Page 382 - Vinkler, Jonatan, in Jernej Weiss. ur. 2014. Musica et Artes: ob osemdesetletnici Primoža Kureta. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem.
P. 382
musica et artes
Valentina Sandu-Dediu
Woyzeck and Wozzeck – Büchner and Berg
This essay pleads for the efficiency and beauty of Berg’s music related to its
dramaturgical source. The text of the libretto is compared with the original
Büchner text, then there is an attempt to describe the musical typology of
the opera characters within an expressionist constructivism. What are the
purely musical means whereby Berg retells Büchner’s play and, ultimately, al-
beit with great fidelity, projects it into a different dimension? I would place
them in four categories: the structure drawn from the world of instrumental
forms and transplanted to the opera, an absolute novelty in the history of mu-
sic; the musical themes, which act as Wagnerian leitmotivs; the musical lan-
guage, which flexibly and imperceptibly crosses the boundary between tonal
and atonal; and the types of vocal and orchestral song.
Borut Smrekar
View of Opera Works by Marjan Kozina
Not many Slovenian operas among Slovenian operatic works are able to keep
their place in repertoires, and even fewer can communicate internationally.
One exception is Ekvinokcij (Equinox), an opera by Slovenian composer Mar-
jan Kozina. A review of the composer’s output leads to the conclusion that
music theatre was at the very centre of Kozina’s attention. He began his career
in this medium in the 1930s with the operettas Majda and Adriamödl. The
first was staged in Maribor, while the second remained in unfinished drafts.
After moving to Belgrade in 1939, Kozina tried to write an opera entitled Lepa
Vida (Beautiful Vida), but he changed his mind because he deemed the libret-
to inappropriate and completed the work as a cantata for soloists, mixed choir
and symphony orchestra. Afterwards, he desperately sought a suitable opera
theme and finally came across Ekvinokcij, a play by the Croatian dramatist Ivo
Vojnović. Ekvinokcij, one of the peaks of Slovenian opera, was completed in
1942, after the composer made three majorcuts. Kozina’s next opera project
was Martin Krpan. He had already written some of the scenes for this, but
later changed his mind. He started to write Cyrano de Bergerac, an idea he that
had occupied him with before he wrote Ekvinokcij. Kozina succeeded in writ-
ing some inserts of the opera before his death, but could not obtain permis-
sion from the publisher Ricordi to use Cyrano as an theme.
Characteristic of Kozina’s creative process was “operatic thinking”. An over-
view of his opera sketches shows that his composing principle was not in
“writing music based on the libretto”; his music was born at the same time as
380
Valentina Sandu-Dediu
Woyzeck and Wozzeck – Büchner and Berg
This essay pleads for the efficiency and beauty of Berg’s music related to its
dramaturgical source. The text of the libretto is compared with the original
Büchner text, then there is an attempt to describe the musical typology of
the opera characters within an expressionist constructivism. What are the
purely musical means whereby Berg retells Büchner’s play and, ultimately, al-
beit with great fidelity, projects it into a different dimension? I would place
them in four categories: the structure drawn from the world of instrumental
forms and transplanted to the opera, an absolute novelty in the history of mu-
sic; the musical themes, which act as Wagnerian leitmotivs; the musical lan-
guage, which flexibly and imperceptibly crosses the boundary between tonal
and atonal; and the types of vocal and orchestral song.
Borut Smrekar
View of Opera Works by Marjan Kozina
Not many Slovenian operas among Slovenian operatic works are able to keep
their place in repertoires, and even fewer can communicate internationally.
One exception is Ekvinokcij (Equinox), an opera by Slovenian composer Mar-
jan Kozina. A review of the composer’s output leads to the conclusion that
music theatre was at the very centre of Kozina’s attention. He began his career
in this medium in the 1930s with the operettas Majda and Adriamödl. The
first was staged in Maribor, while the second remained in unfinished drafts.
After moving to Belgrade in 1939, Kozina tried to write an opera entitled Lepa
Vida (Beautiful Vida), but he changed his mind because he deemed the libret-
to inappropriate and completed the work as a cantata for soloists, mixed choir
and symphony orchestra. Afterwards, he desperately sought a suitable opera
theme and finally came across Ekvinokcij, a play by the Croatian dramatist Ivo
Vojnović. Ekvinokcij, one of the peaks of Slovenian opera, was completed in
1942, after the composer made three majorcuts. Kozina’s next opera project
was Martin Krpan. He had already written some of the scenes for this, but
later changed his mind. He started to write Cyrano de Bergerac, an idea he that
had occupied him with before he wrote Ekvinokcij. Kozina succeeded in writ-
ing some inserts of the opera before his death, but could not obtain permis-
sion from the publisher Ricordi to use Cyrano as an theme.
Characteristic of Kozina’s creative process was “operatic thinking”. An over-
view of his opera sketches shows that his composing principle was not in
“writing music based on the libretto”; his music was born at the same time as
380
