Page 132 - 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. 132
vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju
preponderantly analytical work, focusing on Romanian opera, ballet, and
operetta; and Hronicul Operei Române [The Chronicle of Romanian Opera],
a very detailed chronicle of the Bucharest Opera (seasons, repertoires, so-
loists, managers, the particular problems that the institution faced, and so
on), structured chronologically: from its beginnings as a Romanian com-
pany (1885) to its proper establishment as a state institution in 1921 (volume
1, Bucharest, Editura Muzicală, 2003); the years 1921-1953 (volume 2, Bu-
charest, Editura Academiei Române [The Publishing House of the Roma-
nian Academy], 2017); and 1953-1970 (volume 3, Bucharest, Editura Acade-
miei Române, 2017).
Written during a time of totalitarianism, the 1962 volumes are pervad-
ed by Communist ideology. Cosma, who was educated in Mihail Druskin’s
(1905-1991) musicology class at the Rimski-Korsakov Leningrad Conserva-
tory, reaches here an enviable virtuosity in the employment of socialist re-
alist theory, for which he was awarded the Prize of the Romanian Academy.
His discourse in the 2000s, on the other hand, mirrors as much as possi-
ble Romania’s present ambition to adopt Western values, as a member state
of the European Union. The author now adopts an intransigent attitude to-
wards both strains of Romanian totalitarianism: he attacks both the Iron
Guard (an extreme right-wing Romanian movement, which aped German
Nazism) and the Communist regime of 1947-1989.
The manner in which the same author offers two different understand-
ings of Romanian opera, more than fifty years apart, in different political
contexts, can help us grasp the extent to which a totalitarian ideology may
warp the writing of musicology. The period of time I have selected for this
comparison spans the years between the institutionalization of the Bucha-
rest Opera (1921) and the publishing of Cosma’s first book (1962). (I have,
as such, omitted from this comparative analysis the period preceding the
institutionalization of the Bucharest Opera, which Cosma has also vivid-
ly explored2).
2 The first volumes of both works, Opera românească, volume 1 (Bucharest: Editura
Muzicală, 1962), and Hronicul Operei Române, volume 1 (Bucharest: Editura Muzi-
cală, 2003) focus on this early, pioneering period. George Stephănescu (1843–1925) –
a composer, conductor, and professor, who studied at the Bucharest and Paris Con-
servatories – bankrolled the first Romanian opera theatre: he established in 1885 a
company of Romanian artists, staged the first opera performed in Romanian (Doni-
zetti’s Linda di Chamounix), and went to great lengths, year after year, to ensure the
survival of his ambitious project.
130
preponderantly analytical work, focusing on Romanian opera, ballet, and
operetta; and Hronicul Operei Române [The Chronicle of Romanian Opera],
a very detailed chronicle of the Bucharest Opera (seasons, repertoires, so-
loists, managers, the particular problems that the institution faced, and so
on), structured chronologically: from its beginnings as a Romanian com-
pany (1885) to its proper establishment as a state institution in 1921 (volume
1, Bucharest, Editura Muzicală, 2003); the years 1921-1953 (volume 2, Bu-
charest, Editura Academiei Române [The Publishing House of the Roma-
nian Academy], 2017); and 1953-1970 (volume 3, Bucharest, Editura Acade-
miei Române, 2017).
Written during a time of totalitarianism, the 1962 volumes are pervad-
ed by Communist ideology. Cosma, who was educated in Mihail Druskin’s
(1905-1991) musicology class at the Rimski-Korsakov Leningrad Conserva-
tory, reaches here an enviable virtuosity in the employment of socialist re-
alist theory, for which he was awarded the Prize of the Romanian Academy.
His discourse in the 2000s, on the other hand, mirrors as much as possi-
ble Romania’s present ambition to adopt Western values, as a member state
of the European Union. The author now adopts an intransigent attitude to-
wards both strains of Romanian totalitarianism: he attacks both the Iron
Guard (an extreme right-wing Romanian movement, which aped German
Nazism) and the Communist regime of 1947-1989.
The manner in which the same author offers two different understand-
ings of Romanian opera, more than fifty years apart, in different political
contexts, can help us grasp the extent to which a totalitarian ideology may
warp the writing of musicology. The period of time I have selected for this
comparison spans the years between the institutionalization of the Bucha-
rest Opera (1921) and the publishing of Cosma’s first book (1962). (I have,
as such, omitted from this comparative analysis the period preceding the
institutionalization of the Bucharest Opera, which Cosma has also vivid-
ly explored2).
2 The first volumes of both works, Opera românească, volume 1 (Bucharest: Editura
Muzicală, 1962), and Hronicul Operei Române, volume 1 (Bucharest: Editura Muzi-
cală, 2003) focus on this early, pioneering period. George Stephănescu (1843–1925) –
a composer, conductor, and professor, who studied at the Bucharest and Paris Con-
servatories – bankrolled the first Romanian opera theatre: he established in 1885 a
company of Romanian artists, staged the first opera performed in Romanian (Doni-
zetti’s Linda di Chamounix), and went to great lengths, year after year, to ensure the
survival of his ambitious project.
130
