brnyi, Emil

(b Budapest, 22 Sept 1882; d Budapest, 11 Feb

1970). Hungarian composer and conductor, grandson of Kornl
brnyi. He studied composition, the organ and piano at the
Budapest Academy of Music, and spent a year with Nikisch in
Leipzig. From 1904 he was a theatre conductor in Cologne, and from
1907 in Hanover. In 1911 he returned to Budapest to become
conductor at the Royal Hungarian Opera House; he was director
there (191920) and then at the Budapest Theatre (19216). He
taught conducting at the Lizst Academy of Music.
brnyi was the most prolific Hungarian opera composer of his
generation; between 1903 and 1923 five of his operas and a
Singspiel were produced at the Budapest Opera House and the City
Theatre. Rather than subscribing to the established Hungarian
romantic opera style or folklore, brnyi composed in a
cosmopolitan style. The operas Monna Vanna and Paolo s
Francesca, for example, display a modern approach and indulge in
artificially sensuous melody typical of both Italian and
GermanJugendstil, while Don Quijote, on the other hand, draws on
the declamatory style of French opera. His choice of colourful and
erotic subjects corresponded, in some cases literally, to that of
leading opera composers of the time. A similar eclecticism
characterizes his works in other genres, whose broadly Romantic
style, employing extended tonality, is informed by a variety of folk
idioms.
Though brnyi was frequently employed by the Budapest Opera
House as a composer and conductor (partly, perhaps out of
reverence towards his father, an eminent poet, and his grandfather),
his operas never gained lasting popularity.
WORKS
(selective list)

stage
for fuller list see GroveO

A kdkirly [The King of Mist] (op, 1, . Psztor), Royal Hung. Op, 17 May 1903
Monna Vanna (op, 3, E. brnyi sr, after M. Maeterlinck), Royal Hung. Op, 2 March
1907
Paolo s Francesca (op, 3, brnyi sr, after Dante: Commedia), Royal Hung. Op, 13
Jan 1912
Don Quijote (op, 3, brnyi sr, after M. de Cervantes), Royal Hung. Op, 30 Nov
1917
Ave Maria: Mjusi intermezzo [A May Intermezzo] (op, 1), Budapest, Municipal, 25
Feb 1922
A vak katona [The Blind Soldier] (Spl, 1, E. Sas), Budapest, Municipal, 11 June 1923

OTHER WORKS
Petfi szvit [Petfi Suite], orch, 1898; Str Qt, 1898; Sym., c, 1899; Andante e
Minuetto, wind, 1900; Epikus szvit, orch, 1930; Himnusz as rhoz [Hymn for the
Lord], male chorus, orch, 1930; Trianon, sym. poem, orch, 1930; Szegedi mise
[Szeged Mass], chorus, orch, 1933; c30 songs (acc. pf)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ZL (K. Szekeres)
G. Staud, ed.: A budapesti operhz szz ve [100 Years of the
Budapest Opera House] (Budapest, 1984)
TIBOR TALLIN/ANNA DALOS