Town in southern Hungary. Musical theatre began with school dramas staged by the Piarists, who, with an orchestra and town musicians, gave about 50 works in Latin between 1722 and 1758, thereafter performing in Hungarian. The first permanent theatre opened in 1856 with Ernani and Ferenc Erkel's Hunyadi László. A new theatre, built in 1883, burnt down in 1885 but was restored the next year and again in 1986. It is now known as the Szegedi Nemzeti Színház (Szeged National Theatre). The Szeged SO was founded in 1918; its conductors have included Fricsay, Vaszy, Oberfrank and Molnár. In 1931 an open-air festival, the Szegedi Ünnepi Játékok, was established, and in 1934 Mascagni conducted Cavalleria rusticana for it with soloists from La Scala. It stopped in 1939 but was revived in 1959 by Vaszy. Performances cover a month from mid-July and often include Verdi operas along with Hunyadi László, Bánk bán and Háry János. The Mai Magyar Zene Hete (Contemporary Hungarian Music Week) was organized annually between 1970 and 1989, and supplemented by the Szegedi Kamarazenei Napok (Szeged Chamber Music Days), also devoted to new Hungarian music, from 1978. In 1990 the former festival was replaced by the Zenei Hét Századunk Muzsikájából (Musical Week of Our Century's Music), given in the spring and devoted in 1993 to the memory of Messiaen.
M. Szmollény: A szegedi magyar nemzeti színészet százéves története [100 years of Hungarian theatre in Szeged] (Budapest, 1906)
Muzsika (Budapest, 1978–94)
J. Farkas, ed.: Szeged története [History of Szeged], ii: 1686–1849 (Szeged, 1985)
I. Simon: A játékok krónikája [Chronicle of the festivals] (Szeged, 1985)
DEZSŐ LEGÁNY