Page 224 - 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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opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
the New Viennese Conservatory (Neues Wiener Conservatorium). His first
operetta, Tisíc metrov lásky [A Thousand Metres of Love] was premiered
in the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava even before his graduation. He
composed it based on the theme of a comedy by Emanuel Brožík in collab-
oration with Juraj Haluzický. After the premiere of this three-act operetta
(5 December 1935), the critics noted the entrance of a prominent figure on
the scene of Slovak entertaining musical productions:
Gracious melodies, delightful to the ears of the audience, intertwine
with the entire plot, and they will soon become popular. The live
ly jazz rhythms in various forms of modern dances came as a sur
prise. The instrumentation makes a skilful use of all the possibilities
of timbre – up to dense, rich sound.25
The premiere of his second operetta, Keď rozkvitne máj [When May
Bursts into Blossom], took place on 14 May 1938. The praise that this three-
act operetta received, whose libretto was written by Pavol Braxatoris, sur-
passed all expectations. One report noted that:
the whole work matched and, in certain aspects, even exceeded the
standard of the regular foreign operettas, while a touch of softness
and grace leaves a pleasant impression of this operetta.26
Unlike Móry, Dusík fully declared his Slovak nationality, and even his
music had a Slovak (folk) character in terms of melody and rhythm, which
was one of its positive features praised by the critics. In this operetta, Dusík
drew on the style outlined in his first, and this style became characteris-
tic of his work. Although he based his operettas on his own lyrical melo-
dies, or on modern rhythms (fox, tango, waltz), for a long time he followed
the formal scheme of Viennese operettas with a lyrical and a young com-
ic pair, with a preference for closed pieces of a song character, and inser-
tions of dance pieces often created from the central melodies. The prelude
summarises the most striking melodies and rhythms. He used recitatives,
melodrama and more elaborately composed musical pieces only in his lat-
er operettas. However, what is unrepeatable and omnipresent is the folk
character of Dusík’s melodies and his response to contemporary, modern
rhythms.27
25 Ursínyová, Cesty operety, 68.
26 Ibid., 69.
27 Terézia Ursínyová, “Vyhostené (?) dieťa múz,” Hudobný život 39, no. 5 (2007): 27.
222
the New Viennese Conservatory (Neues Wiener Conservatorium). His first
operetta, Tisíc metrov lásky [A Thousand Metres of Love] was premiered
in the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava even before his graduation. He
composed it based on the theme of a comedy by Emanuel Brožík in collab-
oration with Juraj Haluzický. After the premiere of this three-act operetta
(5 December 1935), the critics noted the entrance of a prominent figure on
the scene of Slovak entertaining musical productions:
Gracious melodies, delightful to the ears of the audience, intertwine
with the entire plot, and they will soon become popular. The live
ly jazz rhythms in various forms of modern dances came as a sur
prise. The instrumentation makes a skilful use of all the possibilities
of timbre – up to dense, rich sound.25
The premiere of his second operetta, Keď rozkvitne máj [When May
Bursts into Blossom], took place on 14 May 1938. The praise that this three-
act operetta received, whose libretto was written by Pavol Braxatoris, sur-
passed all expectations. One report noted that:
the whole work matched and, in certain aspects, even exceeded the
standard of the regular foreign operettas, while a touch of softness
and grace leaves a pleasant impression of this operetta.26
Unlike Móry, Dusík fully declared his Slovak nationality, and even his
music had a Slovak (folk) character in terms of melody and rhythm, which
was one of its positive features praised by the critics. In this operetta, Dusík
drew on the style outlined in his first, and this style became characteris-
tic of his work. Although he based his operettas on his own lyrical melo-
dies, or on modern rhythms (fox, tango, waltz), for a long time he followed
the formal scheme of Viennese operettas with a lyrical and a young com-
ic pair, with a preference for closed pieces of a song character, and inser-
tions of dance pieces often created from the central melodies. The prelude
summarises the most striking melodies and rhythms. He used recitatives,
melodrama and more elaborately composed musical pieces only in his lat-
er operettas. However, what is unrepeatable and omnipresent is the folk
character of Dusík’s melodies and his response to contemporary, modern
rhythms.27
25 Ursínyová, Cesty operety, 68.
26 Ibid., 69.
27 Terézia Ursínyová, “Vyhostené (?) dieťa múz,” Hudobný život 39, no. 5 (2007): 27.
222
