Die Gedächtnisfabrik

How did music become the currency of an entire system?

This study explores a virtually unknown chapter in European cultural history: musical theater in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria between 1944 and 1990. The study demonstrates how opera houses functioned as state-controlled venues for the production of collective memory. Historical subjects, medieval legends, and artists’ dramas were condensed on stage into emotionally engaging history lessons—not as crude propaganda, but as a multifaceted aesthetic system with its own contradictions and subversive undertones.

By adopting a broader definition of “economy”—ranging from the Byzantine concept of oikonomía to the budgetary constraints of a planned economy—this collection offers a completely new interpretation of this repertoire. Analyses of the works of Ljubomir Pipkov, Konstantin Iliev, Paraškev Hadžiev, and Lazar Nikolov are combined with archival findings, studies of film music, and cultural-theoretical perspectives to create a rich panorama.

A pioneering work for musicologists, scholars of Eastern Europe, and anyone who wishes to understand art as a mirror of political systems.

Also by the same author: *The Needle* —click here.

The book will be released on November 15, 2026, and is already available for pre-order!