Sacrosanctity or Duty? The Reception of Beethoven’s Fidelio in the Context of the Cultural-Political Situation in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century in Pressburg

Staging Beethoven’s Fidelio in the second half of the nineteenth century in Pressburg drew on a long- standing Beethoven tradition prevalent in the town. Also, it stood at the center of protests against the growing influence of Hungarian theater in the newly constructed theater building since Fidelio was performed always at a time when the renewal of an agreement with a German-speaking director was being decided on (1889, 1892, 1895). The opera was staged with the participation of the choral societies and musical associations of the town. Its performances were held close to the annual festive masses of the most well-known association of Pressburg, the Church Music Association of St. Martin’s Cathedral (Germ. Kirchenmusikverein bei der Dom-, Kollegiats- und Stadtpfarrkirche zu St. Martin, Hung. Szent Márton Pozsonyi Egyházi Zeneegylet), where Beethoven’s Missa solemnis was performed. This enhanced the efforts of the supporters of the German theater to call Beethoven’s œuvre a carrier of “true art” and humanism and use it as a symbol of cultural identity in the discussions led about preserving the German season in the Municipal Theater (Germ. Stadttheater, Hung. Városi Színház).

Georg Fuchs and the Social Function of Theater: notes on the book The revolution of the theater

ABSTRACT The article presents and discusses some of the proposals of German theater thinker Georg Fuchs (1868-1949) contained in his book The revolution of the theater: conclusions about the Munich Artists’ Theater, published in 1909. Some of Fuch’s interlocutors during his process of creating the theater are presented. As a central axis, the discussion identifies in each of Fuchs’ aesthetic proposals his perspective of understanding art based on the role it should play in society. We thus seek to not only to identify Fuchs’ aesthetic proposals, but also to emphasize, in addition to them, his political objectives.

Post-dramatic Performance: Semantics and Pragmatics (Based on the Play Shpalikov Staged By the Yeltsin Center Theatre Platform “In the Center”)

The article is devoted to the understanding of the phenomenon of modern theatre, defined by the German theater critic Hans-Thies Lehmann as “post-dramatic theatre”. The purpose of the article is to show the mode of existence of post-drama in the real theatrical process. From Lehmann’s point of view, post-drama is not a new direction in art, but a state of the theater in which it emancipates from the literary source. The post-dramatic theatre breaks the tradition of narrative art and abandons the rigid structure of the play. The semantics of post-drama is considered in the tradition of contextualism, when the meaning directly depends on the context. The contextuality of the play Shpalikov is its semantic field. The pragmatics of post-drama is in the creation of a new polylinguistic space. Post-drama changes all the language elements of the theatre, including the audience’s expectations. Keywords: Lehmann, semantics, pragmatics, “post-dramatic theatre”, theatre platform “In the Centre”, the play Shpalikov

Hyphenated Hitlerism

This chapter shows how reviews in local media emphasized Nazi tropes, such as anti-urbanism, the leader cult, mania for Aryans and Teutons, the glorification of war, and racial anti-Semitism. Though they were Nazi loyalists who enthusiastically supported Ney's ensemble, local dramatists and theatergoers also emphasized their cultural hybridity and affinity for Argentina. This estranged them from the fatherland and undercut Nazi officials' efforts to construct a transatlantic National Socialist community. Later, when the war and the Argentine regime turned against Germany, comedies formed a larger proportion of the ensemble's repertoire. Spectators at both the Free German Stage and the German Theater embraced the comedic genre to cope with the overlapping psychological and emotional duress that they incurred as emigrant populations whose nations of origin were at war.