The next year it reached the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where it remains the only Polish Opera to have been staged. Polish National Opera’s latest revelation is Manru, which was written by the composer, pianist and diplomat Ignacy Jan Paderewski and first performed in 1901. Its current management is assiduous in promoting Polish operatic heritage, and in recent years has uncovered treasures such as Wladyslaw Żeleński’s Goplana from 1896 and Jan Stefani’s Cracovians and Highlanders from 1794. The current Grand Theatre, with its exceptionally spacious stage and auditorium, dates from 1965. The first Polish National Opera building in Warsaw was opened in 1833 and therefore predates those in Prague, Budapest and Zagreb, but it was destroyed by bombs in 1939. Its mixture of late romanticism with folk influences has taken it beyond Croatia to more than 80 theatres in Europe and beyond, including the Edinburgh International Festival in the late 1950s. The strong national identity which emerged from the collapse of that empire after the Great War of 1914-18 gave birth to a national musical style, best personified by the work of Gotovac, whose most popular opera is the comedy Ero the Joker. Meanwhile, sample their essential national works through OperaVision.Ĭroatia remained under the Austrian yoke for longer than its more northerly neighbours, a state exemplified by the fact that its handsome opera house in Zagreb, opened in 1895, was designed by the ubiquitous Viennese partnership of Fellner and Helmer, architects of over 200 buildings across the empire. If you visit Budapest or Prague, it is well worth seeking out Erkel, in the theatre named after him, or Smetana, in the theatre that he inaugurated, for the most authentic encounter with their respective nations. The other superpowers in operatic terms, Germany and Italy, were by no means unified as nations, indeed only became so during the second half of the 19th century in a movement that engulfed Europe. Garnier’s magnificent theatre displays that inscription on its façade today. The building of a national opera house marked the coming of age of a nascent country.įrance was the first to equate the splendour of its opera with the power of the state, when Louis XIV inaugurated the National Academy of Music, the forerunner of the Paris Opera, in 1668. The rise of nationalism during the 19th century was reflected by the creation of indigenous national styles. The universal language of music ensures that it crosses borders and speaks to those who may not understand the text. Opera has become a symbol of the international in today’s global marketplace. Nicholas Payne, Director of Opera Europa, looks at the role that opera has played in creating national identities.
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