Miloslav Blahynka

Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Miloslav Blahynka, PhD. was a Slovak musicologist, theatre scholar, music publicist, university lecturer, and cultural life organizer. He studied musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, and in his research he focused on opera aesthetics, musical theatre, and especially Czech and Slovak opera.

“He spent the most significant part of his professional life at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where from 1994 he worked at the Theatre and Film Department (today the Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) as a research fellow, later becoming a member and chairman of the institute’s Scientific Board. Among his other professional roles, it is worth mentioning a brief period at the concert agency Slovkoncert and at the National Theatre Centre (today the Theatre Institute in Bratislava).” (Opera Slovakia, 2021)

He was a member of several organizations, including the Slovak Music Union, the Slovak Musicological Association, the International Johann Strauss Society, the International Leoš Janáček Society, the Slovak Society for Theatre Studies, the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT), and the Czech Society for Music Science.

As part of his publishing activity, he was an editor for the magazine Hudobný život and editor and chief secretary (from 1991) of the magazine Literárny týždenník. He actively followed events on Slovak and international opera stages and reviewed them. He also contributed to periodicals such as Pravda, SME, Javisko, Opus musicum, Slovenské divadlo, ARCH, Mosty, Tempo, and published his scholarly work in various journals and academic proceedings from musicological conferences and colloquia.

Among his most important works are: Slovenská operná dramaturgia 1989 – 1998 (Slovak Opera Dramaturgy 1989–1998, 1998) His dissertation Exotizmus v opere (Exoticism in Opera, 2001), which was later published as a book under the same title Wasserbauerove inscenácie Janáčkových opier v SND and Janáčkove opery na Slovensku (Wasserbauer’s Productions of Janáček’s Operas at the Slovak National Theatre, Janáček’s Operas in Slovakia, 2006), the chapter Vývin opery po roku 1949 (The Development of Opera after 1949) in the book by Miloš Mistrík et al. (Slovenské divadlo v 20. storočí – Slovak Theatre in the 20th Century, 1999), Eseje o opere (Essays on Opera, 2006), and Kapitoly z estetiky muzikálu (Chapters from the Aesthetics of Musical, 2007).

Miloslav Blahynka also worked as an external lecturer at universities, and from 2006 as an associate professor at the Faculty of Music and Dance of the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU). He also taught music aesthetics at the Conservatory in Bratislava.