Blagoje Bersa: The Iron Hammer

(…) Having mastered all the expressive means of contemporary compositional technique during his second stay in Vienna and developed into a composer of modern taste and artistic mindset, he began composing Oganj [The Fire].

Through Srećko Albini, who was also active in Vienna at the time, he obtained Alfred Maria Willner’s libretto Der Eisenhammer. Willner was a prominent librettist of the era, writing libretti independently or collaboratively for Lehár and Leo Fall, and, alongside Robert Bodanzky, penning the text for Albini’s Barun Trenk. Captivated by the subject matter, Bersa began composing Oganj in June 1905 in Zadar and completed it in May 1906 in Vienna. He gave the score its final form the following year after introducing several revisions.

Der Eisenhammer, translated by Dr. Gustav Šamšalović in his dictionary as iron forge, is a work of naturalistic aesthetic orientation with social, lyrical, and romantic elements. Willner’s effective libretto—replete with potent dramatic turns and expertly graded climaxes, skillfully drawn contrasts, and sharply delineated characters—offered Bersa everything he sought: a social drama without overt socio-political agitation; the dark, Nordic atmosphere of Ibsen’s plays, tempered by a touch of romanticism; dramatic material concluding not in tragedy but in a fortunate resolution; the Wagnerian motif of redemption through love, compassion, or the sacrifice of a pure woman; and the warm, lyrical palette of a Christmas scene with children, in which Bersa achieves a deliberate, heartfelt simplicity.

A supreme master of compositional technique and instrumentation influenced by German music and the Central European musical idiom, Bersa nevertheless could not conceal his Mediterranean heritage, which manifests in expansive, cantabile melodies and a tender lyricism imbued with warmth and delicacy. Bersa’s workers are depicted in a late-Romantic fashion, and despite the presence of machine music, the opera’s defining character remains rooted in the conventions of traditional Romantic opera: a world of crimes demanding retribution, an exiled hero declared mad, inescapable romantic entanglements, and deathbed confessions. His lyrical soul resonates in the schoolteacher Lenka, who in certain respects recalls Massenet’s Charlotte as she sits among the children, singing to them. Robert Thoms is the archetypal misunderstood Romantic hero, while Hellwing is the antagonist who ultimately unites the hands of his unrequited love, Lenka, and his bitter rival, Robert.
The ecstasy of the love duet, Slavic elegiac warmth, and the dramatic dialogue between Robert and Hellwing represent the contrasting poles of Bersa’s art in Oganj. Running throughout the work are Wagnerian leitmotifs of paternal death, vengeance, hatred, the machine, love, and labor, alongside veristic emotional intensity. The work is cosmopolitan in character, bearing few strictly national traits—a direct result of the undeniable influence of Wagnerism and verismo—yet it is masterfully crafted in every respect, matching the standards of the finest European operatic output of the time. In its structural design, it represents a synthesis of opera and music drama. (…)

HDS, Cantus, 2025.
Edition No: Can. 399-3725
ISMN 979-0-801363-72-5