21. March 2005.

Herend Porcelain Manufactory Ltd. Sponsors the Budapest Operetta Theatre's Production of "Beauty and the Beast".

Disney's family classic "Beauty and the Beast" opened on 18th March 2005 in the Budapest Operetta Theatre as the grand premiere of the Budapest Spring Festival. Following in the footsteps of New York, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul and Vienna, Budapest came forth with a special staging of the musical.

The adaptation of one of Disney's most successful and most enchanting tales is set in an enchanted castle where a haughty and heartless Prince is placed under a spell and is turned into a hideous Beast by a Fairy.
If he is to break the spell, the Beast must learn to love another human being and deserve to be loved in return before the last petal of the magic rose the Fairy has given him withers away. Otherwise the Prince will remain a Beast the rest of his life. In the small French provincial town near the castle there lives a lovely and warm-hearted girl, Belle, whose father is one day imprisoned by the Beast. In order to free her father from his captivity, Belle offers to live as the prisoner of the Beast's home. Much to her surprise, she finds friends in the objects of the enchanted castle which come alive. With their help she comes to realize that appearances are sometimes deceptive, and the Beast thought to be so heartless is a great deal more loving than her aggressive and conceited suitor, Gaston. When Belle and the Beast declare their love for each other and the last petal of the magic rose falls off, magic happens and a transformation begins to unfold…

The fabulous costumes worn by the charming inhabitants of the enchanted castle, such as Chip the teacup and Mrs. Potts the teapot, are adorned with Herend patterns. In one of the musical climaxes of the play, "Be Our Guest", many of the participants on stage wear Herend costumes.

The costume designers of the Budapest Operetta Theatre worked in collaboration with artists from the Herend Porcelain Manufactory to create some breathtaking costumes on the basis of the pattern of Herend's "Mosaiques triangulaires et fleurs des champs" (MTFC) décor.

The "Mosaiques Triangulaires et Fleurs des Champs" (MTFC) décor in brief:

This richly gilded pattern is a more recent version of the traditional Frankenthal décor. The gold edge of the undulating rim encloses shield-shaped fields, some wider and some narrower. The cartouches are filled with a gilded lattice that frames mosaic triangles of white and cobalt blue. Around the shields, there are golden volutes, and between them, motifs of meticulously executed garden and meadow flowers. Blue forget-me-nots, mauve bellflowers, velvety violets and pink morning glories soften the stern geometry of the main motif. This delightful décor, made of stiff and supple, male and female elements, resolves these opposites into a marvellous harmony.