ABSTRACT
The boom of Soviet operetta repertoire in 1950s Czechoslovakia, brought about by political change, was accompanied by many culturally significant phenomena. More than 15 different Soviet operettas were staged at Czech-language professional theatres in the era of communism. Some of them, especially operettas by Isaac Dunayevsky and Yuri Milyutin, were popular enough to be staged in the 1950s, in the 1970s, and in the 1980s (after the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia). This chapter offers an overview of the repertoire in professional Czech-language music theatres during the years of Czechoslovak communism (1948–89), and looks in particular at Czech-language productions of works by Isaac Dunayevsky.
Soviet operetta as a genre was not as unified and homogeneous as it might seem from the desired or stereotypical Soviet image of it. Dunayevsky's last operetta White Acacia raised questions about the actual character of Soviet operetta and its links to the European operetta tradition. These negotiations transferred directly to the Czechoslovak context, in which operetta houses had to use Soviet operettas as role-models, but at the same time preserve the appeal of the traditional repertoire. This chapter argues that the Czech productions reinterpreted Soviet operettas, pushing aside the jazziness of the original productions, and replacing the highly specific Soviet cultural signifiers with more stereotypically ‘Russian’ ones in the Czech versions to indicate generic foreignness. By outlining these differences and transfers, and exploring the mechanisms behind them, this chapter offers a fresh understanding of the cultural and political role played by Soviet operetta in communist Czechoslovakia.
