Genology and Politics. The Specific Qualities of ‘Cud, Czyli Krakowiacy i Górale’ in the Context of Late Eighteenth-Century Operatic Genres
Jakub Chachulski
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8972-1490
Abstract
Previous genological studies of the opera ‘Cud, czyli Krakowiacy i Górale’ (The Miracle, or Cracovians and Highlanders) have limited themselves essentially to pointing out affinities with the singspiel or the opéra-comique, on account of the presence of spoken dialogues. Adam Tomasz Kukla recently presented a new approach, indicating specific qualities which link this work both to those two genres and to opera buffa. This article represents an attempt to surmount the limitations of earlier studies by taking more thorough account of the historical-genological context behind the opera. Of key importance to this approach are two aspects of the work that transcend the operatic genres cultivated in Warsaw during the reign of King Stanislaus Augustus.
By adopting the methodology elaborated by Thomas Betzwieser for research into the ‘dialogue opera’ (Dialogoper), we can bring out the innovation of this work in terms of linking musical numbers with spoken text, which goes beyond existing original Polish operatic output and the influence of the Viennese singspiel and opera buffa which held sway in Warsaw at that time, and brings ‘The Miracle’ closer to French operatic concepts. Also genuinely innovative, with some parallels only in Revolution-era French operatic output, is the dramatic construction of the opera’s choral scenes, which perfectly fits the formula described by James Parakilas: ‘the chorus as political representation’.
These two observations, taken within the context of the historical circumstances surrounding the work’s premiere and the expectations of the audience at that time, can be brought together on the plane of an integral interpretation which links the work’s generic innovation to its intended social-political impact, namely, an appeal for insurrection, combined with radical ideas for an egalitarian redefinition of national community. A key role was played by a change in the understanding of the folk element, originally viewed as a determinant of the spectacle’s dramatic-aesthetic unity in the spirit of a ballet-choral divertissement, but later reinterpreted in terms of the political emancipation of the choral collective subject.
Keywords:
The Miracle, or Cracovians and Highlanders, Wojciech Bogusławski, Jan Stefani, Polish music, operatic genres, singspiel, opéra-comique, DialogoperReferences
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Authors
Jakub ChachulskiInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8972-1490
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