Page 380 - 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. 380
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
Jože Sivec made the inter-war situation in Maribor situation very clear
when he wrote:
Because of growing financial difficulties, however, in the 1928–29
season, musical performances had to be limited to operettas. In
the seasons later on the annual repertoires again contained operas,
even if not very many.19
The flood of new operettas must have been an incredible phenome-
non that suited the spirit of the time and proved very helpful for the fi-
nances of the opera house. Many of these theatrical works were brought
in from outside Slovenia, usually in translation, but there was a substantial
number, however, from local composers, too. There are operettas by Viktor
Parma (Caričine amazonke, Nečak), Radovan Gobec (Habakuk) and even
Kozina (Majda), as well as ones by the Croatians Ivan Zajc and Srečko Albi-
ni, the Hungarian Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán as well as the constant stream
of works from Austria. One can see that underlying these performances,
there was in effect a long-running campaign to educate the audiences in the
style and features of operatic performance. It was obviously a gradual pro-
cess, because the more ‘serious’ operas were thinly scattered among the le-
gions of operettas that made up the bulk of the musical productions, at least
in the beginning.
Radovan Gobec
It was in this lively musical environment that the young and very talented
Radovan Gobec (1909–1995) was working during the years 1924 to 1928 as a
trainee teacher in Maribor.20 He was soon to begin to compose his first op-
erettas. These involved country settings, national folk tales, folk dancing,
spoken dialogue and a sense of innocent living, together with music that
was memorable melodically and rhythmically simple and repetitive. Em-
phatically it was all about the present, focussing on everyday lives, rather
than the mythical and traditional subjects of classical opera.
Gobec’s personal background is very illuminating. As related by Ivan
Sivec, throughout his life he moved to different parts of Slovenia, gather-
ing various cultural influences as he went. Certainly in his earlier years he
19 Jože Sivec, Dvesto let Slovenske opere – Two Hundred Years of the Slovene Opera
(1780–1980) (Ljubljana: Opera in Balet SNG Ljubljana, 1981), 28, 84.
20 Ivan Sivec, Radovan Gobec: Mati Slovenije, tvoji smo sinovi ... (Maribor: Založba Ob-
zorja, 2019), 11–8.
378
Jože Sivec made the inter-war situation in Maribor situation very clear
when he wrote:
Because of growing financial difficulties, however, in the 1928–29
season, musical performances had to be limited to operettas. In
the seasons later on the annual repertoires again contained operas,
even if not very many.19
The flood of new operettas must have been an incredible phenome-
non that suited the spirit of the time and proved very helpful for the fi-
nances of the opera house. Many of these theatrical works were brought
in from outside Slovenia, usually in translation, but there was a substantial
number, however, from local composers, too. There are operettas by Viktor
Parma (Caričine amazonke, Nečak), Radovan Gobec (Habakuk) and even
Kozina (Majda), as well as ones by the Croatians Ivan Zajc and Srečko Albi-
ni, the Hungarian Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán as well as the constant stream
of works from Austria. One can see that underlying these performances,
there was in effect a long-running campaign to educate the audiences in the
style and features of operatic performance. It was obviously a gradual pro-
cess, because the more ‘serious’ operas were thinly scattered among the le-
gions of operettas that made up the bulk of the musical productions, at least
in the beginning.
Radovan Gobec
It was in this lively musical environment that the young and very talented
Radovan Gobec (1909–1995) was working during the years 1924 to 1928 as a
trainee teacher in Maribor.20 He was soon to begin to compose his first op-
erettas. These involved country settings, national folk tales, folk dancing,
spoken dialogue and a sense of innocent living, together with music that
was memorable melodically and rhythmically simple and repetitive. Em-
phatically it was all about the present, focussing on everyday lives, rather
than the mythical and traditional subjects of classical opera.
Gobec’s personal background is very illuminating. As related by Ivan
Sivec, throughout his life he moved to different parts of Slovenia, gather-
ing various cultural influences as he went. Certainly in his earlier years he
19 Jože Sivec, Dvesto let Slovenske opere – Two Hundred Years of the Slovene Opera
(1780–1980) (Ljubljana: Opera in Balet SNG Ljubljana, 1981), 28, 84.
20 Ivan Sivec, Radovan Gobec: Mati Slovenije, tvoji smo sinovi ... (Maribor: Založba Ob-
zorja, 2019), 11–8.
378
