Long Live the Magyar

At the conclusion of the Hungarian State Opera’s performance of Johann Strauss II’s operetta Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), which my wife and I attended during a recent five-week research visit to Hungary, the orchestra broke into a performance of Éljen a Magyar! (“Long Live the Magyar!” [Hungarians]), a song that was not a part of the musical but which had been composed years earlier by Strauss and dedicated to the Hungarian people.