You can watch these performances on our website and YouTube channel.


The oeuvre of Levente Szörényi is a key part of Hungarian popular music culture. His work as a performer, composer and lyricist as the front man of the bands Illés and Fonográf was realised in three-minute songs, dramatic works for the stage (rock operas and rock ballads) and orchestral and choral works. He is celebrating his 75th birthday with a two-part programme, with the first part built around his contemporary compositions, and the second bringing other artists involved with his career - János Bródy and Szabolcs Szörényi - to the stage to evoke the work of the band Illés.
In recognition of the pivotal and influential role of his output on Hungarian culture, Szörényi has been honoured with the Kossuth Prize, the Erkel and Prima Primissima awards, as well as numerous other distinctions, with his work being described since the regime change as something that appeals to every segment of the nation's society. Together with collaborator János Bródy, he created a Hungarian-language form of beat music inspired by the culture of the Carpathian Basin. Standing out first and foremost among his dramatic works are his 1983 rock opera István, a király and his 1982 rock ballad Kőműves Kelemen, which have both featur in theatre repertoires for nearly 40 years. The first part of the birthday programme at Müpa Budapest will feature the choral cantata Elég volt!, based on Albert Wass's novel Adjátok vissza a hegyeimet!, as well as his oratorio "Fénylő ölednek édes örömében..." - Innin és Dumuz, set to Sumerian-Akkadian epics translated by Sándor Rákos and Géza Komoróczy. For the second half of the programme, Szörényi's contemporaries, János Bródy and Szabolcs Szörényi, members of the "great generation", will take the stage alongside the man celebrating his birthday.

This concert, part of the Year of Solidarity programme, is a joint production of Müpa Budapest, the Petőfi Literary Museum and the Zikkurat Stage Agency.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest, Zikkurat Produkció