Page 215 - 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
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oper ettas staged by the slovak national theatr e dur ing the years 1920–1938
tre companies, that served the needs of the original population, in a 1:1:1
ratio. During the 1920s and 1930s, the theatre companies of Károly Polgár,
Dezső Földes, Sándor Iván, Jozef Jarno, Paul Blasel or Rudolf Beer gradual-
ly o perated in the city.5
Jeřábek’s theatre company arrived in Bratislava with a complete
repertoire, naturally in the Czech language, and this was one of the main
objections of the representatives of Slovak national life, ignoring the fact
that there were few Slovak original works and translations. Another essen-
tial objection was the operetta, which was seen as an unwanted element
in the programme of the Slovak National Theatre.6 In the opening season,
Jeřábek premiered 20 operettas in total, which is not a negligible number
considering the four months the theatre had been in existence.7 Besides
the works of Czech authors, such as Maharadžov miláčik [The Maharaja’s
Sweetheart] by E. Starý, which was the first ever operetta staged there, or
Poľská krv [Polish Blood] by O. Nedbal, the programme of the Slovak Na-
tional Theatre included Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Daphnis
and Chloe, Kálmán’s Csárdás Princes, Autumn manoeuvre, Strauss’s Thou
sand and One Nights, and L. Fall’s Rose of Stamboul. Jeřábek’s aim was to
attract a wider audience, for whom operettas suited because of their char-
acter. After all, musical theatre had a long tradition in Bratislava.8 There-
fore, and also because of the smaller language barriers, even the German
and Hungarian inhabitants of the city began to gradually attend these per-
formances. Voices against operettas became stronger, though. A prominent
music critic of the day, Ivan Ballo, spoke up in the press against staging
operettas:
The Cooperative of the Slovak National Theatre is planning to stage
an operetta in our theatre again. The writer is of the quite correct
opinion that staging operettas as part of the programmes of the Slo
vak National Theatre means an artistic degradation and it will not
5 Milena Cesnaková-Michalcová, Premeny divadla: inonárodné divadlá na Slovensku
do roku 1918 (Bratislava: Veda, 1981), 111–2.
6 Zdenka Bokesová, “O cestách vývoja operety v Bratislave,” in Pamätnica Sloven
ského národného divadla, ed. Ján Ferenčík (Bratislava: Slovenské vydavateľstvo krás-
nej literatúry, 1960), 238.
7 All the information about the premieres and the repeats comes from the following
publication: Elena Blahová-Martišová and Ján Jaborník, Súpis repertoáru Sloven
ského národného divadla 1920–2010 (Bratislava: Slovenské národné divadlo, 2010).
8 Jana Lengová, “Hudba v období romantizmu a národno-emancipačných snáh (1830–
1918): Hudobné divadlo,” in Dejiny slovenskej hudby: od najstarších čias po súčas
nosť, ed. Oskár Elschek (Bratislava: ASCO Art & Science, 1996), 206–7.
213
tre companies, that served the needs of the original population, in a 1:1:1
ratio. During the 1920s and 1930s, the theatre companies of Károly Polgár,
Dezső Földes, Sándor Iván, Jozef Jarno, Paul Blasel or Rudolf Beer gradual-
ly o perated in the city.5
Jeřábek’s theatre company arrived in Bratislava with a complete
repertoire, naturally in the Czech language, and this was one of the main
objections of the representatives of Slovak national life, ignoring the fact
that there were few Slovak original works and translations. Another essen-
tial objection was the operetta, which was seen as an unwanted element
in the programme of the Slovak National Theatre.6 In the opening season,
Jeřábek premiered 20 operettas in total, which is not a negligible number
considering the four months the theatre had been in existence.7 Besides
the works of Czech authors, such as Maharadžov miláčik [The Maharaja’s
Sweetheart] by E. Starý, which was the first ever operetta staged there, or
Poľská krv [Polish Blood] by O. Nedbal, the programme of the Slovak Na-
tional Theatre included Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Daphnis
and Chloe, Kálmán’s Csárdás Princes, Autumn manoeuvre, Strauss’s Thou
sand and One Nights, and L. Fall’s Rose of Stamboul. Jeřábek’s aim was to
attract a wider audience, for whom operettas suited because of their char-
acter. After all, musical theatre had a long tradition in Bratislava.8 There-
fore, and also because of the smaller language barriers, even the German
and Hungarian inhabitants of the city began to gradually attend these per-
formances. Voices against operettas became stronger, though. A prominent
music critic of the day, Ivan Ballo, spoke up in the press against staging
operettas:
The Cooperative of the Slovak National Theatre is planning to stage
an operetta in our theatre again. The writer is of the quite correct
opinion that staging operettas as part of the programmes of the Slo
vak National Theatre means an artistic degradation and it will not
5 Milena Cesnaková-Michalcová, Premeny divadla: inonárodné divadlá na Slovensku
do roku 1918 (Bratislava: Veda, 1981), 111–2.
6 Zdenka Bokesová, “O cestách vývoja operety v Bratislave,” in Pamätnica Sloven
ského národného divadla, ed. Ján Ferenčík (Bratislava: Slovenské vydavateľstvo krás-
nej literatúry, 1960), 238.
7 All the information about the premieres and the repeats comes from the following
publication: Elena Blahová-Martišová and Ján Jaborník, Súpis repertoáru Sloven
ského národného divadla 1920–2010 (Bratislava: Slovenské národné divadlo, 2010).
8 Jana Lengová, “Hudba v období romantizmu a národno-emancipačných snáh (1830–
1918): Hudobné divadlo,” in Dejiny slovenskej hudby: od najstarších čias po súčas
nosť, ed. Oskár Elschek (Bratislava: ASCO Art & Science, 1996), 206–7.
213
