The Sly Students Suite

• In 1949, the Budapest Opera commissioned Farkas to write music for a ballet called The Sly Students.
  • That same year, Farkas adapted his ballet music into an orchestral suite. The orchestral suite has eight movements:
    1. Vásár Debrecenben / Fair in Debrecen
    2. Air de danse
    3. Diákok tánca / Students’ dance
    4. Cigányzene / Gypsy-music
    5. Pas de deux
    6. Részeg tánc / Drunken-dance
    7. Tréfás gyászinduló / Humorous funeral march
    8. Csikósok tánca / Horse-dance¹

Plot of the Ballet, based on a novel by Mór Jókai:

“The director of Debrecen College, Professor Horváth, intends his daughter, Rózsika, to marry Józsi, the son of the town treasurer. But she’s in love with Adám, a poor student.

To make a joke, Adám removes a boot from a teacher asleep on a bench and walks off by brandishing it. The teacher summons the students to find out who is the author of the farce and Józsi denounces Adám, his rival.

Wanting to punish him, his classmates bring wine. Józsi drinks as long as he rolls under the table. The drunken boy is transported in a comic funeral march to the house of Rózsika’s father.

Nothing can hinder the happiness of love anymore.”²

1. “The sly students,” Ferenc Farkas, accessed September 22, 2025, https://ferencfarkas.org/work/the-sly-students/.
2. Ibid.