Page 12 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 12
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
ied for publication here by his Viennese colleague Hartmut Krones. As a
token of remembrance and gratitude for decades of active cooperation and
the lasting legacy of his contribution to the development of the musicolog-
ical symposium of Slovenian Music Days, we dedicate this publication to
Peter Andraschke.
The present monograph in the Studia musicologica Labacensia collec-
tion, entitled Operetta between the Two World Wars: Commemorating the
Centenary of the Opera of the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor, plac-
es the focus on operetta, which appears to constitute something of a gap in
Slovene musicological research to date. Frequently seen as trivial, the genre
has long been unfairly relegated to the margins of research interest both in
Slovenia and in some other parts of Europe.
By contrast, the staging of musical-dramatic works in the late nine-
teenth century was strongly dominated by operetta, which effectively dictat-
ed the programmes of provincial theatres while at the same time condition-
ing their numerical strength (in terms of company size and composition)
and financial success. Up-to-date in terms of subject matter, visually effec-
tive and musically attractive, operetta was not merely in tune with spir-
it of its time, it embodied that spirit, becoming a phenomenon that con-
quered theatre stages throughout Europe. As Volker Klotz illustrates in his
handy “portrait” of the genre,1 operetta’s mass appeal and the all-encom-
passing nature of the phenomenon, which soon outgrew the musical stage,
meant that it was often seen as aesthetically suspect – we need only remem-
ber Adorno’s definition of the “realistic” framework of operetta.2 Despite
criticisms of this sort, when its full potential in terms of music and libretto
– not to mention acting, costume design and set design – is taken into ac-
count, operetta seems to be much more than simply a lighter, standardised
form of entertainment. Although the genre rarely appears on the horizons
of composers working today, some immortal operettas of the past contin-
ue to express surprisingly modern, innovative and critical interpretations
of reality in every new guise in which they appear. Or as Moritz Csáky puts
it in his sociologically profound and historically accurate essay on the ide-
ology of Viennese operetta: “the lasting relevance of the questions about hu
1 Volker Klotz, Operette. Porträt und Handbuch einer unerhörten Kunst (Kassel:
Bärenreiter, 2004).
2 Theodor W. Adorno, “Leichte Musik,” in Dissonanzen. Einleitung in die Musiksozio
logie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973), 202.
10
ied for publication here by his Viennese colleague Hartmut Krones. As a
token of remembrance and gratitude for decades of active cooperation and
the lasting legacy of his contribution to the development of the musicolog-
ical symposium of Slovenian Music Days, we dedicate this publication to
Peter Andraschke.
The present monograph in the Studia musicologica Labacensia collec-
tion, entitled Operetta between the Two World Wars: Commemorating the
Centenary of the Opera of the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor, plac-
es the focus on operetta, which appears to constitute something of a gap in
Slovene musicological research to date. Frequently seen as trivial, the genre
has long been unfairly relegated to the margins of research interest both in
Slovenia and in some other parts of Europe.
By contrast, the staging of musical-dramatic works in the late nine-
teenth century was strongly dominated by operetta, which effectively dictat-
ed the programmes of provincial theatres while at the same time condition-
ing their numerical strength (in terms of company size and composition)
and financial success. Up-to-date in terms of subject matter, visually effec-
tive and musically attractive, operetta was not merely in tune with spir-
it of its time, it embodied that spirit, becoming a phenomenon that con-
quered theatre stages throughout Europe. As Volker Klotz illustrates in his
handy “portrait” of the genre,1 operetta’s mass appeal and the all-encom-
passing nature of the phenomenon, which soon outgrew the musical stage,
meant that it was often seen as aesthetically suspect – we need only remem-
ber Adorno’s definition of the “realistic” framework of operetta.2 Despite
criticisms of this sort, when its full potential in terms of music and libretto
– not to mention acting, costume design and set design – is taken into ac-
count, operetta seems to be much more than simply a lighter, standardised
form of entertainment. Although the genre rarely appears on the horizons
of composers working today, some immortal operettas of the past contin-
ue to express surprisingly modern, innovative and critical interpretations
of reality in every new guise in which they appear. Or as Moritz Csáky puts
it in his sociologically profound and historically accurate essay on the ide-
ology of Viennese operetta: “the lasting relevance of the questions about hu
1 Volker Klotz, Operette. Porträt und Handbuch einer unerhörten Kunst (Kassel:
Bärenreiter, 2004).
2 Theodor W. Adorno, “Leichte Musik,” in Dissonanzen. Einleitung in die Musiksozio
logie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973), 202.
10
