Page 48 - 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. 48
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
man with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the gates of
the unknown world of desire.6
This description of Nana as nude in act 2 is in sync with police records
from Munich and reports from Vienna and Paris about the Belle Hélène
bedroom scene in act 2. It is also in sync what Offenbach scholars such as
Laurence Senelick who writes:
Offenbach sounds the leitmotif of sensuality. His opéras bouffes
undermine the prevailing value system by exalting the sway of gai
ety over earnestness, carnal love over sentiment. The heroines of
Orphée aux enfers (1858), La belle Hélène (1864), La Grande Duch-
esse de Gérolstein (1867), and La Périchole (1868) exemplify this
new hedonism: they are women who glory in their sexuality and
are glorified for it.7
Obviously, there’s a fine line between being glorified and being exploit-
ed. Senelick writes:
In provincial small-towns throughout Europe, young women who
accepted contracts to appear in music-halls found that they were
obliged to drink and sleep with the clientele, and their salaries were
withheld to prevent their escape. This became known as la traite des
chanteuses or white slavery of singers.8
It’s important to remember here that operetta first came to the Unit-
ed Kingdom via music halls. In his 2007 book Emily Soldene: In Search of
a Singer Kurt Gänzl writes: “[H]ere, in the music halls, […] Offenbach had
found precisely the kind of performer that his music demands.”9
What these drink-and-sleep-with-the-clientele venues offered – in
Paris, in Vienna, Berlin, and London – were originally elitist spaces that
reflect the liberal and anti-bourgeois attitudes of their audience. In his
book Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time (1937) Siegfried K racauer
observes:
The circle of fashionable gentlemen who were attached to grand
courtesans included nearly 100 men, all of them from aristocrat
6 Zola, Nana, 44–5.
7 Senelick, “Sexuality and Gender,” 82.
8 Ibid., 92.
9 Kurt Gänzl, Emily Soldene: In Search of a Singer, vol. 1 (Wellington: Steele Roberts
Ltd., 2007), 198.
46
man with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the gates of
the unknown world of desire.6
This description of Nana as nude in act 2 is in sync with police records
from Munich and reports from Vienna and Paris about the Belle Hélène
bedroom scene in act 2. It is also in sync what Offenbach scholars such as
Laurence Senelick who writes:
Offenbach sounds the leitmotif of sensuality. His opéras bouffes
undermine the prevailing value system by exalting the sway of gai
ety over earnestness, carnal love over sentiment. The heroines of
Orphée aux enfers (1858), La belle Hélène (1864), La Grande Duch-
esse de Gérolstein (1867), and La Périchole (1868) exemplify this
new hedonism: they are women who glory in their sexuality and
are glorified for it.7
Obviously, there’s a fine line between being glorified and being exploit-
ed. Senelick writes:
In provincial small-towns throughout Europe, young women who
accepted contracts to appear in music-halls found that they were
obliged to drink and sleep with the clientele, and their salaries were
withheld to prevent their escape. This became known as la traite des
chanteuses or white slavery of singers.8
It’s important to remember here that operetta first came to the Unit-
ed Kingdom via music halls. In his 2007 book Emily Soldene: In Search of
a Singer Kurt Gänzl writes: “[H]ere, in the music halls, […] Offenbach had
found precisely the kind of performer that his music demands.”9
What these drink-and-sleep-with-the-clientele venues offered – in
Paris, in Vienna, Berlin, and London – were originally elitist spaces that
reflect the liberal and anti-bourgeois attitudes of their audience. In his
book Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time (1937) Siegfried K racauer
observes:
The circle of fashionable gentlemen who were attached to grand
courtesans included nearly 100 men, all of them from aristocrat
6 Zola, Nana, 44–5.
7 Senelick, “Sexuality and Gender,” 82.
8 Ibid., 92.
9 Kurt Gänzl, Emily Soldene: In Search of a Singer, vol. 1 (Wellington: Steele Roberts
Ltd., 2007), 198.
46
