“AMERICANISM” AND MEDIA TECHNOLOGY
The Zeitoper, where all of these Weimarish notions intersected and reached their peak, was ushered in, on 10 February 1927, by Jonny spielt auf (“Johnny goes to town”). The hit of the decade, if not the century, it made its composer, Ernst Krenek (1900–91), a precocious Czech-born citizen of Austria who had already written four operas, a European celebrity at twenty-six, and financially independent for the rest of his long life. During the next season, 1927–28, Jonny had forty-five productions and 421 performances as far west as Antwerp and as far east as Lemberg (now L’viv in Ukraine). By 1929 it had been performed on three continents, and its libretto had been translated into fourteen languages. “Now-opera” deserved its name: it had a prominence in the cultural life of its time matched only by the French and Italian grand operas of the nineteenth century and never equaled since, for opera soon lost its status as mass entertainment. (Krenek went on to write sixteen more operas, of which only one had more than a single production.)
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 May. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009007.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 May. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009007.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions." In Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 May. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009007.xml
