Depardieu’s order: János Háry, Gyula Bodrogi, fish soup
Gerard Depardieu will play the role of Napoleon in today's premier, János Háry of the Open-air Festival. The performance is fantastic – as he pointed out. The superstar joined the cast on Wednesday this week. He was amazed by his talented colleagues and the staging of the play by Attila Béres. He said that he got to know Hungarians through the beautiful musical play of Zoltán Kodály.
Gerard Depardieu arrived at Szeged on Wednesday evening. The French superstar acts in the production János Háry today and tomorrow at the Open-Air Festival of Szeged. After occupying his suite in the hotel on Wednesday, he promtly visited Dóm Square, where he watched the evening rehearsals. Moreover, he was so amazed by the production that he stepped into his scene without asking and rehearsed with the others.
Today he works officially and hard on that exact scene. After the morning rehearsal, he attended a press conference at 14 PM in the company of Gyula Harangozó, the artistic director and Tamás Herczeg, the director of the festival, the director of the play, Attila Béres and Tamás Juronics, who creates the choreography.
Mr Harangozó pointed out, that their application document for running festival contained a paragraph in which they guaranteed that world-famous artists would contribute to the success of the performances at Dóm Square. The engagement with Depardieu – who was first ont he list for the role of Napoleon – is the firts step. They want the audience to enjoy a real show, and they are very proud that they could bring these artists together.
Attila Béres remembered the letter that he wrote to Depardieu weeks before the contract was made. „I wrote that János Háry is as famous a character in Hungary as Asterix and Obelix are in France. Simply because he also tells great historical, but made-up stories to his audience. We had to made it happen that Depardieu speaks French in the performance, so we figured, what if he would say the same exact sentences that Napoleon said and what he's famous for. We managed to make that coherent in the play."
Depardieu said that he acted in a Háry-performance before, but he likes this Szegedien performance much more, because it has more playfulness and naivety in it and emphasizes the identity of Hungarians much more. He founds the character of Napoleon really exciting, because he's very funny and human at the same time. „As most politicians, he talks a lot, but says not much. I accepted Attila's comparison between Napoleon and Asterix and Obelix. Háry's story is also just like a good comic book. Hungarians have such a nice fantasy and they are so good at artistic work. Attila's vision was convincing and the venue of the festival is so grandiose. And I must say that the play of János Háry is the one through which I understood Hungarians, the soul of them – I very much like this work of art.
He said that he met fantastic Hungarian actors and emphasized the great talent of Gyula Bodrogi. He complimented the costumes and the choreography too. Depardieu wants to explore the city too. As a person who is really interested in gastronomy, he immediately tasted the world-famous soup fish on his first night and said it is possible that he won't eat anything else during his stay. Yesterday, after the night rehearsals, he was still able to cook together with the chef of his hotel.
2014. July 31.
