The Thirsty Crocodile – A Forgotten Operetta in a Contemporary Light

This programme is held in Hungarian.

What happens when a forgotten 1938 comedy, a lost collection of sheet music, and contemporary art come together? Can the nostalgic conventions of operetta be dusted off? The staged concert The Thirsty Crocodile sets out to approach this curious genre from a new perspective. Selected for the House of Music’s multidisciplinary arts call, The Thirsty Crocodile is a musical originally written by László Szilágyi and Imre Harmath for Kálmán Latabár and Mária Mezey—a "very sweet, but very wet Danube weekend story of song and dance, in two acts and with a whole lot of absurd pictures." Although the original sheet music has been lost, composer Ferenc Darvas’s brilliant musical score, containing 14 songs, will be performed on stage for the first time, spiced up with animation, theatrical elements, and unmistakable humor. With musical direction and accompaniment by Kristóf Darvas and directed by Zsuzsanna Simányi.

The story of The Thirsty Crocodile
Operetta has a mixed reputation both in music history and in contemporary culture: it is often accused of being merely superficial entertainment, relying on sensational twists and sentimental clichés to conceal the depths of “high art.” Despite this divide, however, operetta is an inescapable cultural mainstay in Hungary, having become part of the country’s cultural identity: its melodies and humor bring generations together, and its popularity has remained undiminished for decades.

“A very sweet, but very wet Danube weekend story of song and dance, in two acts and with a whole lot of absurd pictures” – this is how the play The Thirsty Crocodile begins: a light comedy that has been almost entirely forgotten, whose libretto survives only because it was published in the 1938 issue of the magazine Színházi Élet. Its authors were László Szilágyi and Imre Harmath; the original cast included such names as Mária Mezey, Kálmán Latabár, Lajos Básthy, and László Keleti, while the original composer was Alfréd Márkus. However, the music did not survive, and the play’s original sheet music was lost in the storms of history.

In the mid-1990s, the Szigligeti Theatre of Szolnok wanted to revive the play, and director Erzsébet Gaál asked composer Ferenc Darvas to write new music for it that could have been performed in 1938. This is how the score in question came about: 14 songs plus a short finale, mostly set to the original lyrics, with new words by dramaturg Kristóf Kovács for two of the songs.

The audio for The Thirsty Crocodile has already been recorded, but the production was ultimately not presented in Szolnok, and the old-new show has never appeared on stage. This new staging, directed by Zsuzsanna Simányi and musically directed by Ferenc Darvas’s son, Kristóf Darvas, aims to create a concert-theatre experience that conveys the musical world of the late operetta through animation and theatrical devices, while also serving as the premiere of the music composed by Ferenc Darvas. The performers include actor-musician-clown Hella Roszik and actor Tímea Meskó, as well as Tamás Szakál, Bálint Petz, and Márton Soós, known from the Canarro band. The animations are created by Anna Mózes, while dramaturg Soma Boronkay and director Zsuzsanna Simányi are responsible for the theatrical realization of the production. This multidisciplinary encounter offers an opportunity to redefine operetta as a living, fresh, and visually unconventional musical experience, building a bridge between Hungary’s traditional musical heritage and the contemporary concert experience of the 21st century.

Kristóf Darvas is a musician and composer who has contributed to numerous theatre productions as a performer, musical director, and répétiteur. He is a member of various musical ensembles and regularly performs with Bori Rutkai, Zsuzsi Ujj, and Mariann Falusi. His solo piano recitals can regularly be heard at various cultural pubs in Budapest. He likes to dip into every genre he can, from children’s shows and literary evenings to sacred music.

Director Zsuzsanna Simányi graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in 2014, in the class of Csaba Horváth and Andor Lukáts. She works as a freelance director and educator. In her theatre work, she is drawn to socially conscious communities and themes. Kristóf Darvas and Zsuzsanna Simányi regularly work together on theatre productions and occasionally perform music together as a duo.