The Invention of Tradition: Balkan and Mediterranean Perspectives in 20th-Century Opera

The term “invention” derives from the Latin word inventio, meaning not only “invention” in the standard contemporary acceptance of the word, but “discovery”. It is also a technical term in rhetoric, referring to the systematic search for arguments. “Invention” in this sense is a word that applies with considerable accuracy to the search for a basis for the musical expression of national identities in the early 20th century. In this paper, in the context of a continuing research project, I will explore some connections and contrasts between the concept of the “invention of tradition” in the operatic work of two composers, the Serb Stanislav Binički and the Portuguese Alfredo Keil, and attempt to begin to build a framework within which we may view such “inventions” not only as the finding or establishment of different traditions, but of fragments of a larger cultural meta-narrative: that of Southern Europe.