Page 438 - 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. 438
vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju
collaborated with the Triestine newspaper Jadran, and in 1903 he published
a detailed article on Wagnerian influence on Puccini’s Tosca. Alike Kuhač
he was attracted by the idea that a renewed national opera would have been
the mainstream to affirm a South Slavic culture, no more involved with the
Italian and German civilizations. In his short essay “Glazba: nekoloko refl-
eksija” (Music: some reflexions), the young composer explains his person-
al viewpoint on the Hegelian ‘Zeitgeist’, imagined as a dialectical contrast
between the spirit insight the composer, and the external driving force of
styles and shapes of music. Within this frame, not only he defines the caus-
es of the end of opera by numbers, but also the fall of Tosca, attributing to
Puccini the bad choice of a bizarre libretto, that led him towards his own
intimate style of romanza, flourished in a brilliant way in the previous op-
era Bohème. Although the reliance on the topic of Slavic national myth,
readable in the libretto of the contemporary Petar Svačić, the review writ-
ten by Mandić is free from ideological bias. At the same time, the author
outlines the negative role of unprofessional critics in Trieste that contribut-
ed to the fiasco of Puccini’s Tosca.
Keywords: Croatian music criticism, Southern Slavs in Trieste, Italian op-
era, Verdi, Puccini
Aleš Gabrič
The establishment of the National Theatre Opera
in Ljubljana in the context of the development
of the Slovenian central cultural institutions
The establishment of the National Theatre in Ljubljana a hundred years ago
resulted from the efforts of the Slovenian political and cultural elite to create
central national cultural institutions. The Slovenian cultural institutions in
Austro-Hungary had operated as societies. However, after the dissolution
of the former Monarchy and the establishment of the new Yugoslav state,
the goal of the Slovenian cultural politics was to create the central cultur-
al institutions of national importance as soon as possible. Several processes
that involved the transformation of the Slovenian cities’ cultural character-
istics took place simultaneously, especially in the Slovenian cultural cen-
tre: the city of Ljubljana. The German cultural institutions in the Sloveni-
an cities were gradually abolished, and their property was taken over by the
Slovenian cultural institutions. A number of them were transformed from
provincial into national entities, and by means of nationalisation some of
them gained the right to direct financing from the state budget.
436
collaborated with the Triestine newspaper Jadran, and in 1903 he published
a detailed article on Wagnerian influence on Puccini’s Tosca. Alike Kuhač
he was attracted by the idea that a renewed national opera would have been
the mainstream to affirm a South Slavic culture, no more involved with the
Italian and German civilizations. In his short essay “Glazba: nekoloko refl-
eksija” (Music: some reflexions), the young composer explains his person-
al viewpoint on the Hegelian ‘Zeitgeist’, imagined as a dialectical contrast
between the spirit insight the composer, and the external driving force of
styles and shapes of music. Within this frame, not only he defines the caus-
es of the end of opera by numbers, but also the fall of Tosca, attributing to
Puccini the bad choice of a bizarre libretto, that led him towards his own
intimate style of romanza, flourished in a brilliant way in the previous op-
era Bohème. Although the reliance on the topic of Slavic national myth,
readable in the libretto of the contemporary Petar Svačić, the review writ-
ten by Mandić is free from ideological bias. At the same time, the author
outlines the negative role of unprofessional critics in Trieste that contribut-
ed to the fiasco of Puccini’s Tosca.
Keywords: Croatian music criticism, Southern Slavs in Trieste, Italian op-
era, Verdi, Puccini
Aleš Gabrič
The establishment of the National Theatre Opera
in Ljubljana in the context of the development
of the Slovenian central cultural institutions
The establishment of the National Theatre in Ljubljana a hundred years ago
resulted from the efforts of the Slovenian political and cultural elite to create
central national cultural institutions. The Slovenian cultural institutions in
Austro-Hungary had operated as societies. However, after the dissolution
of the former Monarchy and the establishment of the new Yugoslav state,
the goal of the Slovenian cultural politics was to create the central cultur-
al institutions of national importance as soon as possible. Several processes
that involved the transformation of the Slovenian cities’ cultural character-
istics took place simultaneously, especially in the Slovenian cultural cen-
tre: the city of Ljubljana. The German cultural institutions in the Sloveni-
an cities were gradually abolished, and their property was taken over by the
Slovenian cultural institutions. A number of them were transformed from
provincial into national entities, and by means of nationalisation some of
them gained the right to direct financing from the state budget.
436
