'To those he gives standing, God also gives brains,' sings King Pomádé. In truth, these two blessings don't always go hand in hand. The court does everything it can to prevent the king's stupidity from coming to light. And although the situation is perfectly clear to the country's inhabitants too, as loyal subjects they too choose not to reveal that the party suit the king has commissioned at vast expense is an work of pure fiction. Such is the influence of power. We often convince ourselves that what we are doing is right – it is only the children who see the naked truth…
György Ránki was a multi-faceted composer who never made a big fuss of genres. He believed it was just as possible to create something worthy from any genre as it was to turn out something worthless. He wrote operas, musicals, ballets, film scores, accompanying music for theatrical works and radio plays, orchestral and chamber works, and songs. He learned composition alongside Zoltán Kodály and studied folk music with László Lajtha. He wrote several versions of the children's opera King Pomádé's New Clothes. The stage version was created after the radio première, in which the story became a satirical social commentary holding up a clear critique of the cult of individual. In this later incarnation of the work, this secondary thread is no longer present.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic