The Beginnings of Slovenian Secular Drama and Theatre (1670‒1848)

The proposed project involves a systematic study and comprehensive presentation of the beginnings of secular drama and theatre in Slovenian: from the first known translation of secular drama into Slovenian (c. 1670) to the series of performances (1848) that marked the beginning of a continuous tradition of secular theatre in Slovenian. The project goes beyond the previous partial treatment of this subject, which, partly due to the influence of national ideology, has focused on the plays Županova Micka (1789) and Matiček se ženi (1790) by Anton Tomaž Linhart, as well as on the first performance of Županova Micka (1789). The project intends to supplement the comprehensive knowledge of Micka and Matiček, as the central works of early Slovenian secular drama and theatre, with research on other works: the translation of Molière’s comedy George Dandin by Fran Krsto Frankopan (c. 1670), the translation of Metastasio’s melodrama Artaserse by Jurij Japelj (c. 1775), the libretto Opereta by Anton Feliks Dev (1780), the educational play Pogovor o pijači in točenju vina by Silvester Mure (1791), the translation of Kotzebue’s play Der Hahnenschlag by Jernej Kopitar (1803), the folk plays by Andrej Šuster Drabosnjak (early nineteenth century), the translation of Garrick’s comedy The Guardian by Andrej Smole (1840), and the translations of Schiller’s tragedy Die Jungfrau von Orleans by Jernej Levičnik (1842) and Jovan Vesel Koseski (1848). The research will focus on works that have been preserved in manuscripts (some only fragmentary) and have not yet been published or subjected to more detailed research (Mure’s play and the translations by Japelj, Kopitar and Levičnik). The researchers will devote particular attention to the connections of the treated works with Slovenian religious drama and theatre, with local Latin, German and Italian drama and theatre, and with other models from European literature. Preference will be given to unresearched and less researched topics, such as the influence of Jesuit school theatre in Latin on Slovenian dramatists of the late eighteenth century (Japelj, Dev and Linhart), the influence of Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro on the planned staging of Matiček with scenic music by Johann Baptist Novak, and the influence of German Romantic and Biedermeier drama, especially Schiller, on Slovenian dramatists in the Vormärz epoch. Special attention will be devoted to women, who began to enter secular theatre as organisers (Theresa Bartolini), actresses (the peasant actresses in Drabosnjak’s performances), singers (Elena Rosa), authors (Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer) and connoisseurs (the ladies from the Zois family). The final synthesis of the project will reveal the heterogeneous beginnings of Slovenian secular drama and theatre: the different genres (opera seria, festa teatrale, Lustspiel, comedy, the educational play and tragedy), audiences (noble, urban and peasant), models (from Italian, German, French and English literature), influences (e.g., local theatre in Latin, Italian and German), methods (translation, adaptation and original work) and purposes of creation (e.g., entertainment, national ideology and moral education). The results of the project will be the symposium in Ljubljana (ZRC SAZU); the thematic issue of an international journal with articles by members of the project group (in English or also in English); electronic critical editions of Mure’s play and Japelj’s translation, which will include facsimiles, the diplomatic and critical transcription, and the relevant study; and a scientific monograph with a synthesis of the results in Slovenian, which will be published by the publishing house Založba ZRC. For the general public, a lecture and concert will be organised demonstrating what the first secular theatre performances in Slovenian were like, and a guided tour of Ljubljana will be offered taking participants to locations where the development of Slovenian secular drama and theatre began.