Page 245 - 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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contested entertainment: discussions on operetta in belgrade ...
Operetta, including both original works (Jacques Offenbach, Franz
von Suppé, Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, alias Hervé, and Carl Jo-
seph Millöcker, as well as by numerous minor composers) and nationalised
a daptations (translations and nationalisations like posrbe), had a significant
role on the stage of the Belgrade National Theatre prior to World War I.
During the interwar period, however, it was almost completely excluded
from the institution’s repertoire. A quite different case was the Serbian Na-
tional Theatre in Novi Sad: in 1920/1921 the Operetta was established, fol-
lowed by the Opera, and while it was active,3 there were numerous perfor-
mances of operettas. During the season 1924/1925, for instance, there were
104 such performances, along with 48 opera performances. Among the for-
mer, the most popular were works by Emmerich Kálmán and Franz Lehár.4
Operetta was strongly criticized by Belgrade intellectuals, literary
and theatre critics, numerous composers, music writers and the first pro-
fessional musicologists (Milan Grol, Petar Konjović, Petar Krstić, Miloje
M ilojević, and others), who regularly wrote reviews of the performances
in daily newspapers, journals, and other publications. The main discours-
es about operetta in the interwar period were related to institutionalisation
as a form of so-called Europeanisation and strategies of its professionalisa-
tion. The first steps of national theatre activities were burdened by a lack of
professionalism and technical difficulties,5 which also impacted operetta.
As Roksanda Pejović pointed out, the National Theatre started perform-
ing operas unprepared, resulting in problematic performances due to the
incomplete and unprofessional ensemble.6 For this reason, one of the dis-
courses on operetta was related to the critique of the institutional obstacles
to the development of a high-level artistic repertoire, ranging from ama-
teur vocal soloists and conductors, to dilapidated scenery and impractical
3 The Opera and Operetta in Novi Sad stopped working in 1925 and the Opera fully
revived only after World War II, in 1947, with a short period of activity prior to the
war.
4 Luka Dotlić, 20 godina obnovljene Opere SNP-a (Novi Sad: Srpsko narodno po-
zorište, 1968).
5 See Biljana Milanović, “Opera Productions of the Belgrade National Theatre at the
Beginning of the 20th Century Between Political Rivalry and Contested Cultural
Strategies,” in Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju/The Role of Na
tional Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries, ed. Jernej Weiss (Koper, Ljublja-
na: Založba Univerze na Primorskem, Festival Ljubljana, 2019), 231–51, https://doi.
org/10.26493/978-961-7055-50-4.
6 Roksanda Pejović, Opera i Balet Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu 1882–1941 (Bel-
grade: Fakultet muzičke umetnosti, 1996), 25.
243
Operetta, including both original works (Jacques Offenbach, Franz
von Suppé, Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, alias Hervé, and Carl Jo-
seph Millöcker, as well as by numerous minor composers) and nationalised
a daptations (translations and nationalisations like posrbe), had a significant
role on the stage of the Belgrade National Theatre prior to World War I.
During the interwar period, however, it was almost completely excluded
from the institution’s repertoire. A quite different case was the Serbian Na-
tional Theatre in Novi Sad: in 1920/1921 the Operetta was established, fol-
lowed by the Opera, and while it was active,3 there were numerous perfor-
mances of operettas. During the season 1924/1925, for instance, there were
104 such performances, along with 48 opera performances. Among the for-
mer, the most popular were works by Emmerich Kálmán and Franz Lehár.4
Operetta was strongly criticized by Belgrade intellectuals, literary
and theatre critics, numerous composers, music writers and the first pro-
fessional musicologists (Milan Grol, Petar Konjović, Petar Krstić, Miloje
M ilojević, and others), who regularly wrote reviews of the performances
in daily newspapers, journals, and other publications. The main discours-
es about operetta in the interwar period were related to institutionalisation
as a form of so-called Europeanisation and strategies of its professionalisa-
tion. The first steps of national theatre activities were burdened by a lack of
professionalism and technical difficulties,5 which also impacted operetta.
As Roksanda Pejović pointed out, the National Theatre started perform-
ing operas unprepared, resulting in problematic performances due to the
incomplete and unprofessional ensemble.6 For this reason, one of the dis-
courses on operetta was related to the critique of the institutional obstacles
to the development of a high-level artistic repertoire, ranging from ama-
teur vocal soloists and conductors, to dilapidated scenery and impractical
3 The Opera and Operetta in Novi Sad stopped working in 1925 and the Opera fully
revived only after World War II, in 1947, with a short period of activity prior to the
war.
4 Luka Dotlić, 20 godina obnovljene Opere SNP-a (Novi Sad: Srpsko narodno po-
zorište, 1968).
5 See Biljana Milanović, “Opera Productions of the Belgrade National Theatre at the
Beginning of the 20th Century Between Political Rivalry and Contested Cultural
Strategies,” in Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju/The Role of Na
tional Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries, ed. Jernej Weiss (Koper, Ljublja-
na: Založba Univerze na Primorskem, Festival Ljubljana, 2019), 231–51, https://doi.
org/10.26493/978-961-7055-50-4.
6 Roksanda Pejović, Opera i Balet Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu 1882–1941 (Bel-
grade: Fakultet muzičke umetnosti, 1996), 25.
243
