A great Hungarian rock opera titled "Istvan the king", written by two founding members of the well known 60's psych/beat band "Illes", Levente Szorenyi and Janos Brody, performed by leading actors and rock musicians of Hungary. Very similar in a lot of ways to Jesus Christ Superstar, influenced by folk elements, featuring: The ILLES group, DES Laszlo sax, PAPP Gyula hammond organ (ex Skorpio), DEAK "Bill" Gyula (the best East-European blues singer), SEBESTYEN Marta & Muzsikas Group. Marta Sebestyen Whose Vocals Are Prominent On Deep Forest's Boheme Album As Well As The Grammy Winning English Patient Soundtrack.
The production Istvan a Kiraly ("Stephen the King") made its domestic debut in the '80s, while the Communists were still in power. Needless to say, a nationalist musical with explicit Catholic overtones didn't sit that well with the reds. It was like a protest against the Communist regime, and seen by many thousands at open-air stages. None as large, though, as in Csiksomlyo, Transylvania, where over 500,000 people saw it and sang along with the actors. There it was considered a protest against the Romanian government that discriminates against the three million Hungarians who live in Transylvania. There is a Romanian law that the only way another nation's flag can be displayed in Romania is if the Romanian flag is displayed next to it. At this performance, the half-million Hungarians protested with thousands of Hungarian flags only.