RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Kopecký, Jiří
T1 The Director Friedrich Blum in Olomouc Theater and the Revolutionary Year 1848
JF Musicologica Olomucensia
YR 2011
VO 13
IS 1
SP 71
OP 80
DO 10.5507/mo.2011.004
UL https://musicologica.upol.cz/artkey/mus-201101-0004.php
AB Friedrich Blum became director of the Olomouc Theater in 1847, and the events of the revolution of 1848 strengthened his position there during the entire decade of the 1850s. Blum was able to integrate the theater into the community life of the town, and to profit by directing the theaters in Olomouc and Krakow simultaneously. He also took advantage of contacts in Lvov [Lemberg] and Karlovy Vary [Carlsbad]. Despite the rigid absolutism closely connected to the political realities of the time, Blum led artistic efforts with tolerance and vigor. But since these artistic accomplishments did not gain appreciation by specialists, and Blum was not able, for example, to rely on reserving free tickets to further the theater's role as an institution of cultural education, the ensemble eventually performed at only an average level. Blum became an undesirable person, and was not able to continue during the changes that followed the October Diploma of 1860.