ERC Study Day – Blueprints for Modernity: Opera in the Lands of the Hungarian Crown
Datum/Uhrzeit: 26.11. – bis 27.11.2025, 17:15 –bis 16:30 Uhr
Art: Tagung/Symposium, Präsenz
Ort: GWZ Leipzig (Beethovenstr. 15) / Villa Tillmanns (Wächterstraße 30)
Referent:innen: Barbara Babić, Maximilian K. Böhm, Stefan Hofmann, Axel Körner, Quirin Lübke, Marie Poll, Anna Sanda, Nikola Tomašegović, Benjamin Walton, Jeremy F. Walton
The study day «Blueprints for Modernity» brings together scholars of music, theatre, and cultural history to examine the operatic life of lesser-explored urban centres within the lands of the Hungarian Crown during the nineteenth century.
Opera—both as a genre and as an institutional space—served as a catalyst for the modern aspirations of cities such as Preßburg/Bratislava, Temeswar/Timișoara, Košice/Kassa, Kolozsvár/Cluj, Agram/Zagreb, Fiume/Rijeka offering a means to articulate cultural ambition and connect with broader European networks. Case studies will address both the everyday realities of operatic seasons and exceptional events—such as coronations and the inauguration of new theatre buildings—highlighting questions related to adaptation, language, and the negotiation between civic and imperial agendas. Far from being peripheral or backward, the ‘imperial cities’ of Hungary and Croatia emerge as vibrant hubs of innovation, where modernity was not only imagined but actively constructed. The conference will open with a keynote lecture by Jeremy F. Walton (Rijeka / ERC ‘Revenant’).