PODOBY NEMECKO-JAZYČNEJ OPERNEJ KRITIKY V PREŠPORKU OKOLO ROKU 1900. STRATÉGIE, MÉDIÁ, OSOBNOSTI

With a high demand for the social presentation of the bourgeoisie in the course of the nineteenth century, opera production in European public theatres and its reflection in the daily press experienced an unprecedented boom. This was the case in Pressburg, too, where opera enjoyed a prominent place in the repertoire of German- -language ensembles in around 1900. The Preβburger Zeitung and the Westungarischer Grenzbote dailies gave ample scope for the opera events of the Municipal Theatre and shaped the taste of the local audience through their reports and critiques. The most prominent opera critics included some central figures of social life in Pressburg: Ján Nepomuk Batka, Josef Thiard-Laforest, and Gustav Mauthner. Their texts reflected the developments in the opera and, at the same time, responded to the changing socio-political situation that brought about changes in theatre operations, too. In this way, opera criticism became a strategic tool for public discussions about the further course of theatre art in Pressburg.