Page 375 - 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. 375
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-055-4.373-390
Slovene Operetta at the Crossroads:
Radovan Gobec’s Planinska roža
Niall O’Loughlin
Univerza v Loughboroughu
Loughborough University
The Background – Opera and Operetta
From its very early development opera was considered a serious attempt to
recreate the drama of classical Greece. This included many mythical plots
involved with the Trojan War and its consequences. For the ancient Greeks
this was central to their theatrical experience. The innovations of the Flor-
entine Camerata of the 17th century had aimed to recreate these dramas
with the then current musical forms, especially recitative, arioso and aria.
The first major opera, Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, instilled the mythical
story of Orpheus and Euridice with a dramatic element which was general-
ly lacking in the earlier operas, making the opera operate on a serious emo-
tional level.1 As opera developed as a form, a number of different styles ap-
peared, with numerous distinct variations in its character appearing, often
indicated by different labels, e. g. opera seria and opéra comique.2 By the lat-
er 18th century opera seria was well established, for example, in Mozart’s
operas Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito,3 but even then it was considered
rather old-fashioned. Reaction against serious opera was well established
1 John Whenham, Claudio Monteverdi Orfeo (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1986), 42–77, discusses the dramatic action and its music in some detail.
2 The notorious Querelle des bouffons which took place in Paris in the years 1752 to
1754 ended in a ‘triumph’ for Italian music over French. More significantly this was
‘the triumph of comic opera over serious opera’, as Edward J. Dent wrote in Mozart’s
Operas: A Critical Study (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 9.
3 Dent, Mozart’s Operas, 209–17.
373
Slovene Operetta at the Crossroads:
Radovan Gobec’s Planinska roža
Niall O’Loughlin
Univerza v Loughboroughu
Loughborough University
The Background – Opera and Operetta
From its very early development opera was considered a serious attempt to
recreate the drama of classical Greece. This included many mythical plots
involved with the Trojan War and its consequences. For the ancient Greeks
this was central to their theatrical experience. The innovations of the Flor-
entine Camerata of the 17th century had aimed to recreate these dramas
with the then current musical forms, especially recitative, arioso and aria.
The first major opera, Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, instilled the mythical
story of Orpheus and Euridice with a dramatic element which was general-
ly lacking in the earlier operas, making the opera operate on a serious emo-
tional level.1 As opera developed as a form, a number of different styles ap-
peared, with numerous distinct variations in its character appearing, often
indicated by different labels, e. g. opera seria and opéra comique.2 By the lat-
er 18th century opera seria was well established, for example, in Mozart’s
operas Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito,3 but even then it was considered
rather old-fashioned. Reaction against serious opera was well established
1 John Whenham, Claudio Monteverdi Orfeo (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1986), 42–77, discusses the dramatic action and its music in some detail.
2 The notorious Querelle des bouffons which took place in Paris in the years 1752 to
1754 ended in a ‘triumph’ for Italian music over French. More significantly this was
‘the triumph of comic opera over serious opera’, as Edward J. Dent wrote in Mozart’s
Operas: A Critical Study (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 9.
3 Dent, Mozart’s Operas, 209–17.
373
