Czech Operetta and Its Transnational Contexts
Akademie der Wissenschaften
Prag, online
23.-25.03.2023
While scholarly interest in operetta has increased in the past decade, the Czech operetta scene has remained by and large a desideratum, although it was comparable to that of other (post‑)Habsburg countries until 1945. Therefore, this conference seeks to address the blank spots of operetta history: which factors influenced repertoire formation on the one hand and omission from cultural memory on the other? What roles did nationalisms and both national and transnational networks play? To what mechanisms of exclusion were the proponents of the precarious art of operetta exposed? How has this been reflected so far in music and theatre studies, as well as in related disciplines, and did they follow their own research trends? Such questions suggest that the seemingly “light muse” can be a highly political topic.
Program
DAY 1 Thursday, 23 March 2023
16:00–17:45
William A. Everett | The Peasant Girl (1915): Emma Trentini, Rudolf Friml, and the Transformation of a Continental Operetta for Broadway
Andrea Jochmanová | Mary Bártů: The Journey of the Diva through Czechoslovak and German Stages
DAY 2 Friday, 24 March 2023
9:15–11:00
Steffen Höhne | Ein dubioses Genre? Franz Kafka und die Operette
David Vondráček | “Die Operette” und ihre Kontexte: Oskar Nedbals Polenblut
Viktor Velek | Operette bei den Wiener Tschechinnen und Tschechen
11:25–13:10
Micaela Baranello | The Coasts of Slovakia: Truth, Fiction, and Amalgamation in Operetta’s Nations
Daniel Molnár | A Parallel Reality: The Operetta Repertoire of the Hungarian Minority Theatre Košice/Kassa in the First Czechoslovak Republic
Miriam Blümlová | Olomouc Theatre in the Interwar Period – the Scene for Albert Roussel’s Single Operetta Le testament de la tante Caroline
14:50–16:00
Vojen Drlík | Einer Vision der Großstadt folgend…: Operette in Brno
Tristan Willems | “Věčné Jaro(mír)”: Weinberger’s Use of Thematic Materials throughout His Operetta Career
DAY 3 Saturday, 25 March 2023
9:15–10:25
Šárka Gmiterková | From Stage to Screen: Introducing the Production Cycle of Film Operettas
Stefan Schmidl | “There is not only Ein weißes Rössl”: Jara Beneš and His Wachau-Operetta
10:50–12:35
Pavel Bár | Prague Operetta Theatres during the Nazi Occupation
Vojtěch Frank | The Girl from the Mining Settlement: Emancipation through Sentimentality in the First Miners’ Operetta
Michal Ščepán | Operetta in the Slovak Republic (1939–1945): Performances and Compositions throughout the Times of the Client State of Nazi Germany
14:15–16:00
Carolin Stahrenberg & Nils Grosch | Mobile Networks and Intermedial Interfaces in Musical Theatre: Interweaving of Stage, Song, and Other Media
Brian S. Locke | Nomads in the Marketplace: Negotiating the Publication History of Czech Operetta, 1918–1948
This event is organized within the program Music between Political Pressure and Autonomy and financed by the Czech Academy of Sciences funding scheme Strategy AV 21 – “Anatomy of European Society”
Contact of the organizer: vondracek@udu.cas.cz
Further information: https://www.udu.cas.cz/en/akce/ceska-opereta-a-jeji-mezinarodni-kontexty
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/operetta-conference-czech-operetta-and-its-transnational-contexts-tickets-560508103827