József Simándi

This concert film stages a never-realized gala at Budapest’s Opera House, stringing together eleven diverse numbers - from operetta and folk dance to popular songs - introduced by Vera Sennyei’s tongue-in-cheek on-stage announcements. Though framed as a live opening night, most performances were in fact shot in television studios, creating a playful pastiche of televised spectacle rather than a traditional concert film.

We have linguists, we have literary men, we have newspapers, actors, musicians, but we have no national opera!", lamented the champions of national revival in the middle of the last century. Hungarian music culture at home is limited to the performance of works by foreign composers. And the public demands Hungarian opera, and such a challenge is not easy to meet. So let's see who is up to the task!

Daddy Kárász, the stakhanovist worker, complains in a television interview about the fact that his family, consisting of many members, cannot get a home on their own. Kéri, the chairman of the local authority, promises to help him on the condition that if he does not, they may move in to his villa at elegant Pasarét. Nothing happens, therefore the Kárász family takes Kéri by his word. From this time on, tumultuous scenes and frequent quarrels take place in the villa between the two families.