OPERETTES IN THE PROGRAMS OF CZECH BESEDA IN DARUVAR AND ITS AREA

Sa？etak This paper shows the time from 1953 to 1979 in the programs of amateur theaters of the Czech minority in the Daruvar area, which I called the golden age of operettas. It makes an important part of the cultural history of the Czech community in Daruvar and its area. The operettas were preceded by a musical and theater amateurism without which they would be impossible. Theater amateurism was nurtured in the theater/drama groups of Czech beseda, and the musical assumption for the development of operettas was made up of wind orchestras in Daruvar and its area, mixed musical bands, the Daruvar Musical Society and the Singing Choir of the Grammar School in Daruvar. The leaders of the operettas in Daruvar, Lipovac (Ljudevit Selo), Hercegovac and Ivanovo Selo were Josef Knytl, Václav ？ástek and Ivan Sitta, the names of whom are connected to the following operettas: Vesnice zpívá, Z chaloupek pod horami, Na ty louce zeleny, Sládci, Románek krásné cikánky, Silva, Za na？i salá？i, Mládenka z kovárny, U svatého Antoní？ka, Zmoklá slepice, Hloupé děv？e z na？i vesnice, Ja jsem maly myslive？ek, Odtroubeno, Jak si Ka？ka ？testí vyslou？ila and Eliksír. The concluding part of the paper considers the reasons for their disappearance in the Daruvar area and notes the considerations of the Czech minority of today on them. The original master’s thesis on this topic which was the basis for this was comprehensive. Here I bring the summary of that paper based on the data received from people who were active participants of the operetta productions or who remember their performances. When writing, I relied heavily on the stored material archived in the Czech Alliance in the Republic of Croatia in Daruvar which also holds some portions and librettos of a few operettas, as well as on the notations from the Czech beseda Daruvar archives which describe details on each theater piece performed by the amateur drama society. By connecting the field work with the archives, I attempted to reconstruct the process of setting up the operettas as closely as possible, from their rehearsals to performances. I also relied on the reviews and articles published in the Jednota magazine, as well as on other publications of this news-publishing institution. The operettas had an educational role, as well as a role in guarding the culture and mother tongue. Working on them enabled the members of the Czech community to get to know the musical literature and gain the experience of performing such a musical-scene piece which was unknown on the local amateur theater scene of the time. The members of