In the Public Eye

The Budapest Opera House, the Audience and the Press, 1884-1918

By (author) Markian Prokopovych

Book cover: In the Public Eye

Extent: 350 pages

Publisher: Böhlau Verlag Wien

Subjects: Music & Performing Arts

Language: German

Paperback (Published)

(August 2014)

ISBN: 9783205779414

5.83 x 8.27 inches

Price: $82.00

Out of stock

During the 1884 inauguration of the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest, political elites staged a gala concert in the auditorium while the angry crowd, excluded from this ceremony, demonstrated on the street. In 1917, the crowds queuing to a Bela Bartok premiere needed to be forcibly held back. The book follows the history of the contested institution through a series of scandals, public protests, repertoire controversies and their representation in the urban press of the time. Such conflicts often led to larger issues that concerned the Opera House as a music institution, the birth of the modern public sphere and the modern audience. Thereby, the book calls for a critical rethinking of the cultural history of Budapest and Hungary in the late Habsburg Monarchy.

  • By (author) Markian Prokopovych