only way to stay in touch with
the progress of building and painting. "I couldn't
supervise the work by telephone, and I don't have the
time to be always running across the city to see what they
might be doing." Also, he would not want the sets built
by a state scenic construction house, though that is the
method used by many of Budapest's more than twenty
stages. "It wouldn't be so good. They would do it, bring
it, and forget it. Here, we are always caring for our sets
and fixing them up."
Forray also has an artist's and a craftsman's pride in the
work he and his crews turn out. "We do it better here!"
He noted that one should be able to check set colors
against costume colors and against stage light. That would
be impossible if the settings had to be built elsewhere.

OCTOBER. 1974

13
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1974
