Page 268 - 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. 268
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
rist ochrana [secret police] and does not hesitate to make use of his political
connections in order to pursue his cynical plans. Staschek’s overt collabora-
tion with the Russian annexation and his close contacts with Korosoff, the
chief of the secret police, introduce a serious element of treason against the
nation. The idea of employing the thread of collaboration with the Russian
authorities links Beer’s operetta with one of the most important 19th-century
operatic works in Poland, Straszny dwór [The Haunted Manor] by Stanisław
Moniuszko, where alleged treason against the nation becomes a crucial part
of the plot.12 Saturated with national content, the plot of Polnische Hochzeit
is one of many clear manifestations of the work’s political implications and
Staschek’s connection with the annexationist regime, introduced to the li-
bretto, not only determined the change of this character into a villain but
also had an impact on the more serious material nature of the composition.
The hero of the opera, Staschek’s nephew Boleslav Zagorski, gains this sta-
tus and that of a patriot when he arrives from the Austrian partition to the
Polish territory (in the Russian partition) under a false name, thus risking
his life for his nation. This serious patriotic-national element makes Polnis
che Hochzeit very different from a typical operetta, the plots of which pri-
marily oscillate around romantic and social relations.
Tension between Poles and Russians, as well as the domination of the
Russian occupying force, are additionally heightened by the constant in-
troduction of political issues to the operetta’s plot. In the libretto there are
many allusions to Russian culture – such as Russian currency (“Rubel”,
“Kopeke”), and apart from ochrana there also appear Cossack troops. En-
croaching in the rhythm of a march, military policemen cry out the words
praising the tsar in the finale of Act I (“Es lebe der Zar!” – “Long live the
tsar!”) and Staschek threatens Boleslav, from time to time, by saying that he
will be sent to Siberia. Listeners who are more familiar with Russian culture
and musical tradition will easily recognise in the musical layer subtle refer-
ences to the works of Modest Mussorgsky, who often stylised Russian folk
music, which are introduced by Beer at the very beginning of the operetta,
in the introduction (Vorspiel). Such elements of stylisation or palimpsest in
Polnische Hochzeit not only play the role of making the composition’s mu-
sical fabric more attractive, but also carry an evident political message: rec-
12 Straszny dwór (1864) by Stanisław Moniuszko is one of the most important works
of Polish national opera, a composition treated in the times of partitions as a mani-
festation of Polishness and a stronghold of patriotic ideals. See: Rüdiger Ritter, Der
Tröster der Nation: Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872) und seine Musik (Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrassowitz, 2019).
266
rist ochrana [secret police] and does not hesitate to make use of his political
connections in order to pursue his cynical plans. Staschek’s overt collabora-
tion with the Russian annexation and his close contacts with Korosoff, the
chief of the secret police, introduce a serious element of treason against the
nation. The idea of employing the thread of collaboration with the Russian
authorities links Beer’s operetta with one of the most important 19th-century
operatic works in Poland, Straszny dwór [The Haunted Manor] by Stanisław
Moniuszko, where alleged treason against the nation becomes a crucial part
of the plot.12 Saturated with national content, the plot of Polnische Hochzeit
is one of many clear manifestations of the work’s political implications and
Staschek’s connection with the annexationist regime, introduced to the li-
bretto, not only determined the change of this character into a villain but
also had an impact on the more serious material nature of the composition.
The hero of the opera, Staschek’s nephew Boleslav Zagorski, gains this sta-
tus and that of a patriot when he arrives from the Austrian partition to the
Polish territory (in the Russian partition) under a false name, thus risking
his life for his nation. This serious patriotic-national element makes Polnis
che Hochzeit very different from a typical operetta, the plots of which pri-
marily oscillate around romantic and social relations.
Tension between Poles and Russians, as well as the domination of the
Russian occupying force, are additionally heightened by the constant in-
troduction of political issues to the operetta’s plot. In the libretto there are
many allusions to Russian culture – such as Russian currency (“Rubel”,
“Kopeke”), and apart from ochrana there also appear Cossack troops. En-
croaching in the rhythm of a march, military policemen cry out the words
praising the tsar in the finale of Act I (“Es lebe der Zar!” – “Long live the
tsar!”) and Staschek threatens Boleslav, from time to time, by saying that he
will be sent to Siberia. Listeners who are more familiar with Russian culture
and musical tradition will easily recognise in the musical layer subtle refer-
ences to the works of Modest Mussorgsky, who often stylised Russian folk
music, which are introduced by Beer at the very beginning of the operetta,
in the introduction (Vorspiel). Such elements of stylisation or palimpsest in
Polnische Hochzeit not only play the role of making the composition’s mu-
sical fabric more attractive, but also carry an evident political message: rec-
12 Straszny dwór (1864) by Stanisław Moniuszko is one of the most important works
of Polish national opera, a composition treated in the times of partitions as a mani-
festation of Polishness and a stronghold of patriotic ideals. See: Rüdiger Ritter, Der
Tröster der Nation: Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872) und seine Musik (Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrassowitz, 2019).
266
