Page 11 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2019. Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju - The Role of National Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 3
P. 11
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-7055-50-4.9-12
The Role of National Opera Houses
in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Jernej Weiss
Univerza v Ljubljani / Univerza v Mariboru
The focus of research interest in the third monographic publication in the
collection Studia musicologica Labacensia, entitled The Role of National
Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries, is the study of the broader, so-
cially conditioned, institutional and musical frameworks of the activity of
national opera houses in this period, with a particular focus on the cente-
nary of the foundation or commencement of activity of the National Thea-
tre Opera in Ljubljana.
Theatrical life in Slovenia, which had run on two separate (nationally
or ethnically differentiated) tracks ever since the founding of the Dramat-
ic Society in 1867, was initially equal only on paper. Slovene persistence and
changes in government policy gradually began to show results in the theat-
rical life of Ljubljana. The intention of the Slovenes – effectively announced
by the inaugural performance of the Slovene Provincial Theatre in Septem-
ber 1892 – was the complete takeover of the cultural institution. This goal
was achieved in 1911, when the German theatrical society built a new, Ger-
man theatre. Ljubljana thus gained two nationally and organisationally en-
tirely separate theatres, whose activities – conditioned by difficult financial
circumstances and, even more so, by political intrigue – were finally inter-
rupted by the First World War.
On 6 April 1918 Ljubljana mayor Ivan Tavčar, writing in the newspa-
per Slovenski narod (The Slovene Nation) under the bombastic headline
“Slovenes!”, announced that “a consortium has been established with the
9
The Role of National Opera Houses
in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Jernej Weiss
Univerza v Ljubljani / Univerza v Mariboru
The focus of research interest in the third monographic publication in the
collection Studia musicologica Labacensia, entitled The Role of National
Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries, is the study of the broader, so-
cially conditioned, institutional and musical frameworks of the activity of
national opera houses in this period, with a particular focus on the cente-
nary of the foundation or commencement of activity of the National Thea-
tre Opera in Ljubljana.
Theatrical life in Slovenia, which had run on two separate (nationally
or ethnically differentiated) tracks ever since the founding of the Dramat-
ic Society in 1867, was initially equal only on paper. Slovene persistence and
changes in government policy gradually began to show results in the theat-
rical life of Ljubljana. The intention of the Slovenes – effectively announced
by the inaugural performance of the Slovene Provincial Theatre in Septem-
ber 1892 – was the complete takeover of the cultural institution. This goal
was achieved in 1911, when the German theatrical society built a new, Ger-
man theatre. Ljubljana thus gained two nationally and organisationally en-
tirely separate theatres, whose activities – conditioned by difficult financial
circumstances and, even more so, by political intrigue – were finally inter-
rupted by the First World War.
On 6 April 1918 Ljubljana mayor Ivan Tavčar, writing in the newspa-
per Slovenski narod (The Slovene Nation) under the bombastic headline
“Slovenes!”, announced that “a consortium has been established with the
9
