Page 251 - 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. 251
contested entertainment: discussions on operetta in belgrade ...
After mentioning the successful performances of individual vocal so-
loists, the choir and orchestra, Milojević praised the conductor Ivan Bre-
zovšek, too, as well as the director Josip Kulundžić, the scenery design-
er Vladimir Žedrinski, the costume designer Milica Babić and others. He
concluded that the audience accepted the performance “with joy” because
it is “a music work of light music (laka muzika), but not frivolous, superfi
cially sentimental and tensely witty, but vivid, honest and expressive in its
kind.”18
One of the reasons for this very positive review is the fact that
in a persistent resistance to operetta […] the team of the Belgrade
Opera who staged Die Fledermaus in 1932, wittingly tried to free
this work from the operettic impurities, forgetting that in this way
they deprived if of its original characteristics. For this reason, Bre
zovšek tried to set this operetta by Johann Strauss like a comic
o pera and he achieved ‘an enviable level of music performance and
the necessary connection between stage and orchestra’.19
During its guest performances in Serbia, the National Theatre performed
Strauss’s operetta in Subotica in May 1933, along with the operas Carmen, Il
barbiere di Siviglia, Il trovatore, and Faust.
However, this performance of Strauss’s operetta was evaluated very
differently to Milojević’s positive review by the composer Milenko Živko
vić (1901–1964), who wrote that Viennese operetta embodies
empty waffling of the degenerated high class, careless boozing of the
furious Habsburg aristocracy gathered around a spoiled and snob
bish (blaziranog) prince who should be placed in the institution for
mentally undeveloped youth.
18 “Naša publika je taj trenutak prhvatilasa radošću, jer je dobila muzičko delo koje je
‘laka muzika’ ali nije frivolna, površno sentimentalna I nategnuto duhovita, već živa,
iskrena I u svojoj vrsti nesumnjivo izrazita.” Ibid.
19 “u upornom suprotstavljanju opereti […] ekipa iz Beogradske opere koja je postavljala
Slepog miša 1932. svesno se trudila da ga oslobodi operetskih primesa, zaboravljajući
da mu na taj način oduzima izvorne osobine. To je razlog što je Brezovšek pokušao da
ovu operetu Johana Štrausa približi komičnoj operi, postigavši ‘zavidan muzički nivo
i potrebnu vezu izmedju scene i orkestra’.” Pejović, Opera i Balet Narodnog pozorišta
u Beogradu, 190.
249
After mentioning the successful performances of individual vocal so-
loists, the choir and orchestra, Milojević praised the conductor Ivan Bre-
zovšek, too, as well as the director Josip Kulundžić, the scenery design-
er Vladimir Žedrinski, the costume designer Milica Babić and others. He
concluded that the audience accepted the performance “with joy” because
it is “a music work of light music (laka muzika), but not frivolous, superfi
cially sentimental and tensely witty, but vivid, honest and expressive in its
kind.”18
One of the reasons for this very positive review is the fact that
in a persistent resistance to operetta […] the team of the Belgrade
Opera who staged Die Fledermaus in 1932, wittingly tried to free
this work from the operettic impurities, forgetting that in this way
they deprived if of its original characteristics. For this reason, Bre
zovšek tried to set this operetta by Johann Strauss like a comic
o pera and he achieved ‘an enviable level of music performance and
the necessary connection between stage and orchestra’.19
During its guest performances in Serbia, the National Theatre performed
Strauss’s operetta in Subotica in May 1933, along with the operas Carmen, Il
barbiere di Siviglia, Il trovatore, and Faust.
However, this performance of Strauss’s operetta was evaluated very
differently to Milojević’s positive review by the composer Milenko Živko
vić (1901–1964), who wrote that Viennese operetta embodies
empty waffling of the degenerated high class, careless boozing of the
furious Habsburg aristocracy gathered around a spoiled and snob
bish (blaziranog) prince who should be placed in the institution for
mentally undeveloped youth.
18 “Naša publika je taj trenutak prhvatilasa radošću, jer je dobila muzičko delo koje je
‘laka muzika’ ali nije frivolna, površno sentimentalna I nategnuto duhovita, već živa,
iskrena I u svojoj vrsti nesumnjivo izrazita.” Ibid.
19 “u upornom suprotstavljanju opereti […] ekipa iz Beogradske opere koja je postavljala
Slepog miša 1932. svesno se trudila da ga oslobodi operetskih primesa, zaboravljajući
da mu na taj način oduzima izvorne osobine. To je razlog što je Brezovšek pokušao da
ovu operetu Johana Štrausa približi komičnoj operi, postigavši ‘zavidan muzički nivo
i potrebnu vezu izmedju scene i orkestra’.” Pejović, Opera i Balet Narodnog pozorišta
u Beogradu, 190.
249
