Page 227 - 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. 227
the italian “national oper a” imagined from a souther n slavic viewpoint
tar Svačić was staged in Ljubljana on 15th January 1904, where the response
of the public was enthusiastic.17
The project of Mandić and his librettist Karlo Lukež was very unusu-
al in the frame of that time. They chose the Croatian theme of Petar Svačić,
but they arranged it to promote the idea of the union of all Southern Slavs.
Although the topic did not permit it, there are many references. The Pro-
logue is written in decasyllables simulating the folk epics. It was sung by a
baritone dressed as a gusle player, and, according to the newspapers of the
time, the music was heavy and monotonous, recalling the genre of blind
guslar’s poems. The verses of the libretto also contain lexical and stylistic el-
ements of the common Croatian and Serbian folk heritage.
The feature of the opera can be understood only within the peripher-
al and multicultural frame of Trieste, where the two young authors were
colleagues on the editorial board of the journal Jadran. Since its owner,
Ante Tresić Pavičić, was a staunch advocate of the Croatian Party of Rights,
this periodical was launched with the intention of supporting radical Cro-
atian policy. However, the multi-national competition for the cultural and
economic power in Trieste, and the Slavic communities’ need to oppose
the much stronger German and Italian influences, induced Tresić Pavičić
to side with the heritage of the Illyrian idea. For the same reason the two
young authors re-elaborated the Croatian pathos, that was implicit in the
plot of Petar Svačić, and recycled it in favour of the Yugoslav ideology.
In 1903 Mandić published in Jadran the aforementioned article enti-
tled “Glazba nekoliko refeklesija” (“Music: Some Reflexions”), which is use-
ful to establish a new viewpoint on the reform of Italian opera.18 At first
glance, his writing seems conceived in the light of a neo-national awaken-
ing of the South Slavic people, and the related effort in re-thinking the com-
positional grammar after both the Illyrian amateur Vatroslav Lisinski and
the professional Ivan Zajc ― the last one renewed the musical life of Zagreb
from 1870 up to his retirement in 1908. In fact, any comparison to the na-
tional trends of Slavic composers is omitted, because the author links his
aesthetic thought to the analysis of modern Italian opera.
The article consists of three issues: the Zeitgeist, Wagner, and the Ital-
ian modern opera on the traces of Wagner’s compositional technique.
17 See the article of Edinost, “Triumf mladega hrvatskega skladatelja J. Mandića v Lju-
bljani,” quoted by Natka Badurina. “Croatian Historical Myth, South-Slavic Broth-
erhood and the Death of the Opera,” De Musica Disserenda 12, no 1 (2016): 82.
18 See footnote 5.
225
tar Svačić was staged in Ljubljana on 15th January 1904, where the response
of the public was enthusiastic.17
The project of Mandić and his librettist Karlo Lukež was very unusu-
al in the frame of that time. They chose the Croatian theme of Petar Svačić,
but they arranged it to promote the idea of the union of all Southern Slavs.
Although the topic did not permit it, there are many references. The Pro-
logue is written in decasyllables simulating the folk epics. It was sung by a
baritone dressed as a gusle player, and, according to the newspapers of the
time, the music was heavy and monotonous, recalling the genre of blind
guslar’s poems. The verses of the libretto also contain lexical and stylistic el-
ements of the common Croatian and Serbian folk heritage.
The feature of the opera can be understood only within the peripher-
al and multicultural frame of Trieste, where the two young authors were
colleagues on the editorial board of the journal Jadran. Since its owner,
Ante Tresić Pavičić, was a staunch advocate of the Croatian Party of Rights,
this periodical was launched with the intention of supporting radical Cro-
atian policy. However, the multi-national competition for the cultural and
economic power in Trieste, and the Slavic communities’ need to oppose
the much stronger German and Italian influences, induced Tresić Pavičić
to side with the heritage of the Illyrian idea. For the same reason the two
young authors re-elaborated the Croatian pathos, that was implicit in the
plot of Petar Svačić, and recycled it in favour of the Yugoslav ideology.
In 1903 Mandić published in Jadran the aforementioned article enti-
tled “Glazba nekoliko refeklesija” (“Music: Some Reflexions”), which is use-
ful to establish a new viewpoint on the reform of Italian opera.18 At first
glance, his writing seems conceived in the light of a neo-national awaken-
ing of the South Slavic people, and the related effort in re-thinking the com-
positional grammar after both the Illyrian amateur Vatroslav Lisinski and
the professional Ivan Zajc ― the last one renewed the musical life of Zagreb
from 1870 up to his retirement in 1908. In fact, any comparison to the na-
tional trends of Slavic composers is omitted, because the author links his
aesthetic thought to the analysis of modern Italian opera.
The article consists of three issues: the Zeitgeist, Wagner, and the Ital-
ian modern opera on the traces of Wagner’s compositional technique.
17 See the article of Edinost, “Triumf mladega hrvatskega skladatelja J. Mandića v Lju-
bljani,” quoted by Natka Badurina. “Croatian Historical Myth, South-Slavic Broth-
erhood and the Death of the Opera,” De Musica Disserenda 12, no 1 (2016): 82.
18 See footnote 5.
225
