Page 135 - 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
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on the romanian opera, bucharest: one author, two views
altogether foreign to socialist realism,9 Cosma also employs a converse ma-
nipulation: he “identifies” allegedly “social” themes during the “old system”
in order to ideologically validate certain works. Jora’s ballet La piață [At the
Market Place] is one such work: “The artistic and ideological value of this
musical tableaux is only understood and genuinely rendered today, when,
in the context of the regime of popular democracy (…) its grotesque, satir-
ical content, sharply critical of the system of oppression, can be embodied
as it was conceived.”10
An example that is no less eloquent is Enescu’s Oedip [Oedipus], staged
for the first time in Paris in 1936.11 Cosma’s analysis in 1962 begins, no mat-
ter how absurd it might seem today, with finding a common denomina-
tor between the topic of Sophocles’ tragedy and the principles of socialist
realism:
The dignity, the faith in man, in his creative powers – here is the
main idea of the opera […]. The creator’ worth is all the greater, as
he offered a clear and categorical answer to this problem, in a peri-
od dominated by the decadence of bourgeois art, which cultivated
contempt for man, while promoting mystical idealism.12
Once legitimated, though, Enescu’s work cannot eschew a critique
from the same perspective of socialist realism:
Bearing in mind all the worthy elements of the opera’s content,
Enescu was, nevertheless, unable to embody his conception with-
out paying tribute to a number of conciliatory ideas. By employing
ancient subject matter, created on a lower rung in the development
of society and human knowledge, Enescu’s opera took over from
Sophocles a number of retrograde ideas, such as the idea of redemp-
tion through suffering.13
Five decades later, Cosma describes
A modern score, […], stylistically inspired by an ancient legend,
with ephemeral references to a bygone universe, which could have
9 See, for example, Cosma’s comments on the topic of the operas Mărioara, composed
by I. Paschill (1904) and G. Cosmovici (1907), both based on a play by Carmen Sylva.
10 Cosma, Opera românească [Romanian Opera], vol. 2, 126.
11 Octavian Lazăr Cosma later dedicated a volume to this opera: Oedip-ul enescian
[Enescu’s Oedipus], (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1967).
12 Cosma, Opera românească [Romanian Opera], vol. 2, 97–98.
13 Ibid., 99.
133
altogether foreign to socialist realism,9 Cosma also employs a converse ma-
nipulation: he “identifies” allegedly “social” themes during the “old system”
in order to ideologically validate certain works. Jora’s ballet La piață [At the
Market Place] is one such work: “The artistic and ideological value of this
musical tableaux is only understood and genuinely rendered today, when,
in the context of the regime of popular democracy (…) its grotesque, satir-
ical content, sharply critical of the system of oppression, can be embodied
as it was conceived.”10
An example that is no less eloquent is Enescu’s Oedip [Oedipus], staged
for the first time in Paris in 1936.11 Cosma’s analysis in 1962 begins, no mat-
ter how absurd it might seem today, with finding a common denomina-
tor between the topic of Sophocles’ tragedy and the principles of socialist
realism:
The dignity, the faith in man, in his creative powers – here is the
main idea of the opera […]. The creator’ worth is all the greater, as
he offered a clear and categorical answer to this problem, in a peri-
od dominated by the decadence of bourgeois art, which cultivated
contempt for man, while promoting mystical idealism.12
Once legitimated, though, Enescu’s work cannot eschew a critique
from the same perspective of socialist realism:
Bearing in mind all the worthy elements of the opera’s content,
Enescu was, nevertheless, unable to embody his conception with-
out paying tribute to a number of conciliatory ideas. By employing
ancient subject matter, created on a lower rung in the development
of society and human knowledge, Enescu’s opera took over from
Sophocles a number of retrograde ideas, such as the idea of redemp-
tion through suffering.13
Five decades later, Cosma describes
A modern score, […], stylistically inspired by an ancient legend,
with ephemeral references to a bygone universe, which could have
9 See, for example, Cosma’s comments on the topic of the operas Mărioara, composed
by I. Paschill (1904) and G. Cosmovici (1907), both based on a play by Carmen Sylva.
10 Cosma, Opera românească [Romanian Opera], vol. 2, 126.
11 Octavian Lazăr Cosma later dedicated a volume to this opera: Oedip-ul enescian
[Enescu’s Oedipus], (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1967).
12 Cosma, Opera românească [Romanian Opera], vol. 2, 97–98.
13 Ibid., 99.
133
