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Béni Egressy was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 composer, librettist, translator and actor.

Biography

Egressy was born in Sajó

Sajó

The Sajó is a river in Slovakia and Hungary.Its length is 229 km, of which 110 km is in Slovakia. Its source is in the Stolica Mountains range of the Slovak Ore Mountains. It flows through the Slovak town Rožňava and the Hungarian city Miskolc. In Hungary it flows through the county of...

-Kazinc (today a part of Kazincbarcika

Kazincbarcika

Kazincbarcika is the third largest city of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies in the valley of the river Sajó, away from the county capital, Miskolc.-History:...

, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén is the name of an administrative county in north-eastern Hungary , on the border with Slovakia. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Nógrád, Heves, Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. The capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county is Miskolc...

, north-east Hungary) in 1814, the younger brother of Gábor Egressy

Gábor Egressy (actor)

Gábor Egressy was a Hungarian actor and brother of Béni Egressy.- Life :His exact date of birth is not known. After he belonged to several rover actor ensembles, he found at the theater in Klausenburg a permanent engagement...

.

He entered the stage in 1834, like his brother, and in 1837 became a member of the national theatre in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. During the revolution of 1848 he took part in the fighting and became a member of the Hungarian Honvéd resistance. After the rebellion, he received amnesty

Amnesty

Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...

 and returned to the stage.

Works

Egressy was more notable for his acting rather than his compositions. Nevertheless, he composed music for "The Szózat", a famous poem by Hungarian poet Mihály Vörösmarty

Mihály Vörösmarty

Mihály Vörösmarty was an important Hungarian poet and dramatist.He was born at Puszta-Nyék , of a noble Roman Catholic family. His father was a steward of the Nádasdys. Mihály was educated at Székesfehérvár by the Cistercians and at Pest by the Piarists...

. The song later became the unofficial "second Hungarian national anthem" beside the Himnusz. His musical works are characterised by a wealth of melodies and attained great popularity in Hungary.