Statue of Béni Egressy

His family comes from an old Reformed priestly dynasty in Borsod County, but they probably originated from Egres in Abaúj, when Ferdinand II granted them the name Egresi or Egressy in addition to the name Galambos as a sign of noble rank in 1639. His paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were both well-known Reformed ministers, as was his father (Pál, born in 1770). His paternal uncle (Samu), on the other hand, was a music lover who also composed music. ; He also set two poems by János Arany to music: Sírva yón a magyar nóta világra, Leesett a Rigó lovam patkója. Pál Egressy (the father) studied in Sárospatak, Vienna and Jena, taught in Miskolc, but was also a distinguished singer and orator. He played several instruments well (piano, violin, flute), so the family atmosphere was permeated by the song. Pál also ministered in Jánosi and Putnok, where he married an orphan girl raised by the local preacher (Juliana Juhász). Their first son (Pál) was born here, then Gábor in Lászlófalva in 1808, and later Béni in Sajókazinc (which is now Kazincbarcika) on April 21, 1814. From there they soon moved to Sajókápolna, where little Béni spent most of his childhood. Béni soon became a student at the Miskolc ref. school, where they still studied Latin at the time, and then continued his higher education in Sárospatak. His parents would have loved to see him in a priest's robe, but he wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps and become an actor. He could have admired Déryne and Rózá Laborfalvi (later Jókainé) who were performing there at the time. He was an excellent student at Sárospatak, especially in the fields of music and Hungarian literature. At that time, János Erdélyi, who was just three weeks “older” than him, also studied at Patak. However, in 1831, due to the family’s deteriorating financial situation, he went to teach. He first tried his hand at Mezőcsát, then on January 23, 1833, he set off for Košice (where his brother was an actor and they were preparing for the first performance of Bánk bán), and found a teaching job in nearby Szepsi. He could have lived here for no more than a year, because at the beginning of 1834 he was already working as a helper at the Košice company, writing plays and singing in the choir. His name first appeared on the stage on April 23, 1834. Shortly afterwards, the actors from Košice were forced to leave due to financial bankruptcy and set off for Cluj-Napoca, Nagyvárad and Buda. The company included names such as Déryné, Egressy, Endre Latabár, Udvarhelyi, Szentpétery, Megyeri, etc. In Košice, the German actors took their place, which Petőfi later wrote quite eloquently in his travel letters from his stay in Košice. ; At the age of barely 21, he already played 15 roles in the Buda Castle Theatre, mainly in musical and vocal pieces. The choir director was Ferenc Erkel, and the lyricist of the songs was Egressy. ; On 28 September 1835, we find him among the actors who began building a theatre on the Grassalkovich plot in Pest. In the meantime, he also received leading roles, such as the role of Figaro, and by the end of 1936 he had played over 100 roles. The Hungarian Theatre of Pest (later the National Theatre) opened on 22 August 1837 with the play The Awakening of Árpád Vörösmarty. ; The new theatre opened a space for both authors and actors, while the audience also testified to their Hungarianness with their presence. Béni translated, trained choristers, formed an orchestra out of gypsies, we know of his setting of 146 poems to music (for example, by Petőfi), and wrote the libretto for László Hunyadi and Bán Bán for Erkel. In 1843 he won the competition to set Szózat to music. Due to his weak lungs, he had to give up the main roles as a singer. During the War of Independence, he only played until September 1848, and enlisted in the army. ; He was wounded in the Battle of Kápolna, after which he was sent to Komárom, where György Klapka appointed him as orchestra director. Here he wrote the famous Klapka march (Up, up, I will fight for the battle…). As a soldier in Komárom, he was not punished after the surrender and played again in early 1850. ; He appeared in front of the audience in fifteen roles on nearly one hundred and fifty evenings that year, but his deteriorating health could no longer sustain this pace, and on July 17, 1851, he left for the eternal heavenly company. In total, he appeared about two thousand times and played 324 roles. ; On his tombstone was read: “HE WHO LIVES IN THE MEMORY OF HIS LOVED ONES DOES NOT DIE, HE IS ONLY AWAY. THE DEAD IS THE ONE WHO IS FORGOTTEN.” (His first tombstone was destroyed, but Ferenc Szilágyi and his family had a new one erected for him in the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest in 1994.) ; That is why it was natural for the people of Szepsi that when the organization of the national festival of village actors was taken over by the Csemadok Regional Committee, at the suggestion of Ferenc Boda, the name of Béni Egressy was included, although the town was only an episode in its life. ; And when Szepsi won the grant it requested for the renovation of the town's historical core, a tender was also announced for the erection of a statue of Egressy. This was eventually carved into marble from the local limestone quarry by the Nagykapos artist György Ferenc.