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The Croatian Late 19th Century Opera and Operetta in Croatian Musical-Historiographical Syntheses

In the late 19th century the first musico-historiographical syntheses in the Croatian language were written ; the first history of Croatian music by Franjo Kuhač, and the first general survey of music history by Vjenceslav Novak. Both remained unpublished until 1994. Dealing with Croatian music of the Illyrian movement and former periods Kuhač did not mention opera and operetta of the time. The special value of Novak’s history is his attempt to incorporate histories of South Slavic music, especially the Croatian one, into a general history of music. Unlike Kuhač he wrote about music and musicians of the second half of the 19th century. He was the first to mention Croatian opera and operetta of the time in a historical synthesis. While at least a mention of the relevant operas and composers was made, that was not the case with operettas. It is true that some of operettas were listed (by I. N. Köck and I. Zajc), but unexpectedly the first operetta composed to the Croatian libretto by I. Reyschil was not mentioned at all. The first mention of it was made in 1922 in Božidar Širola’s Pregled povijesti hrvatske muzike [A Historical Survey of Croatian Music]. In the paper the treatment of operas and operettas in Croatian musico-historiographical syntheses from the 19th century to the present moment is discussed and exemplified by Ivan Zajc, the most productive and popular composer of the time. The brief insight into the interpretations of the Croatian late 19th century opera and operetta in the Croatian musical historiographical syntheses enables to conclude that operetta was treated as “light music”. As such it had been sporadically included into historiographical syntheses and in the evaluation system of some authors was considered less valuable than opera was.

opera; operetta; Croatia; 19th century; Croatian music historiography

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