Naslov
The “Exotic” as a Threatening Other: The Presentation of Ottoman Turks in the Croatian National-Historical Opera «Nikola Šubić Zrinjski» (1876) by Ivan Zajc
(“Egzotičan” kao prijeteći Drugi: prikaz Turaka Osmanlija u hrvatskoj nacionalno-povijesnoj operi “Nikola Šubić Zrinjski” (1876.) Ivana Zajca)

Autori
Babić, Petra

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
International Virtual Conference „Musical Exoticism in the Long 19th Century“

Mjesto i datum
Online ; Oviedo, Španjolska, 12.05.2022. - 15.05.2022

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
National-historical Opera, Otherness, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski
(nacionalno-povijesna opera, drugost, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski)

Sažetak
The Ottoman Empire posed a real and long-lasting threat to Central Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. It conquered the entire Balkan peninsula (directly or via vassal states), parts of modern-day Ukraine in the north and parts of modern-day Hungary and Croatia in the South-West. Thus Croatia was reduced to the reliquiae reliquiarum olim magni et inclyti regni Croatiae (remains of the remains of the once great and glorious Croatian Kingdom). During this period the Ottoman Turks came to be perceived mostly as a destructive, plundering and enslaving force — in short, as a threat to the entire Christian civilisation and seeking to annihilate it. Such an idea was strongly fixed in Croatian cultural memory and found its way into epics, folk songs, and historiography alike. Thus it is no wonder that in Croatian stage works the Ottomans were not portrayed as amorous Pashas or their caricatured funny servants, but as formidable sultans and their power-hungry Grand viziers. This paper will analyse, as a case study, the way in which the Ottoman side was portrayed in the most famous Croatian national-historical opera, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski (1876) by Ivan Zajc, trying to demonstrate how exoticism was used to depict threatening Otherness and accentuated the differences between the two confronting parties. The opera plot deals with the siege of Szigetvár (in 1566) in which the Croatian-Hungarian war commander Nikola Zrinski with 2, 300 men resisted the siege of the 117, 000-strong Ottoman army led by sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (on his way to conquer Vienna) for a month before gloriously perishing in the final battle. The use of exoticism as a means of accentuating the ‘otherness’ of the Ottomans was present both in the musical score and in the characterization of some protagonists. Musically, it is most evident in the Ottoman war choirs and the Grand vizier’s aria, and especially in the long harem scene in which concubines, odalisques, eunuchs and guards celebrate the Sultan’s past victories. However, although Nikola Zrinski is one of the most revered Croatian historical heroes, the Ottomans were not portrayed in a black-and- white manner, but in a rather more complex

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest, Znanost o umjetnosti

POVEZANOST RADA