Search

The thesis focuses on the staging of Soviet operettas in Czechoslovakia between 1946 and 1987. The import of the Soviet repertoire to Czechoslovak operetta theaters was linked to the cultural and political transformations at the outset of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The so-called Soviet socialist operetta would soon have been established as a model for new Czechoslovak operettas. As such, it became an important part of the repertoire which was influenced by the official polical system. The thesis surveys the progressing intensity of the import and the developing operetta genre in the Soviet Union. On the examples of Isaac Dunayevsky's operettas Free Wind and, more intensively, White Acacia, in comparison with the original versions of these operettas, it shows the tendencies of interpretation of Soviet operettas in Czechoslovakia, in the changing cultural and political context. The thesis also concerns the topic of critical perception in both cultural environments and, overall, it aspires to capture the examined topics in the widest possible contextual horizon.

This bachelor thesis defines and explains the terms such as "songness" and song symphony, clarifies their role in the cultural politics of the Soviet Union, and illustrates their realisation in the symphonic music on the example of three symphonies by Nikolai Myaskovsky. The works under discussion are Symphony no. 8 op. 26, no. 16 op. 39, and no. 26 op. 79 which all, in their form structures, contain parts that bear characteristic features of "songness". The analysis here focuses on the role of these song themes in the given symphonies. In relation to Socialist Realism, there is the term "song symphony" present in the contemporaneous musicological literature, with its sources of inspiration being searched for and its ideological function being promoted. This thesis aims to designate the impact of this dogma on Myaskovsky's work, him having born the label of an "intellectual" or "subjectivist" artist despite the fact that up to a certain point he tried to meet the historical norm and incorporate it into his work. Keywords: song symphony, songness, Nikolai Myaskovsky, analysis, thematic work, Socialist Realism, USSR, cultural politics, artist and totalitarianism