Opera saw the advent of a large number of young Slovak singers who would later create a distinct Slovak school of singing noted for its expressive style.
The first half of the 1940s also advanced the diffusion of professional theatre to the regions through the establishment of new companies – first at Nitra (1939), and then at Prešov and Martin (1944).
Nor did this lucent stage in the development of Slovak theatre end with the arrival of Soviet troops and the demise of the Slovak Republic in 1945. The renewal of Czechoslovakia and its assumption into the sphere of influence of Stalin’s Soviet Union did, however, bring a gradual elimination of Slovak autonomy, the abolition of democratic institutions and, ultimately, the seizure of power in 1948 by the Communist Party. Only then did this first period of Slovak theatre’s great expansion come to a close. It ended with the negative critical reception of two avant-garde productions of works by Slovak Romantic poets: Ján Botto’s The Death of Jánošík – Smrť Jánošíková and Andrej Sládkovič’s Marína, both in 1948. In opera the end came with the staging of Eugen Suchoň’s The Whirlpool – Krútňava in 1949.

IV.
The 1950s brought a slackening of pace, doctrinairism and isolation from the European scene. The only gain was the establishment of new theatre institutions, motivated by the imperative of Communist Party policy that art be brought to the labouring masses. New theatres were founded, starting at the end of the 1940s, in all of Slovakia’s larger towns: Žilina, Považská Bystrica, Trnava, Zvolen, Spišská Nová Ves and Komárno. There was also a Village Theatre (Dedinské divadlo), which had as many as four companies. In 1949 Bratislava acquired an Academy of Performing Arts (Vysoká škola múzických umení), which trained actors, directors, repertory advisers and set-designers. The year 1953 saw the creation at the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovenská akadémia vied) of a centre for theatre research, which in 1990 became autonomous as the Theatre and Film Department of the SAS (Kabinet divadla a filmu SAV). The 1960s brought the establishment of a theatre archive and publishing centre, which later transmuted into the Theatre Institute (Divadelný ustav).
Further positive development arose only in the latter half of the 1950s and continuing throughout the following decade, when ideological constraints were surmounted and fresh sources of inspiration were sought. Directors encountered the theatre of Brecht, and severed ties with the European course were re-established. New generations of theatre people and dramatists appeared. Opera composers – including Eugen Suchoň and Ján Cikker – rid themselves of the tendency to pathos and looked to the century’s modern music.
The legacy of Ján Jamnický was taken up by directors Karol L. Zachar (The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1954) and Jozef Budský, and Tibor Rakovský staged modern drama (The Life of Galileo, 1958).