POMÁDÉ KIRÁLY ÚJ RUHÁJA

In Pomadia, the royal court prepares for the monarch's name day. But King Pomade has a serious problem on his hands: he has no clothes to wear to the celebrations, because all the

she has worn them all at least once. Two foreign weavers promise the King a dress made of a magnificent fabric, and not just any dress: "Our miracle cloth is a magical thing. / A magical thing, because no one can see it! / The wise and the just see it, and are dazzled by it. / But the foolish, the wretch, sees nothing of it." György Ránki's children's opera is based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen, and its musical world is built on Hungarian folk songs (A mill has no stone, Under the Flea Gardens, Mother, Mother, my boots have fallen off, to name but a few), and it goes all the way to jazz. Amy Károlyi has composed the work to a brilliantly witty libretto, with the composer's sparkling musical witticisms holding up a mirror to the hypocritical world of the royal court. Although it is a fairy-tale opera, both the music and the direction by Attila Tornykőy will dazzle audiences from the youngest to the oldest.