SHORT TAKES : Hungary Hold on Opera Slips

Fed up with the government’s unwieldy bureaucracy running their lives, Hungary’s opera singers are fast defecting to a private management company.

Pentaton, founded last September by a soprano, a tenor, two basses and an administrator, now claims that more than half the singers who were on state agency Interkoncert’s books have joined it.

“I got the idea from a TV program on impresarios,” said bass singer Laszlo Polgar. “And I said to myself: ‘Why don’t I do that?’ ”

Until Pentaton was set up, all appearances by Hungarian opera stars abroad were handled by Interkoncert, which is controlled by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Interkoncert would tell singers where they were booked only after their state employers agreed. Sometimes performers would hear of offers only years after they had been rejected.

“The artists did not like Interkoncert being a monopoly,” says Zsofia Zimanyi, a former Interkoncert employee who runs Pentaton from a small apartment. “And we offer a much more personal service.”