Žaismė ir konstruktyvumas: muzikiniai XIX a. – XX a. pradžios Kauno teatrinio gyvenimo puslapiai
Entertainment and constructiveness: musical pages of Kaunas theatrical life in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The publication continues and supplements to the research of Kaunas musical culture of the 19th century. This time the pre-national development of Kaunas musical theatre is discussed by using separate scarcely-known examples. It covers a long period from the roots of traditions in the 19th century to their essential historical change on the eve of the twenty-year lasting Independence of Lithuania. Attention is paid to different aspects, namely constructive and entertaining, of Kaunas musical theatre’s creative activity including the repertory, direction and actors’ art. The publication deals with the issues analyzing what traditions were peculiar to the thoughtful trend of theatrical art and how much constructiveness entertainment contained. The interaction between traditions and innovation, amusement and constructiveness and different national cultural components is observed. At the same time an attempt is made to achieve the scientific aims, i.e. to determine the relations between Kaunas pre-national musical theatre 263 Summaries and Lithuanian national musical theatre, to describe the constructive contribution to the path of creation and to point out the pithy aspects of entertainment. A conclusion is drawn that the musical traditions of Kaunas theatre of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century had in part direct influence on Lithuanian national theatre set-up and that the spread of diverse traditions contributed to formation of the cultural context of the dawn of Lithuanian musical theatre. An observation is made that Kaunas musical theatre realized the greatest cultural ideas of the 19th century, that is to say the search for nationality, social attentiveness, morality and democracy in a particularly paradoxical way. It is stated that the influence of the 19th century cultural tendencies in the field of the musical theatre was felt within the last years of the statehood and extended considerably into the 20th century. The article is based on the material that has not been thoroughly studied, namely Kaunas periodicals of the 19th century, reports of cultural institutions of the czarist time, archive documents, periodicals of the World War I and theatre advertising posters. Traditional methods of scientific research such as descriptive, comparative and synthesis were used

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