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Reconsidering Fibich’S Šárka: Myth, Gender, And The Construction Of A Nation, Barbora Gregusova

Music ETDs

This work reassesses the standard consensus of Zdeněk Fibich’s (1850-1900) compositional aesthetic in his most popular opera Šárka (1896). Through the use of an interdisciplinary analysis, I set out a new interpretation. I evaluate the location of the composer’s output on the nationalistic-cosmopolitan continuum through comparisons with Smetana’s and Wagner’s compositional tendencies, respectively. I correlate Fibich’s place in the Czech political and social situations as well as conceptions of folk music with the role and depiction of gender. A feminist reading of the opera in light of Fibich’s musical treatment deemphasizes the composer’s cosmopolitan side and, contrary to the popular …