Page 389 - 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. 389
slovene oper etta at the crossroads: r adovan gobec’s planinsk a roža
performance of many of these patriotic songs.35 Prominent in his later post-
war work in opera proper was Kri v plamenih of 1969.36 Ivan Sivec makes
clear the important change in Gobec’s life after the war:
To reinforce this change of direction Gobec now embarked on a full-
scale musical training at Ljubljana’s Academy of Music. Despite his
successful career so far, he wanted to realize his intention to com
plete his musical education, so in 1946 he enrolled at the Ljubljana
Central Music School, which in those days was still attached to the
Academy of Music, and completed it in one year. In the following
autumn, he then became a student of the Academy of Music, where
he studied composition with Blaž Arnič and Lucijan Marija Šker
janc, and conducting with professor Danilo Švara. In both fields, he
graduated with a concert in the Slovene Philharmonic in June 1951.
Even before the war, as he says himself, he repeatedly wrote for ad
vice to Emil Adamič and Slavko Osterc, who advised him on com
positional issues.37
Slovene Operetta at the Crossroads
The conclusion that we now reach is not about something that happened
suddenly. It was a gradual process that transformed Slovene operetta. In the
years before the First World War operetta was very strong while more seri-
ous opera was only modestly represented. There was, however, a short pe-
riod in the early years of the 20th century that saw a brief resurgence in
the popularity of operetta as shown in the number of performances in Lju-
bljana. The Ljubljana opera house did not function during World War One,
but started again immediately after the armistice in 1918. In 1919 the Mari-
bor Opera House opened with a series of operettas and a small number of
more serious operas. As in Ljubljana the nature of the productions changed
gradually with fewer operettas appearing. The feeling is that the audienc-
35 Archive recordings of Partisan music, stirring choruses with military band accom-
paniment, have been published on three CDs. The first is Naša partizanska pesem
(Ljubljana: RTV Slovenija 101526, 1998) in which fifteen out of twenty-four choruses
are directed by Radovan Gobec; the other two CDs are Bella ciao (Maribor, Ljublja-
na: Obzorja, Helidon 6770929, 1998) and Hej brigade (Maribor, Ljubljana: Obzorja,
Helidon 6770928, 1998), in which all 33 choruses from both discs were directed by
Gobec, who was also responsible for much of the scoring and arrangements.
36 Borut Smrekar, “Operna dela Radovana Gobca,” in Radovan Gobec (1909–1995), ed.
Darja Koter (Ljubljana: Akademija za glasbo, 2010), 133–43.
37 Sivec, Radovan Gobec, 66.
387
performance of many of these patriotic songs.35 Prominent in his later post-
war work in opera proper was Kri v plamenih of 1969.36 Ivan Sivec makes
clear the important change in Gobec’s life after the war:
To reinforce this change of direction Gobec now embarked on a full-
scale musical training at Ljubljana’s Academy of Music. Despite his
successful career so far, he wanted to realize his intention to com
plete his musical education, so in 1946 he enrolled at the Ljubljana
Central Music School, which in those days was still attached to the
Academy of Music, and completed it in one year. In the following
autumn, he then became a student of the Academy of Music, where
he studied composition with Blaž Arnič and Lucijan Marija Šker
janc, and conducting with professor Danilo Švara. In both fields, he
graduated with a concert in the Slovene Philharmonic in June 1951.
Even before the war, as he says himself, he repeatedly wrote for ad
vice to Emil Adamič and Slavko Osterc, who advised him on com
positional issues.37
Slovene Operetta at the Crossroads
The conclusion that we now reach is not about something that happened
suddenly. It was a gradual process that transformed Slovene operetta. In the
years before the First World War operetta was very strong while more seri-
ous opera was only modestly represented. There was, however, a short pe-
riod in the early years of the 20th century that saw a brief resurgence in
the popularity of operetta as shown in the number of performances in Lju-
bljana. The Ljubljana opera house did not function during World War One,
but started again immediately after the armistice in 1918. In 1919 the Mari-
bor Opera House opened with a series of operettas and a small number of
more serious operas. As in Ljubljana the nature of the productions changed
gradually with fewer operettas appearing. The feeling is that the audienc-
35 Archive recordings of Partisan music, stirring choruses with military band accom-
paniment, have been published on three CDs. The first is Naša partizanska pesem
(Ljubljana: RTV Slovenija 101526, 1998) in which fifteen out of twenty-four choruses
are directed by Radovan Gobec; the other two CDs are Bella ciao (Maribor, Ljublja-
na: Obzorja, Helidon 6770929, 1998) and Hej brigade (Maribor, Ljubljana: Obzorja,
Helidon 6770928, 1998), in which all 33 choruses from both discs were directed by
Gobec, who was also responsible for much of the scoring and arrangements.
36 Borut Smrekar, “Operna dela Radovana Gobca,” in Radovan Gobec (1909–1995), ed.
Darja Koter (Ljubljana: Akademija za glasbo, 2010), 133–43.
37 Sivec, Radovan Gobec, 66.
387
