The role of opera in constructing national identity

The project will investigate three levels: the main focus will be Serbian and Croatian opera established during the national revival movements. These findings then will be put into the ideological, political, social, and cultural context of the centres Vienna and Budapest where, actually, the processes of constructing national identities of Southeastern European people started. Finally, the mapping of contextual bridges with Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece will provide a panorama of national opera for the entire region, especially with consideration of the mythical status of the first national opera. The concept of national identity was constructed at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Southeastern Europe was divided mainly between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. According to the fact that the territory of individual ethnical groups was either in the framework of one of the two empires or divided between them, there are two theoretical concepts of the national identity: hybrid identity of a nation living mainly outside of its country (Serbian) and stable identity of a nation living within one geographic space (Croatian) via their national opera. One of the main aspects in the process of constructing national identity is the establishment of vernacular language (from Old Slavic and its national - Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Croatian - redactions, to vernacular national languages, and also to the official Viennese agreement from 1850 that Serbian and Croatian is one singular language), including musical terminology, national literature, theatre, educational and cultural institutions, and also national music, which includes both the arrangements of folk melodies or patriotic choral compositions and national opera or other forms of stage music. The mentioned features in the process of constructing Serbian/Croatian and other Southeastern national identities are all reflected in national opera or theatre plays with music: through the first libretti it is possible to follow changes in the language, both libretti and music showed influences of European (mainly Italian) opera, since the most eminent opera composers Ivan Zajc (1832-1914) from Croatia and Stanislav Binicki (1874-1942) from Serbia were the first directors and conductors of national opera theatres after the foundation of the institutions (The Croatian Opera 1870; The Belgrade Opera, 1914/1920). Although the opera tradition in both countries was a result of the influential Viennese music theatre, it is obvious that the two different political and cultural contexts established the national opera in different periods inside the countries (Vatroslav Lisinski: Ljubav i zloba, Zagreb, 1846. Stanislav Binicki: Na uranku, Beograd, 1904), and earlier outside of the countries.