Genesis, the television oratorio. Audio-visual analysis within the context of Czech television opera

The present thesis proposes a deconstructive analysis of Czech television oratorio Genesis (director Pavel Hobl, music Zbigniew Wiszniewsky, Czechoslovak Television and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, 1969). Using concepts of voice-object and acousmêtre, this study examines music of the oratorio as an important narrative feature of the audio-visual object. The text interprets the narrative of the oratorio as a crituque of logocentrism and rationalism of modern society. Beside the interpretative part, the study duscusses history and preception of the genre of television opera in Czechoslovakia from early 60s to 1989. Two concepts of the production of television opera are introduced: first, a concept of television opera as a mediator of an existing operatic work, or as means of cultural education of "mass audience"; secondly, television opera is called to represent a new art form using specific television means. These concepts are found in texts by Czech music theorists and journalists of 60s, when the disputation about television opera in Czech journals culminated. A list of television operas produced by Czechoslovak television until 1989 is attached