Page 165 - 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. 165
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-7055-50-4.163-172
Opera without Theatre
Vita Gruodytė
Litvanska akademija za glasbo in gledališče
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
“Burn the opera houses”
When Pierre Boulez suggested in 1967 to “burn the opera houses”1, he stat-
ed, according to Philippe Albéra, “a simple truth: a new form of opera, reso-
lutely modern, requires a new space, new forms of organization, a new pro-
ject”2; in short, “the internal form of the opera no longer corresponds to the
structure of the institution”3.
That said, since the famous quarrel in the 18th century between the
French opera, considered too boring, and the Italian opera, not serious
enough, one has always tried to shake off habits. As early as 1752, in a Letter
to a lady of a certain age about the present state of opera, we could read: “a
noisy joy and immoderate outbursts tore down the veil of this Temple [...]”4.
New ideas have always aimed at tearing down the veil of an ‘old Temple’
and bringing in ‘a noisy joy’. The demolition of the decor of the opera in the
Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera (1935), which Theodor W. Ador-
1 Pierre Boulez, “Sprengt die Operhäuser in die Luft!” Der Spiegel 40/1967, Spiegel On-
line, 25.09.1967. Accessed 05.02.2018, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46353388.
html.
2 Philippe Albéra, “L’opér,” Musiques – I. Musiques du XXe siècle (dir. J. J. Nattiez), Pa-
ris, Actes Sud/Cité de la musique (2003): 437.
3 Ibid., 438.
4 Le Baron D’Holbach, Lettre à une dame d’un certain âge, sur l’état présent de l’opéra
(Paris: En Arcadie, 1752), 2.
163
Opera without Theatre
Vita Gruodytė
Litvanska akademija za glasbo in gledališče
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
“Burn the opera houses”
When Pierre Boulez suggested in 1967 to “burn the opera houses”1, he stat-
ed, according to Philippe Albéra, “a simple truth: a new form of opera, reso-
lutely modern, requires a new space, new forms of organization, a new pro-
ject”2; in short, “the internal form of the opera no longer corresponds to the
structure of the institution”3.
That said, since the famous quarrel in the 18th century between the
French opera, considered too boring, and the Italian opera, not serious
enough, one has always tried to shake off habits. As early as 1752, in a Letter
to a lady of a certain age about the present state of opera, we could read: “a
noisy joy and immoderate outbursts tore down the veil of this Temple [...]”4.
New ideas have always aimed at tearing down the veil of an ‘old Temple’
and bringing in ‘a noisy joy’. The demolition of the decor of the opera in the
Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera (1935), which Theodor W. Ador-
1 Pierre Boulez, “Sprengt die Operhäuser in die Luft!” Der Spiegel 40/1967, Spiegel On-
line, 25.09.1967. Accessed 05.02.2018, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46353388.
html.
2 Philippe Albéra, “L’opér,” Musiques – I. Musiques du XXe siècle (dir. J. J. Nattiez), Pa-
ris, Actes Sud/Cité de la musique (2003): 437.
3 Ibid., 438.
4 Le Baron D’Holbach, Lettre à une dame d’un certain âge, sur l’état présent de l’opéra
(Paris: En Arcadie, 1752), 2.
163
