SÚDOBÁ OPERNÁ TVORBA V REPERTOÁRI SLOVENSKÉHO NÁRODNÉHO DIVADLA 1920 – 1938
CONTEMPORARY OPERA PRODUCTION IN THE REPERTOIRE OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL THEATRE IN 1920 – 1938

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the introduction of the 20th-century opera production to the Slovak National Theatre Opera in 1920 – 1938. It comes to a finding that it constituted a quantitatively significant part, especially in Karel Nedbal’s era (1928 – 1938). However, a qualitative analysis reveals that only some of the produced titles were successfully time-tested and included into the key opera repertoire, today referred to as the 20th-century opera classics. These included Leoš Janáček and Richard Strauss’s operas and the profile opuses of the 20th-century opera avant-garde (for example, Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, or Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk). On the other hand, the Slovak National Theatre ignored the classic opuses of Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel, Falla), Neoclassicism (Stravinsky, Hindemith), or the Second Viennese School (Schönberg, Berg) and their successors. It, however, produced several titles which are nowadays regarded as historical artefacts of the period, which had no further stage life. The study also considers rarely produced or no longer produced plays by Czech and Slovak authors and opuses which fulfilled rather extra-artistic (social) roles in their times (for example, works by authors from allied countries), that means productions which have been more or less overlooked by researchers so far.

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