Despite the fact that her voice type and physique primarily predisposed her to lyric soprano roles, in 1977, as a scholarship holder of the Hungarian State Opera, Ilona Tokody was entrusted with a leading role of strong dramatic intensity: the Mother in the world premiere of Zsolt Durkó’s music drama Mózes (Moses), directed by András Mikó. [1] One notable feature of the production was that her alternate was Sylvia Sass, with whom Tokody had shared first prize at the Kodály Singing Competition in 1972. Critics were unanimous in their view that Tokody emerged as the true discovery of the second cast. Her “beautiful phrasing, clear diction and deeply felt stage presence endowed the role with genuine weight and significance.” [2]
At the outset of her career she also performed soprano roles in two contemporary Hungarian operas: the Girl in Sándor Balassa’s Az ajtón kívül (Outside the Door), and Sonya in the television and audio recording of Emil Petrovics’s Crime and Punishment. In both cases she demonstrated an exceptional ability to create atmosphere and dramatic presence. [3]

The long-desired classical lyric role did not take long to arrive. Barely a month after the Durkó premiere, she appeared as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot. As Iván Kertész observed, this marked the moment when she “found her own artistic profile”, one in which lyrical sensitivity and dramatic force coexist in equal measure. According to the critic, “Puccini’s fragile and vulnerable female figures – Manon, Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Lauretta, Liù – are precisely those roles through which she can most fully unfold her vocal and dramatic gifts. She commands her slender lyric soprano with refined technique, and her expressive range spans numerous shades, from tender lyricism to powerful dramatic intensity.” [4] This prediction proved entirely accurate: Tokody went on to sing each of these roles. The following year she appeared as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at the Erkel Theatre, to great acclaim. Among Puccini’s heroines, however, Mimì became one of the most defining roles of her career, closely associated with Vienna, where she was first offered the part at the Vienna State Opera. By a twist of fate – more precisely, thanks to the foresight of conductor Giuseppe Patanè – her first appearance as Mimì nevertheless took place in Budapest, on 19 January 1979. Patanè willingly undertook rehearsals and performances in Budapest free of charge, in order to ensure that the young soprano would make her Viennese debut with sufficient stage experience behind her. The thorough preparation exceeded all expectations. “A wealth of deep and sincere emotion rises from a voice that is more dramatic than lyric, imbued with purity and truth. One has the sense that she is ‘doing’ nothing – everything seems to be born within her in the moment and to flow outward naturally. Nowhere is there the slightest trace of excess. The tension builds steadily, and this Mimì takes leave of life and love in a way that not only moves one to tears, but also offers release – through the cathartic power of true art,” wrote cultural journal Film, Színház, Muzsika. [5] Iván Kertész praised her “discerning artistic taste and the ideal unity of instinct and consciousness” in national daily Magyar Nemzet. [6] Béla Abody, writing in Új Tükör journal, hailed her as “the best Mimì”, noting that “her large voice contains immense reserves of richness; in essence, an old-school dramatic soprano embraces the refined abundance of her never-mechanical pianissimi.” [7]
Tokody’s guest appearance at the Vienna State Opera took place on 26 September 1979 and was met with equal success. She went on to sing the role of Mimì a further thirteen times in Franco Zeffirelli’s production, on two of those occasions opposite José Carreras.[8] Following her Viennese debut, Egon Seefehlner, director of the State Opera, offered her a range of roles, from which she chose Rachel in Jacques Fromental Halévy’s La Juive. It was in this production that she first encountered the world-renowned tenor who would later support her international career not only as a professional partner but also as a friend. On 26 January 1984, they were jointly engaged for a new production of La Bohème at London’s Covent Garden. [9] At the same venue, on 6 June 1987, her partner was Plácido Domingo, and a few months later, on 25 August, she sang Mimì opposite Luciano Pavarotti at Buenos Aires’s Teatro Colón, in a jubilee performance marking the hundredth staging of La Bohème there. [10]
In an interview published in regional daily Délmagyarország, Tokody reflected on working with the three tenors: “I feel I was the most ‘Mimì-like’ opposite Carreras, because for me he is the true Rodolfo. With him, the character feels most intimate and most vulnerable. Pavarotti radiates the cheerfulness and sunshine of the Italian landscape; his playful humour permeates the entire performance, and beside him I can concentrate most fully on vocal technique. Plácido Domingo, for me, is above all Otello – he invests every note with such passion that my own portrayal becomes far more dramatic in response.” [11] There were occasions, however, when the full weight of the opera rested on her shoulders alone. During a Christmas performance at the Hungarian State Opera in 1993, the guest tenor lost his voice, and it was Tokody’s aria in the third act that saved the evening. Miklós Fáy described the moment in Élet és Irodalom: “Softly, with utter simplicity and restraint, yet with profound weight – deep, painful, and saturated with sorrow, emotion and meaning. At the end, a gently sustained, even, quiet but prolonged tone began to rise and filled the entire house, reaching the last row of the third balcony.” [12] The thunderous applause that followed celebrated what many considered the most beautiful three minutes of the season.
Ilona Tokody has performed the role of Mimì in the world’s leading opera houses. Beyond Vienna, audiences in the United States first encountered her in this role at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in the summer of 1983.

With her next Puccini heroine, Sister Angelica, Ilona Tokody made her debut first at the Vienna State Opera, and only a few months later, on 19 October 1980, appeared at the Erkel Theatre in the Budapest premiere of Puccini’s Il Trittico.[13] Critics unanimously placed her performance in the category of the mature operatic artist, noting that she “found the meaning of her fate with sure instinct and a remarkable ability to shape emphasis.” [14] István Albert offered perhaps the most precise assessment: “Her sensitivity to melody, her intimate lyricism, and her dramatic expressive power in the ecstatic moments of the vision scene all find realization within the same high-level artistic formulation.” [15] Tokody also sang the title role on Hungaroton’s 1983 Suor Angelica LP recording, conducted by Lamberto Gardelli.

The story of Madama Butterfly is, compared with Puccini’s other works, relatively slender and sparse in dramatic turns. For this very reason, the composer conveys the intense fluctuations of passion primarily through Cio-Cio-San’s arias. The role represents a major challenge for singers both vocally and in terms of character creation. Ilona Tokody’s artistic self-discipline is evidenced by her decision, a few years earlier, to decline an invitation from the Prague Opera, as she would have been required to sing Mimì barely forty-eight hours after performing Cio-Cio-San. At a young age, she had already embraced the principle of her experienced colleague György Melis: “The less you sing, the longer you sing.”
She ultimately appeared for the first time in the role of the Japanese geisha at the Staatsoper in Vienna on 3 November 1982, followed by her Erkel Theatre debut a year later, on 22 October 1983. Péter Várnai, writing in Magyar Hírlap, expressed reservations about the dramatic “darkening” of the lyric soprano voice, yet acknowledged the meticulous refinement of the performance.[16] By contrast, István Albert emphasized the authenticity of the dramatic accents in Film, Színház, Muzsika, describing the portrayal as “a portrait of Madama Butterfly with an unbroken line, rich in nuance, profoundly moving, and arising from inner emotional truth.” [17] János Lózsy, in Népszava, likewise affirmed the balance between “sound and expression,” observing that not only “the brightness, purity and flowing beauty of the voice belong to Cio-Cio-San,” but also “the way in which she traverses the little geisha’s path – filled with joy, beauty, and even greater trials – is deeply human.” [18]

In the 1985 revival production at the Hungarian State Opera, Ilona Tokody approached the title role of Manon Lescaut with a markedly different artistic conception from the Puccini heroines she had portrayed earlier. Géza Fodor, critic of journal Muzsika, explained this shift as follows: “In Madama Butterfly, for example, the singer was still perceptibly reluctant to allow her heroine to appear, even for a moment, less than fully sympathetic, and she did not fully embrace those moments of the plot in which Butterfly – as the result of a desperate self-defensive mechanism – lashes out at others with dark, savage impulses, with unjust or disproportionate anger. […] In the case of Manon, however, she carries her analysis much further, probing and assuming the humanly and morally problematic, at times even unsympathetic traits of the character with such acuity that we can speak of a significant maturation in her artistic outlook. It may not be certain that this is the most fortunate solution to the riddle of Manon’s role, yet this part proved to be a fertile opportunity for Ilona Tokody to move toward a more complex and more unflinching portrayal of the human being.” [19] Her partner was equally worthy in the role of Chevalier Des Grieux, sung by Péter Kelen. “The two of them do not belong here, in the desert of everyday life: they overturn the order, erase their surroundings for three acts, reduce Puccini’s opera to a two-character drama, so that in the fourth they may finally be left alone, even in a legal sense. This is truly extraordinary,” summed up Tamás Koltai, critic of the theatre journal Színház. [20]

Many professionals initially voiced reservations about how a Lauretta could become a Tosca, yet the ten years that passed – and the high artistic level at which rigid role and voice-type categorisations cease to apply – convincingly refuted these doubts. In 1988, at the Erkel Theatre, Ilona Tokody was ready to take on Tosca. One of Viktor Nagy’s early productions lacked the much-invoked “concept” so often demanded by critics, and thus the opera singer relied largely on her own artistic resources: by temperament and intention, she created a modern Tosca. “She portrayed a contemporary actress placed within a situation that, regrettably, recurs all too often in history and may therefore be perceived as timeless,” wrote András Batta in music journal Muzsika. [21]
The success of this distinctive interpretation was most vividly captured by István Albert in Film, Színház, Muzsika: “Ilona Tokody is, without question, a Tosca of European stature. Her affect, her deep-rooted and sincere emotional expression enable her to present a complete and valid portrait of the character. Love, sensual desire and unbreakable fidelity are fused in her singing and performance; her gestures are authentic, her presence radiates devoted femininity and dignity, and her interpretation now also encompasses the darker tonalities indispensable to the role.” [22]

Alongside Puccini, however, the heroines of an equally significant composer, Giuseppe Verdi, proved decisive in Ilona Tokody’s career. Her first Verdi role was Leonora in La forza del destino, which was not by chance regarded by many – including the artist herself – as one of her most fully realised and most beautiful portrayals. In an interview with Ildikó Jánosi, she articulated her thoughts on the work as follows: “From the very beginning of my career, I sensed that Leonora was my destiny, that she would become a key role in my life. La forza del destino is the most beautiful musical expression of true love, fidelity and faith. […] After all her suffering, Leonora dies happily, because she may depart purified and enter heaven, where her soul can unite with that of her beloved. In Verdi’s oeuvre, death is spiritual – the body dies, but the soul lives on. […] Mystery, magic and inaccessibility permeate the entire work, and the process of deciphering both this music drama and the figure of Leonora keeps one in constant suspense. […] I believe that human beings are not born into the world to live a life of happiness, but to experience and survive suffering, to be purified through it, and thereby to set an example. I would like everyone who sees the performance to feel the power of faith and to sense that there is an afterlife.” [23]

On 21 July 1979, she became the surprise of the opening performance of the Szeged Open-Air Festival. “The greatest – and rightly the greatest – individual success was achieved by Ilona Tokody, originally from Szeged, in her demanding soprano role. Leonora is a role of dual character: for the most part it requires dramatic weight, yet in certain moments it is suffused with lyrical nuances. The young artist met both demands at a high level; in the duet of the first act and in the final scene she created a genuinely dramatic atmosphere on stage, and with a beautiful voice, free of any register-transition problems, she shaped the broad-arched B-major aria and Pace, pace with profound inner involvement,” wrote István Albert in Népszabadság. [24]

András Rajk likewise noted with enthusiasm in Népszava that Ilona Tokody “could be ranked among the international elite”. [25] This assessment proved so accurate that years later her most memorable emergency substitution in Copenhagen was also connected to this role. “We dictated my measurements by telephone from the aeroplane so that the costume could be adjusted to my figure, and from the airport I was taken straight to the opera house, where I arrived ten minutes before the performance”, the singer recalled to Zsuzsanna Réfi in Népszava. [26]

The revival production presented at the Hungarian State Opera on 18 May 1990 was prepared under difficult circumstances: owing to the artists’ foreign engagements, rehearsal time was limited, a fact that critics felt was reflected in András Mikó’s staging. Nevertheless, Lamberto Gardelli, Péter Kelen and Ilona Tokody compensated both critics and audience for any shortcomings of the performance. Iván Kertész, who had previously been sceptical about her undertaking major dramatic roles, reported his experience in Magyar Nemzet as follows: “One rarely encounters such depth of involvement, such musical shaping of melody, such a richly coloured manner of performance on the Budapest opera stage; only a true artist is capable of such an achievement.” [27]
“A single gesture of hers was worth more than the entire production,”[28] summarised leading music and theatre critic Miklós Fáy in Magyar Napló. Ten years later, in the spring of 2000, when audiences were once again able to see the great pairing of Hungarian opera, Fáy likewise celebrated their return as a red-letter day.[29] “Everything that was good begins anew: Tokody and Kelen, clinging to one another, together creating a total operatic reality in which only singing is meaningful speech, and only heightened emotional states are normal.” [30]
This was well known in Italy as well, for Ilona Tokody was among the very few singers invited as a foreign guest to perform Leonora in Verdi’s native country.

On 2 March 1980, Ilona Tokody had to meet an even greater challenge than usual in the title role of Aida, as she was required to be just as compelling in the lower registers of the dramatic soprano voice as in the broad lyrical melodic arches. According to Béla Abody, “her voice was perfectly balanced whenever necessary: it soared in the most beautiful heights, possessed ample power, and offered ‘living’ piano passages, humanly shaped legato lines, light and seemingly disembodied. She is the future – the heart of Verdi beats within her.” [31]
The critics who were not yet fully convinced at the time revised their judgement six years later, during Plácido Domingo’s guest appearance at the Erkel Theatre, when Ilona Tokody was hailed as the “prima donna” of the performance. Péter Várnai wrote in Magyar Hírlap: “She lived through and conveyed the dramatic figure with complete conviction. She shaped a lyrical heroine, which is one valid approach; indeed, if we analyse the role in detail, lyricism outweighs drama. Thus, the two climactic moments of the evening became the love duet on the banks of the Nile and the final duet, imbued with such intensity, ardent eroticism, ecstatic visionary force, refinement and beauty that only one expression does them justice: world class.”[32] The critic of Magyar Nemzet likewise reported that “Ilona Tokody swept everyone off their feet. The compressed dramatic sonorities, the inimitable pianissimi – no wonder international stages compete for her.” [33]

Her series of successes continued with another Leonora, this time in Il trovatore, whose heroine was entrusted to her by András Mikó at the Margaret Island Open-Air Stage in the summer of 1980. Once again, critics responded in superlatives. Among them, Lajos Fodor most precisely captured the secret of her success: “The moment she begins to sing, we immediately forget the weather, the microphones, the stiffness of performance, every detail previously weighed with sober consideration. She knows – and reveals – secrets hidden within Verdi’s melodies that are as impossible to learn as they are to describe through analysis. No comparison can convey what she achieves. She organises the interrelated sequence of tones into exactly the kind of structure Verdi might have imagined, stirring the listener’s entire emotional world. Through her, this year’s production became extraordinary, ascending into the highest category of artistic experience. When she sings, even the orchestra and her partners sound more beautiful; the artificial stone walls come alive, and – remarkably – the birds’ twilight chorus seems to attune itself to her. […] She presented us with an ideal Leonora, restoring our faith in music drama, in Hungarian vocal art, and in its seemingly inexhaustible talent.” [34]

Another milestone in her success was Simon Boccanegra, the world of Genoa’s patricians and plebeians, in which she sang the role of Amelia Grimaldi. “Her vocal performance, technical security and capacity for differentiation are impressive. In her interpretation every musical gesture gains full weight: the recitatives carry gravitas, and the cantilena captivates with its suppleness and intimacy,” wrote István Albert in Film, Színház, Muzsika. [35] “At times she evokes the most beautiful moments of a Callas, at others those of a Tebaldi; through her magically resonant voice, Verdi’s melodies unfold in their full splendour,” noted Lajos Fodor in national daily Esti Hírlap.[36] Two years later, she performed this role at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, marking her first encounter with the renowned baritone Juan Pons, who sang the title role.

Her success was equally undeniable in the role of Elisabeth of Valois, a part almost perfectly matched to her artistic individuality and vocal endowment. [37] According to critic Péter Várnai, “her delicate and refined artistry – the truest defining features of her vocal portrait – truly found their home in this role: her ideally beautiful piano phrasing and broad-arched legato lines offered the audience of Don Carlos an exceptional experience.” [38]

The revival of Otello took place in 1983. In a musically somewhat uninspired production, “only Tokody’s overriding talent, enchanting voice, astonishing technique, suggestive stage presence and expressive artistry proved capable of rising above all limitations,” wrote Lajos Fodor in Esti Hírlap, adding: “She reigned as a sovereign on stage even in the flattest scenes, and was able to suggest how powerfully she could affect an audience in a truly strong production.” [39]

Géza Fodor, music critic of Muzsika, likewise confirmed this assessment: “In Tokody’s artistry, the suggestive power of the fundamental tone and the precise elaboration of detail exist in such harmony that the achievement of proportion seems almost effortless. Desdemona in her interpretation is more than a tragic heroine, more than a dramatic character – she becomes a measure of humanity.” [40]

The Otello at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, however, proved to be not merely a “good performance” but a truly frenetic success. On 27 August 1986, German theatre history was made when the audience sustained thunderous applause for an hour and a half for two guest artists, Plácido Domingo and Ilona Tokody, who sang together here for the first time.

The Verdi repertoire was completed by Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Alice Ford in Falstaff. Tokody sang the former in the third cast of András Fehér’s “much-criticised production” at the Erkel Theatre on 26 October 1986, “with the delicacy and sensitivity of phrasing characteristic of her artistry.” [41] She portrayed Alice Ford in a Hungarian Television production in 1985, and later, among other venues, at the Vienna State Opera and Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela during the 1990s.

José Carreras writes the following about Ilona Tokody in his autobiography:

“When I sang Canio for the first time in my life, in Madrid in 1986, in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, I found the ideal partner in Ilona Tokody. She reacted so intensely to my onstage rage that she drove me to even greater extremes. For me, Ilona Tokody is one of the most ideal interpreters of verismo roles.” [42]

It was therefore no coincidence that at the height of her career she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Nedda (Pagliacci) on 4 November 1988. At the same venue, only a month later, she appeared to great acclaim as Micaëla in Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Her “finely etched” portrayal of the young peasant girl from Seville could later be seen by Hungarian audiences at the Szeged Open-Air Festival on 13 August 1992. [43]

From Budapest to New York, alongside numerous “star partners,” Ilona Tokody worked with eminent Hungarian and international directors such as András Mikó, András Békés, Franco Zeffirelli, Otto Schenk and Götz Friedrich, as well as with outstanding conductors including János Ferencsik, Claudio Abbado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Giuseppe Patanè and Lamberto Gardelli. Her exceptional talent was matched by tireless dedication, demonstrated by the fact that she learned her roles not only in Hungarian, but also in German, French, Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew, Japanese and Italian – including Neapolitan and Sicilian dialects.

Beyond the opera stage, she travelled the world as a regular performer in oratorios, song and aria recitals and concerts, appearing in Japan alone on nine occasions. In 1983 she sang Richard Strauss’s Guntram for the first time at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Her fees have frequently been devoted to charitable causes: sick children and elderly colleagues in need alike could rely on her generosity. Particularly memorable remains her joint concert with Plácido Domingo in Mexico in 1989, the proceeds of which were donated to victims of hurricane devastation. An artist’s greatness is measured not only by success, but also by nobility of spirit – and in this respect, too, Ilona Tokody has proven exemplary.

[2016]

[1] Attila Turbók: Arcok közelről – Tokody Ilona, Pesti Műsor, 13/04/1977

[2] István Albert: Újat mondani – Második szereposztás – Mózes, Film, Színház, Muzsika, 28/05/1977, p 5

[3] Bűn és Bűnhődés (1978). Dir.: Gyula Maár; Emil Petrovics: Bűn és bűnhődés, SLPX 12306-8, Hungaroton 1980; Sándor Balassa: Az ajtón kívül, op. 27., SLPX 12052-53, Hungaroton 1980

[4] Iván Kertész: Új szereplők a Turandotban, Muzsika, August 1977, pp 10–11.

[5] N. N.: Mimi – Tokodi Ilona, Film, Színház, Muzsika, 27/01/1979

[6] Iván Kertész: Két Puccini-előadás, Magyar Nemzet, 25/09/1979

[7] Béla Abody: Bohémélet, Új Tükör, 07/10/1979

[8] Staatsoper, Vienna, 03/11/1963

[9] Directed by Hugh Maguire

[10] Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 25/08/1987; Dir.: Ventura, Sarah

[11] Gabriella Keczer: A legMimibb Mimi, Délmagyarország, 24/06/1990

[12] Miklós Fáy: Mimi, egyedül, Élet és Irodalom, 22/01/1993, p 13

[13] Puccini’s Triptych is composed of three one-act operas: Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

[14] Béla Abody: Második szereposztás, Új Tükör, 23/11/1980, p 26

[15] István Albert: A Triptichon – Másodszor, Film Színház, Muzsika, 29/11/1980

[16] Péter Várnai: Pillangókisasszony, Magyar Hírlap, 11/11/1983, p 6

[17] István Albert: Pillangókisasszony, Film, Színház, Muzsika, 03/12/1983, p 5

[18] János Lózsy: Pillangókisasszony – négyszer, Népszabadság, 23/11/1983, p 7

[19] Géza Fodor: A mítosz megteremtése (II.), Muzsika, January 1986, pp 36–44

[20] Tamás Koltai: Kétszer kettő, Színház, 21/01/1994, p 12

[21] András Batta: Tosca – mérsékelt égöv alatt, Muzsika, June 1988, pp 22–27

[22] István Albert: Tosca, Film, Színház, Muzsika, 07/06/1988, p 4

[23] Ildikó Jánosi: „Euforikus boldogság tölt el, amikor énekelek" – Pályakép Tokody Ilonáról – I. rész, Opera-Világ.hu, 2003. február 23. http://operavilag.net/interjuk/8104/

[24] István Albert: Verdi – A végzet hatalma, Népszabadság, 15/08/1979

[25] András Rajk: A végzet hatalma a szegedi Dóm előtt, Népszava, 05/08/1979

[26] Zsuzsanna Réfi: Verdi szopránhangra írt lélekzenéi, Népszava, 18/04/2000

[27] Iván Kertész: A végzet hatalma, Magyar Nemzet, 18/06/1990

[28] Miklós Fáy: Tokody Ilona és az előadás, Magyar Napló, 21/06/1990, p 13

[29] Erkel Színház, 19/04/2000

[30] Miklós Fáy: Megint Tokody, megint Kelen, Népszabadság, 17/04/2000

[31] Béla Abody: Aida + Aida + Aida, Új Tükör, 30/03/1980, p 28

[32] Péter Várnai: Az Aida az Operaházban – Domingo, Magyar Hírlap, 24/04/1987 [Erkel Színház]

[33] Tibor Várkonyi: Príma Donna, Magyar Nemzet, 01/05/1987

[34] Lajos Fodor: Trubadúr – Tokody Ilona bravúrja, Esti Hírlap, 14/07/1980

[35] István Albert: Egyenletes emelkedőn, Film, Színház, Muzsika, 17/01/1981, p 10

[36] Lajos Fodor: Patané betanításában Simon Boccanegra – Verdi-opera az Erkel Színházban, Esti Hírlap, 22/12/1980

[37] Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos, Erkel Színház, 24/09/1980

[38] Péter Várnai: Új szereplők – A Dnc Carlosban és a Rigolettóban. Muzsika, November 1981, pp 42–43

[39] Lajos Fodor: Otello az Erkelben – Fűzfadalnyi élmény, Esti Hírlap, 16/03/1983

[40] Géza Fodor: „Az Otello „új betanulásban", Muzsika, May 1983; pp 28–36

[41] Mihály Kertész: Új szereplők Az álarcosbál-ban, Magyar Nemzet, 25/11/1986

[42] José Carreras: Lélekből énekelni, Idegenforgalmi Propaganda és Kiadó Vállalat, Budapest, 1990

[43] Mária Kerényi: Carmen, a csodálatos, Új Magyarország, 25/08/1992