Franz Salmhofer’s Opera ‘Iwan Tarassenko’: Slavic Imageries and Austria’s Political Turmoil, 1938–1948

Научный вестник Московской консерватории. 2025. Vol. 16. No. 4. P. 756–773.

Alexander I. Golovlev

The article examines Iwan Tarassenko, an opera composed by Franz Salmhofer (premiered at the Vienna State Opera in March 1938). Set in a fictional 19th-century Ukrainian village, the plot revolves around a love triangle involving Nadja, Fedja, and Iwan Tarassenko. The music eschews folk tunes and follows Viennese fin-de-siècle traditions. The premiere received significant media attention, with reviews praising Salmhofer’s music for its theatricality and melodic richness while bemoaning a lack of authenticity. Performances continued until 1941, despite the Anschluss and the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Under Allied occupation, Iwan Tarassenko returned on stage in 1948, again showing Salmhofer’s dexterity in pleasing both the public and critics with a traditional musical idiom against an “exotic” setting. The stylized image of Russia was initially well received, however, in the long term, its limitations contributed to the opera’s disappearance from the repertoire.

Keywords: образ России, image of Russia, Austrian music, Opera music, Iwan Tarassenko, Franz Salmhofer, Австрийская музыка, Оперная музыка, Венская Опера, Иван Тарасенко, Франц Зальмхофер