Page 243 - 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. 243
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-055-4.241-253
Contested entertainment:
Discussions on operetta in Belgrade,
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Tatjana Marković
Avstrijska Akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Dunaj
ACDH, Department of Musicology
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Art music of western/central European provenance was introduced in the
Ottoman provinces in southeast Europe in the nineteenth century, with
some earlier exceptions. The meta-national identities of these lands were
based on the Orthodox Christianity and formed the Rumi millet of the Or-
thodox community, in accordance with the Ottoman system dividing its
inhabitants by religion.1 Additionally, some of these identities were con-
nected via Pan-Slavism. The import of nationalism from western Europe
marked a deep change of the meso-regional self-representation: due to the
numerous migrations over centuries and significant diaspora, it was not
unusual to find multiple national identities of the Balkan peoples. Serbia
is one of the characteristic examples – national self-representation was un-
derstood significantly different in the Serbian Principality/Kingdom and in
the Serbian community in the Habsburg Monarchy. It is noteworthy that
the main signifiers of national identity, such as the vernacular language,
first literary works in the vernacular, or first publications of national mu-
sic (arrangements of folk songs) appeared in the diaspora, in Vienna. Serbi-
an national theatres were founded in both communities: in 1834 in Kragu-
jevac (Theatre of Serbian Principality [Knjaževsko serbski teatar]), 1861 in
1 “The word ‘millet’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘millah’ and means religious com
munity or denomination. Under the Ottoman rule, there were several ‘millets’: The Or
thodox Christian millet, the Armenian millet and the Jewish millet.” This term is in-
troduced only in the nineteenth century. See Daniel Goffman, “Ottoman millets in
the Early Seventeenth Century,” New Perspectives on Turkey 11 (1994): 135–58.
241
Contested entertainment:
Discussions on operetta in Belgrade,
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Tatjana Marković
Avstrijska Akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Dunaj
ACDH, Department of Musicology
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Art music of western/central European provenance was introduced in the
Ottoman provinces in southeast Europe in the nineteenth century, with
some earlier exceptions. The meta-national identities of these lands were
based on the Orthodox Christianity and formed the Rumi millet of the Or-
thodox community, in accordance with the Ottoman system dividing its
inhabitants by religion.1 Additionally, some of these identities were con-
nected via Pan-Slavism. The import of nationalism from western Europe
marked a deep change of the meso-regional self-representation: due to the
numerous migrations over centuries and significant diaspora, it was not
unusual to find multiple national identities of the Balkan peoples. Serbia
is one of the characteristic examples – national self-representation was un-
derstood significantly different in the Serbian Principality/Kingdom and in
the Serbian community in the Habsburg Monarchy. It is noteworthy that
the main signifiers of national identity, such as the vernacular language,
first literary works in the vernacular, or first publications of national mu-
sic (arrangements of folk songs) appeared in the diaspora, in Vienna. Serbi-
an national theatres were founded in both communities: in 1834 in Kragu-
jevac (Theatre of Serbian Principality [Knjaževsko serbski teatar]), 1861 in
1 “The word ‘millet’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘millah’ and means religious com
munity or denomination. Under the Ottoman rule, there were several ‘millets’: The Or
thodox Christian millet, the Armenian millet and the Jewish millet.” This term is in-
troduced only in the nineteenth century. See Daniel Goffman, “Ottoman millets in
the Early Seventeenth Century,” New Perspectives on Turkey 11 (1994): 135–58.
241
