Page 12 - 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. 12
vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju
purpose of reviving the Slovene Theatre in Ljubljana and creating a sol-
id financial basis for it.”1 A board of directors was appointed, consisting
of representatives of politics and capital. The consortium was led by the
wholesale merchant Alojzij Lilleg and a theatrical council, which includ-
ed some leading representatives of the Slovene cultural community at that
time: Anton Funtek, Matej Hubad, Fran Saleški Finžgar, Alojz Kraigher,
Oton Župančič and Izidor Cankar. The greatest credit for the renovation
of the theatre undoubtedly belongs to Fran Govekar, who brought togeth-
er the necessary technical staff, singers, orchestra, chorus and conductors.
It was thanks to his personal efforts that a Slovene opera and ballet ensem-
ble began its activity with the operetta Les p’tites Michu by André Messag-
er on 21 November 1918, followed by a magnificent staging of Smetana’s The
Bartered Bride on 3 December 1918.2 The latter performance showed some-
thing that had already been demonstrated countless times, namely the con-
nection between the Slovene and Czech nations. At the same time it was an
acknowledgement of the fraternal favours that the Slovene theatre had re-
ceived from the Czechs.
If in the nineteenth century opera continued to serve as the privileged
standard-bearer of national symbols, particularly in the case of emerging
nations, the Slovenes among them, with the rise of belligerent nationalism
in the first half of the twentieth century, it became primarily a political tool
of various nationalist and totalitarian upheavals, before national distinc-
tions in opera were ultimately eliminated with the internationalisation that
marked the second half of the twentieth century.
For the most part, such modernist transformative perspectives have
yet to reach the Slovene reception of opera. As a result, we are still dealing
with synthetic discourses that are the result not of analytical stances but,
above all, of a mythologisation of the national in opera as an essential dis-
tinguishing criterion.
For this reason, too, despite primary historiographical research in the
field of opera being largely complete, the results of this research in Slovenia
have never really come close to analysing those questions connected to the
lack of institutional regulation of operatic art, cultural and repertoire poli-
cy, opera house management strategies, personnel and social climate, prob-
lems of premises, media representations of opera, and so on, which have
1 Ivan Tavčar, “Slovenke in Slovenci!,” Slovenski narod 51 (1918), 78 (6. 4.): 1.
2 Dušan Moravec, ed., Repertoar slovenskih gledališč 1867–1967 (Ljubljana: Slovenski
gledališki muzej, 1967), 204.
10
purpose of reviving the Slovene Theatre in Ljubljana and creating a sol-
id financial basis for it.”1 A board of directors was appointed, consisting
of representatives of politics and capital. The consortium was led by the
wholesale merchant Alojzij Lilleg and a theatrical council, which includ-
ed some leading representatives of the Slovene cultural community at that
time: Anton Funtek, Matej Hubad, Fran Saleški Finžgar, Alojz Kraigher,
Oton Župančič and Izidor Cankar. The greatest credit for the renovation
of the theatre undoubtedly belongs to Fran Govekar, who brought togeth-
er the necessary technical staff, singers, orchestra, chorus and conductors.
It was thanks to his personal efforts that a Slovene opera and ballet ensem-
ble began its activity with the operetta Les p’tites Michu by André Messag-
er on 21 November 1918, followed by a magnificent staging of Smetana’s The
Bartered Bride on 3 December 1918.2 The latter performance showed some-
thing that had already been demonstrated countless times, namely the con-
nection between the Slovene and Czech nations. At the same time it was an
acknowledgement of the fraternal favours that the Slovene theatre had re-
ceived from the Czechs.
If in the nineteenth century opera continued to serve as the privileged
standard-bearer of national symbols, particularly in the case of emerging
nations, the Slovenes among them, with the rise of belligerent nationalism
in the first half of the twentieth century, it became primarily a political tool
of various nationalist and totalitarian upheavals, before national distinc-
tions in opera were ultimately eliminated with the internationalisation that
marked the second half of the twentieth century.
For the most part, such modernist transformative perspectives have
yet to reach the Slovene reception of opera. As a result, we are still dealing
with synthetic discourses that are the result not of analytical stances but,
above all, of a mythologisation of the national in opera as an essential dis-
tinguishing criterion.
For this reason, too, despite primary historiographical research in the
field of opera being largely complete, the results of this research in Slovenia
have never really come close to analysing those questions connected to the
lack of institutional regulation of operatic art, cultural and repertoire poli-
cy, opera house management strategies, personnel and social climate, prob-
lems of premises, media representations of opera, and so on, which have
1 Ivan Tavčar, “Slovenke in Slovenci!,” Slovenski narod 51 (1918), 78 (6. 4.): 1.
2 Dušan Moravec, ed., Repertoar slovenskih gledališč 1867–1967 (Ljubljana: Slovenski
gledališki muzej, 1967), 204.
10
