Musical Theatre Companies in the Multilingual East-Central Europe (Visegrad Grants)

Methodology

The methodological coordination of the research on the period

1870–1920 carried out currently by the institutes participating in the project and the establishing of a common scholarly database would be a unique initiative within the practice of historical musicology in our region.

The musical theatre of the region developed its national versions by adapting European models, its agents were companies and artists orbiting on path spanning the current (and former) borders of countries and languages.

The inventory of the sources for the repertoire of the individual companies is done at a local level by the research facilities of the individual countries, but the source processing is more efficient if we manage to coordinate our research projects.

In addition to presenting the West-European models, the time has come for discovering the common regional specialties as well, given that local adaptations were often made in a similar manner.

Czech Republic

Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts,

Palacký University Olomouc

doc. PhDr. Lenka Křupková, PhD,

Head of the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc

Czech Republic

doc. PhDr. Jiří Kopecký, PhD,

Associate Professor at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc

Hungary

HAS Institute for Musicology of the

Research Centre for the Humanities

Katalin Kim Szacsvai PhD,

Senior Research Fellow and Head of Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology, RCH HAS

Leader of Visegrad Grant Project

Hungary

Péter Bozó PhD,

Research Fellow, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology, RCH HAS

Lili Békéssy,

Research Assistant, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology, RCH HAS, PhD student

Pál Horváth,

Research Assistant, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology,

RCH HAS,

PhD student

Martin Elek,

professional staff member, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology, RCH HAS, MA Student

Rudolf Gusztin,

Research Assistant, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology, RCH HAS,

PhD student

Veronika Varga,

professional staff member, Department for Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology,

RCH HAS,

MA Student

Poland

Jagiellonian University, Faculty of History, Institute of Musicology

Poland

Renata Suchowiejko, Professor,

Head of the Methodology and the 19th-21st centuries Music History Department at the Institute of Musicology, Faculty of History, Jagiellonian University

Slovakia

The Institute of Musicology & The Institute of Theatre

and Film Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Slovakia

Jana Laslavíková, PhD,

Research Fellow, Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences; Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The municipal theatre in Olomouc

The operatic repertoire of theatre scenes, starting from the second half of the nineteenth century, within the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy did not vary all that much. Mainly contemporary German, French and Italian operas were heard on the stages, soon followed by works of the awakening smaller national cultures. The theatre entrepreneur

of provincial municipal theatres were simul-

taneously dramaturgs, directors and some-

times even opera singers or Kapellmeisters.

To the right: An undated photograph of the Municipal

Theatre in Olomouc (probably from the late 19th century)

taken from the centre of the Upper Square.

(State Archive Olomouc, collection of pictorial materials

and photographs, call no. 5/I 5)

The german repertoire

The rather specific traits of the German theatre in Olomouc were primarily rooted in the national tension in the area. Theatre directors in Olomouc were under pressure from German municipal authorities. This strengthened public opinion with an interest in having “great German art” (Mährisches Tagblatt, 15 September 1917), including an older German repertoire as well as the newer one crowned by Wagner's works. German compositions belonged to the most prominent in the municipal theatre and fulfilled its proclaimed main mission as the temple of education of the German majority living in Olomouc.

Source: (State Archive Olomouc, Collection of theatre posters, C1893/56)

Premiere in Olomouc

When the theatre director and conductor Carl Berghof first staged Smetana's Bartered Bride (under the German title Die verkaufte Braut and in German translation) in 1895, almost thirty years after its Prague first night, the local German reviewers provided their own explanation of this delay. In their view, the environment of Czech national theatre kept Smetana's talent a secret and it was thanks to Vienna, whose audiences first heard the Bartered Bride in 1892 and brought Smetana's name out of the oblivion of the composer's homeland (Mährisches Tagblatt, 11 March 1895).

To the right: Cover of the “potpourri” from the Bartered Bride published by the F. A. Urbánek publishing house in Prague in 1892. The illustration represents the sextet Think it over, Mařenka from the 3rd act of the opera

Travelling theatre & responses

At that time, Czechs in Olomouc were already very familiar with this opera; mainly Czech audience could see Smetana´s famous comique opera per-formed by the travelling theatre ensem-ble of František Trnka in 1889 or by Žerotín, a local vocal and music club. Olomouc-based Germans were com-pletely mesmerized by the opera and even the Czech newspapers, which usu-ally ignored the events taking place on the German stage, provided mostly complimentary notes.

To the left: Scenes from The Bartered Bride on postcards by Franz Rösler, watercolour reproduction, after 1900. (National Museum, Bedřich Smetana Museum, M 591-6)

The establishment and development of the Municipal Theatre in Pressburg in the period 1886–1920 was closely linked with the cultural and social development of the city in the period following the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. The theatre from architects Fellner and Helmer was built by Pressburg townsmen in 1886.

To the left: Municipal Theater in Pressburg after the opening in 1886

Source: (Bratislava City Gallery)

The edifice of the theatre was owned by the city, which used to rent it to German and Hungarian theatre directors and their companies. The theatre was run this way until 1920, when the political situation resulted in a change, and regular performances of Czech, and later also Slovak artists started to take place in the theatre.

To the left: Theater playbill from the opening performance.

To the bottom right:

Invitation for

a special dinner

after the opening.

Helped by the closeness of Vienna and due to local patriotism of the city residents, the Pressburg Municipal Theatre evolved into the leading scene among the provincial theatres in Hungary.

The repertoire of the Municipal Theatre was that of a provincial theatre of the period. Its wide scope had to address the biggest part of population, as it had to secure the income for the director as well as the

whole theatre ensemble. The Viennese

theatres were taken as a model for the

repertoire. Viennese Schwänke, Possen

and Lustspiele were played, as well as

French comedies and, above all,

Viennese operettas. They were

performed a few times each season,

often in front of a sold-out theatre,

and by German and Hungarian

directors alike, each in their

own language.

The most desired type of musical drama since the beginning of the theatre opening was the opera and the most-played authors were Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Gounod and George Bizet. After the International Vienna Music and Theatre Exhibition in 1892 new opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni and Richard Wagner came to Pressburg. In the period from 1890-1899 was in Pressburg the theatre director Emanuel Raul, performances were well attended. He had a good artistic ensemble, engaging good soloists. He also organized guest performance of artists from Vienna.

One of the most popular opera performances was the opera Rigoletto from Verdi. In the year 1895 Raul invited to Pressburg a famous singer Joseph Beck, son of the opera singer Johann Nepomuk Beck. Joseph Beck possessing a rich dramatic voice and he became a particularly lauded artist within the repertoire of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi.

To the left: Opera singer Minna Baviera-Zichy from the company of theatre director Emanuel Raul.

Source: Theater Museum Vienna

In the years 1892-1899 the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók lived in Pressburg. His mother was a piano teacher and also the first piano teacher from the Bartók. We can assume that he visited the Municipal theatre together with his mother and he saw the opera performance Rigoletto in 1895.

To the right: Béla Bartók in 1899. The picture is under public domain.

The operas of Offenbach

Hungarian scene

Libretto & content

National Theatre and the Opera

Development of the opera

Mária Bátori

László Hunyadi

Bánk bán

“As the climate of our land is between the Italian and German, in this work the Italian delight and passion and the German vigour and scholarliness are perfectly united – but in a Slavic way”. With these words, one of the prominent members of the Croatian national movement, the poet Stanko Vraz (Jakob Frass, 1810–1851), greeted the premiere of the first “authentic” Croatian opera Ljubav i zloba (Love and malice), by Vatroslav Lisinski (Ignatius Fuchs,

1819–1854) after the libretto by Dimitrija Demeter

(Dimitrios Dimitrou, 1811–1872).

The opera was premiered on 28 March 1846, in

the Gradsko kazalište (The City Theater) known

as Stankovićevo kazalište (Stanković’s Theater,

1834–1860) in Zagreb.

To the right: A portrait of Vatroslav Lisinski.

The first theater house in Zagreb, the City Theater, was opened on 4 October 1834, on the occasion of the name day of the Emperor Francis I. Until the Hrvatsko narodno kazalište [Croatian National Theater] was opened by the emperor in 1860, this was the central cultural institution in Zagreb.

To the left: Stankovićevo kazalište (Stanković’s Theater), Zagreb

In addition, this theater house was “the only means for spreading cultural education of Croatian citizens, the majority of whom were illiterate at that time”. Starting with Theodor Körner’s play Zrinyi (1812) it was the German-speaking theater. However, it hosted the performance of the first theater play – and soon after that, the first national opera – in the Croatian language.

Contrary to the Habsburg imperial context of the Croatian opera, in an 85 years later composed opera by the Serbian composer from Vojvodina, who was director of the Croatian National Opera in Zagreb and Croatian National Theater in Osijek before he came to Belgrade, Petar Konjović wrote an opera strongly marked by the Ottoman imperial legacy.

To the left: Portrait of Petar Konjović (1883–1970)

Koštana is not only the most significant among Konjović’s five operas but also belongs among the most prominent works in Serbian opera literature. The model for it was the theater play with music, still at the repertoire, Koštana (1899) by Borisav Stanković (1876–1927), which since itspremiere in 1900 remained a staple of the Serbian theater repertoire.1 In its early days, the play was in June 1903 performed in honor of the Yugosav King Petar I Karađorđević’s birthday, and even staged for charity during the First World War.

To the right: Poster of the performance of Stanković’s Koštana for the Yugoslav king Petar Karadjordjević II

In 1872 a new operatic stage was created

in Lviv. The city already had a rich

tradition in this area, since a music

theatre functioned there from the

second half of the eighteenth century.

However, it was only at the beginning of

the 1870s that a “national stage” was

created, where the central focus was

on works by Polish authors. This was

a new phenomenon in the Polish lands,

since in the other partitions – Russian

and Prussian – staging Polish operas

encountered serious obstacles.

An important moment in the history of the Lviv theatre was the opening of the new building in 1900, which opened new possibilities for the development of opera. Lviv and Kraków – the two central music centres in Galicia – had strong links, which was particularly apparent in the areas of scholarship, culture and art. In 1895 an agreement was concluded regarding permanent collaboration between the city theatres. The ensemble from Lviv would visit Kraków every year for the summer season to produce performances of operas and operettas.

Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet

The Operas of Żeleński

The main genres among Żeleński’s compositions are operas, piano music, chamber music and songs. In his operas he reached for the great classics of Polish literature: Konrad Wallenrod based on a poem by Adam Mickiewicz, Goplana based on a tragedy by Juliusz Słowacki, Stara baśń based on a novel by Ignacy Jan Kraszewski. Only one opera, Janek, is based on a libretto written contemporarily by Ludmił German (1851-1921), with whom Żeleński collaborated closely.

It was German, writer, journalist and translator, and later also an active politician (member of the Sejm of the Land), who wrote the libretto for the opera Goplana, based on a poem by Juliusz Słowacki. Żeleński turned to him because he valued his skill as a translator. German translated many of the masterpieces of Polish literature, including Słowacki’s Balladyna, and was thus very familiar with the literary original drawn on by Żeleński. He had no difficulty adapting the work for opera and at the same time produced a German version of the libretto. The composer hoped to have the opera performed abroad, and the score was published in two language versions, Polish and German.

The Songs of Żeleński

Even though his oeuvre was rich and varied, Żeleński was generally regarded as above all a composer of songs. He was perceived as the heir and continuator of Moniuszko’s tradition, which meant that opinions about him adopted two diametrically opposed points of view. Some appreciated his devotion to tradition, the references to history, the national character of his art. For modernists this was unacceptable, and soon they labelled him a conservative and guardian of tradition.

His works are also strongly individualistic. Żeleński’s creative legacy is a valuable contribution to Polish music from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

To the left: Żeleński: Pieśni Kazimierza Tetmajera (1902).

Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849)

Stanisław Moniuszko

(1819-1872)