Page 176 - 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. 176
vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju
al. “Regression is fashionable3”, wrote sociologist Robert Ebguy. Corinne
Maillet, in 2005, explained how capitalism was already exploiting the phe-
nomenon4. In 2009, finally, the French magazine Ravages titrated General
Infantilization5.
In this context, the opera of the 2000s sometimes returned to light li-
brettos, childish, playful. The world of fairy tales was once again in vogue,
even within modernist avant-gardes (in the case of Helmut Lachenmann
or Emmanuel Nunes). In chronological order, on can quote Lachenmann‘s
The Little Match Girl (1996), Philippe Boesmans‘ Winter tale (2004), Alice in
wonderland (2007) by Korean Unsuk Chin, Emmanuel Nunes‘s Tale (2008),
Snow White from Félix Marius Lange (2012), until Pinocchio by Boesmans
ostensibly created at the International Festival of Lyric Art in Aix-en-
Provence in July 2017. To use a provocative formula, if Pierre Boulez (1925-
2016) had written, the last year of his life, an opera called Tom Thumb or The
Ugly Duckling, the public of connoisseurs would have been surprised (from
a musician not only particularly „serious“ in his public positions, but who
always militated against the opera genre in general). But one would have
probably not cried at the absurdity, the hoax. For our world has become so
little solemn, that nothing is surprising in terms of lightness, festive or re-
gressive spirit. It is the concept of solemnity itself that today seems obsolete.
Judith Lochhead noted in 2002 that the term „postmodern“ was in-
creasingly used to describe the new century6. While the avant-gardes, the
“isms”, seemed to be on the verge of extinction, one can think that the “sat-
uration” engendered, towards 2000, one of the few modernism reborn.
Franck Bedrossian, Raphael Cendo, Yann Robin and Dmitri Kourliandsky
invented, around the year 2000, an aesthetic in adequacy with the notion of
the old vanguard, a true neo-primitivism or post-expressionism. Now, one
can notice in Kourliandsky, as on the “other side” among less avant-garde
composers, elements of kidult inspiration. Kourliandsky, according to Rob-
ert Ebguy, will necessarily be a kidult until about 20267. Until now, when
the Russian composed his operas, it was often on synopses that would have
3 “La régression est à la mode”. See La France en culotte courte: Pièges et délices de la
société de consolation (Paris: J.-C. Lattès, 2002), 65.
4 Le marketing adulescent: Comment les marques s’adressent à l’enfant qui sommeille
en nous (Paris: Pearson Education France, 2005).
5 Ravages, no. 2 (2009).
6 Postmodern music. Postmodern thought (New York, London: Routledge, 2002), 4.
7 According to the French sociologist (La france en culotte courte, 65), every Westerner
today may not become an adult until he might be 50 years old.
174
al. “Regression is fashionable3”, wrote sociologist Robert Ebguy. Corinne
Maillet, in 2005, explained how capitalism was already exploiting the phe-
nomenon4. In 2009, finally, the French magazine Ravages titrated General
Infantilization5.
In this context, the opera of the 2000s sometimes returned to light li-
brettos, childish, playful. The world of fairy tales was once again in vogue,
even within modernist avant-gardes (in the case of Helmut Lachenmann
or Emmanuel Nunes). In chronological order, on can quote Lachenmann‘s
The Little Match Girl (1996), Philippe Boesmans‘ Winter tale (2004), Alice in
wonderland (2007) by Korean Unsuk Chin, Emmanuel Nunes‘s Tale (2008),
Snow White from Félix Marius Lange (2012), until Pinocchio by Boesmans
ostensibly created at the International Festival of Lyric Art in Aix-en-
Provence in July 2017. To use a provocative formula, if Pierre Boulez (1925-
2016) had written, the last year of his life, an opera called Tom Thumb or The
Ugly Duckling, the public of connoisseurs would have been surprised (from
a musician not only particularly „serious“ in his public positions, but who
always militated against the opera genre in general). But one would have
probably not cried at the absurdity, the hoax. For our world has become so
little solemn, that nothing is surprising in terms of lightness, festive or re-
gressive spirit. It is the concept of solemnity itself that today seems obsolete.
Judith Lochhead noted in 2002 that the term „postmodern“ was in-
creasingly used to describe the new century6. While the avant-gardes, the
“isms”, seemed to be on the verge of extinction, one can think that the “sat-
uration” engendered, towards 2000, one of the few modernism reborn.
Franck Bedrossian, Raphael Cendo, Yann Robin and Dmitri Kourliandsky
invented, around the year 2000, an aesthetic in adequacy with the notion of
the old vanguard, a true neo-primitivism or post-expressionism. Now, one
can notice in Kourliandsky, as on the “other side” among less avant-garde
composers, elements of kidult inspiration. Kourliandsky, according to Rob-
ert Ebguy, will necessarily be a kidult until about 20267. Until now, when
the Russian composed his operas, it was often on synopses that would have
3 “La régression est à la mode”. See La France en culotte courte: Pièges et délices de la
société de consolation (Paris: J.-C. Lattès, 2002), 65.
4 Le marketing adulescent: Comment les marques s’adressent à l’enfant qui sommeille
en nous (Paris: Pearson Education France, 2005).
5 Ravages, no. 2 (2009).
6 Postmodern music. Postmodern thought (New York, London: Routledge, 2002), 4.
7 According to the French sociologist (La france en culotte courte, 65), every Westerner
today may not become an adult until he might be 50 years old.
174
