Suchergebnisse

This thesis discusses the political, social, and cultural impact of operetta in Vienna after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. As an alternative to the prevailing literature, which has approached this form of musical theater mostly through broad surveys and detailed studies of a handful of well-known masterpieces, my dissertation presents a montage of loosely connected, previously unconsidered case studies. Each chapter examines one or two highly significant, but radically unfamiliar, moments in the history of operetta during Austria's five successive political eras in the first half of the twentieth century. Exploring operetta's importance for the image of Vienna, these vignettes aim to supply new glimpses not only of a seemingly obsolete art form but also of the urban and cultural life of which it was a part.My stories evolve around the following works: Der Millionenonkel (1913), Austria's first feature-length motion picture, a collage of the most successful stage roles of a celebrated operetta comedian, which aimed to advertise the artistic potential of the new and controversial medium of film; Bruno Granichstaedten's Der Orlow (1925) and Reklame! (1930), two of a series of jazz-inspired, American-themed revue operettas meant to prove that--even after World War I--the genre was still relevant and Vienna remained its foremost innovator; Ralph Benatzky's Das kleine Café (1934) and Herzen im Schnee (1937), two "intrinsically Austrian" operettas, endorsed by the Austrofascist government and tourism office to promote the geographical and cultural treasures of the "New Austria," both at home and abroad; Rudolf Weys's version of Franz Lehár's Der Rastelbinder (1902/1944), one of the Third Reich's many operetta revisions, with which the Nazis hoped to replenish Greater Germany's repertory of "Aryan" works; Die Straussbuben (1946), Vienna's first postwar Singspiel, a trusty Strauss pastiche that became the touchstone for a recovering Austrian national pride, and likewise proved a last--missed--chance to find operetta a new lifeline.The patchwork adumbrated by these historical scraps points to a larger trend: after the fall of the Habsburg Empire, operetta was considered cultural capital for Vienna and, as such, increasingly became an object of political relevance. While this development inextricably linked operetta to the image of Vienna (and Austria), and at points helped to keep this form of musical theater alive, it was also largely responsible for operetta's hopeless stagnation.

"Let everybody live in his country, at his home, as he would like to live: the Germans in their German way, the Italians in the Italian and the Hungarians in the Hungarian," maintained, in March 1848, the Slovene priest from Klagenfurt (Carinthia) Matija Majar, "And we the Slavs also demand, firmly and with all our strength, that they let us live at home in our own way: the Slovenes in the Slovene one…"

Starting from a discussion of three new books, the article examines recent developments in Habsburg historiography, which have important implications for the ways historians explain nineteenth-century European history as a whole, and the Empire's relationship to its many nationalities in particular. Wolfram Siemann's monumental new biography of Metternich makes a crucial contribution to reassessing the historical context from which the Habsburg monarchy emerged. At the centre of this work is the statesman's political thought and his dramatic experience of political change between the French Revolution and the aftermath of 1848. Pieter Judson's history of the Habsburg monarchy exemplifies a substantial new body of research that has shifted attention from the antagonistic relationship between the Empire and its nationalities to the compatibility between a sense of national belonging and imperial loyalty. Both works complement the discussion of hybridity and national indifference during Emperor Franz Joseph's long reign, which Michaela and Karl Vocelka examine in a new biography.

Cover -- Finding Order in Diversity -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Graphs -- INTRODUCTION The Stubborn Problem of Confessionalism -- CHAPTER 1 Hopeless Romantics: Catholic Activists and the Josephist State, 1792-1820 -- CHAPTER 2 Lost in an Ultramontanist Storm: Austria and the Catholic Revival in the West, 1820-1848 -- CHAPTER 3 Free at Last: Protestants in the Habsburg Empire -- CHAPTER 4 Serving Two Masters: Habsburg Orthodoxy on the Confessional Faultlines Between East and West -- CHAPTER 5 A Road Paved with Good Intentions: Judaism and Toleration in the Habsburg Empire -- CHAPTER 6 Making the Habsburg Empire Catholic Again: 1848 and the Emergence of Popular Catholicism in the Habsburg Empire -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author.