Page 563 - 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. 563
summaries
Schlüsselwörter: Operette, Julius Korngold, Johann Strauss, Moralität,
Afterkunst
Tatjana Marković
Contested entertainment: Discussions on operetta
in Belgrade, the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia
The most popular stage music forms of spoken theatre with music num-
bers, performed prior to and at the same time as opera, were known un-
der the various names, such as theatre plays with music, operetta, vaude-
ville, and varieté. Such works contributed to the foundation of the Serbian
national (music) theatre repertoire by translations and adaptations/nation-
alisation (posrbe) of French, German, and Hungarian models, transferred
from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The communicativeness of these mu-
sic stage works was provided by language, topic, and folk(-like) or urban
popular music, as well as recognisable iconography (national costumes).
The tradition was enriched until 1914 and continued in the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/the Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941. Contrary
to the former Habsburg provinces (Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina), where the
operetta was deeply rooted, it entered the repertoire of the National Theatre
in Belgrade in 1882 with Davorin Jenko‘s Vračara (The Sorceress), regarded
as the first Serbian operetta.
Operetta, including both original works (Offenbach, Suppé, Strauss) and
nationalised adaptations, had a minor role on the stage of the Belgrade Na-
tional Theatre, namely the Belgrade Opera (1920), during the period be-
tween the two World Wars. Although operetta was not only the most popu-
lar part of the repertoire but also of key importance for the economic aspect
of the institution’s work before World War I, it was strongly criticised by in-
tellectuals, numerous literary and theatre critics, composers, music writers
and the first professional musicologists in their reviews of the performanc-
es in daily newspapers and periodicals, as well as in other publications. This
paper will discuss the main discourses about operetta and cultural policy
of the National Theatre (Narodno pozorište) in Belgrade, the capital of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in the context of the continuity with the pre-World
War I period.
Keywords: operetta, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, Serbia, music writers, cultural transfer
561
Schlüsselwörter: Operette, Julius Korngold, Johann Strauss, Moralität,
Afterkunst
Tatjana Marković
Contested entertainment: Discussions on operetta
in Belgrade, the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia
The most popular stage music forms of spoken theatre with music num-
bers, performed prior to and at the same time as opera, were known un-
der the various names, such as theatre plays with music, operetta, vaude-
ville, and varieté. Such works contributed to the foundation of the Serbian
national (music) theatre repertoire by translations and adaptations/nation-
alisation (posrbe) of French, German, and Hungarian models, transferred
from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The communicativeness of these mu-
sic stage works was provided by language, topic, and folk(-like) or urban
popular music, as well as recognisable iconography (national costumes).
The tradition was enriched until 1914 and continued in the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/the Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941. Contrary
to the former Habsburg provinces (Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina), where the
operetta was deeply rooted, it entered the repertoire of the National Theatre
in Belgrade in 1882 with Davorin Jenko‘s Vračara (The Sorceress), regarded
as the first Serbian operetta.
Operetta, including both original works (Offenbach, Suppé, Strauss) and
nationalised adaptations, had a minor role on the stage of the Belgrade Na-
tional Theatre, namely the Belgrade Opera (1920), during the period be-
tween the two World Wars. Although operetta was not only the most popu-
lar part of the repertoire but also of key importance for the economic aspect
of the institution’s work before World War I, it was strongly criticised by in-
tellectuals, numerous literary and theatre critics, composers, music writers
and the first professional musicologists in their reviews of the performanc-
es in daily newspapers and periodicals, as well as in other publications. This
paper will discuss the main discourses about operetta and cultural policy
of the National Theatre (Narodno pozorište) in Belgrade, the capital of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in the context of the continuity with the pre-World
War I period.
Keywords: operetta, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, Serbia, music writers, cultural transfer
561
