Slovenská operná tvorba v období normalizácie
Slovak opera during the Normalisation period

Summary/Abstract: The phrase “the golden sixties”, commonly used in the Czechoslovak context to characterise a decade that brought a breath of freedom, can also be applied to Slovak opera. The 1960s saw the creation of several works whose composers responded to progressive trends in opera and theatre in their musical, dramatic, and dramaturgical dimensions. Although the following two decades are often presented as “grey”, distorted by Normalisation-era censorship and artists’ instincts towards self-censorship, Slovak opera of the 1970s and 1980s was far from uniform. Taking the works of the leading opera composers Ján Cikker (1911–1989) and Juraj Beneš (1940–2004) as its principal examples, while also selectively considering other composers, the study examines the themes, ideological orientation and musico-dramatic treatment of original works of opera. It considers the forms and extent of composers’ self-censorship and reflects on how their internal opposition to the regime was manifested in their choice of literary sources and in the operatic and theatrical form of their works. The most reliable way for composers to preserve their personal integrity while avoiding confrontation with political power was to draw on folk or national themes and motifs.

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