About the work
"Valuska" is Péter Eötvös's thirteenth and final opera – his first in Hungarian – after László Krasznahorkai's novel "The Melancholy of Resistance" (1989); the libretto is by Kinga Keszthelyi and Mari Mezei. It premiered on 2 December 2023 at the Eiffel Art Studios of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest; Eötvös composed the German version in parallel.
Plot
A travelling circus arrives in a small Hungarian town bringing a decaying stuffed whale and a mysterious, barely intelligible three-eyed "Prince." Rumours about the Prince escalate into violent unrest, and the good-natured, simple-minded János Valuska, who only wants to do good, is drawn into disaster through no fault of his own and eventually committed to an institution.
Cultural significance
Eötvös called the work a "tragicomedy with music," or grotesque opera; a chorus breaks language down to individual letters, and he wrote the title role for tenor Zsolt Haja. The premiere received an International Opera Award in the World Premiere category and an Artisjus Award for best classical composition of the year in 2024.