http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006310/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
https://youtu.be/Rt5OR_YIRJQ
Volume 27, Issue 2, 1 December 2013, Pages 291-311
Turks, Hungarians, and gypsies on stage: Exoticism and auto-exoticism in opera and operetta (Article)
Indiana University in USA, United States
Abstract
The tradition of
European "classical music" has long evoked the exotic, and two of the
most prominent exotic referents in that tradition are the Middle East,
first and foremost the Turk, and the Hungarian Gypsy, raising the
questions of how these "exotic" traditions are related, and what their
comparison might tell us about the idea of musical exoticism more
broadly. In this essay, I briefly survey the "Turkish style" and its use
in Classical-period opera; discuss its replacement by Hungarian- Gypsy
style in the nineteenth century; and finally examine the interesting
juxtaposition of Turkish and Hungarian-Gypsy topics in two fin-de-siècle
Central European operettas, Der Zigeunerbaron by the Austrian Johann Strauss
Jr. and Gül baba by the Hungarian Jeno Huszka. An examination of these
works and their reception reveals fissures between the Viennese and
Budapest versions of operettas featuring "exotic" topics and characters,
and between the operetta industries in the two cities. These details
offer a fascinating look at the dividing line between exoticism and
auto-exoticism and at the significance of references to Turkish and
Hungarian- Gypsy topics in the Central European cultural climate of this
period - in short, a reconsideration of what it means to be Hungarian,
and for whom.
Author keywords
Auto-exoticism; Exoticism; Hungarian music; Hungarian-Gypsy style; Johann Strauss Jr., Jeno Huszka; Operetta; Turkish style (alla turca)
