Described by many as the ‘Golden Age of Opera’, the
changing 19th century musical style provided composers such as
Beethoven, Rossini and Wagner with the opportunity to create a deeper level of
emotional and artistic depth to their compositions, incorporating elements of
other notable Romantics poets and artists. Grout (2003:418) writes
“The
nineteenth century proceeded to create a new aesthetic, and new set of musical
procedures for opera, all of which were dominated by the idea of coalescence as
against the eighteenth-century idea of distinctness.”
In addition, the rise in the public accessibility and
interest in music undoubtedly would have impacted on the size of the audience
creating much larger productions around the world.
Perhaps ushered in by Beethoven’s only operatic
composition Fidelio (1805), which
tells of Leonore rescuing her husband from prison disguised as a guard, many
notable pieces and composers contributed to the new freedom and expression of
opera during the 19th Century.
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) completed
his first Opera, La Cambiale di
Matrimonio (1810) at the age of 18, and proceeded to write close to fifty
operas during his career. Giuseppe Verdi was also considered to be one
of the pre-eminent operatic composers of the nineteenth century (Levy: 2011),
producing over 30 pieces. Details of my
response to individual pieces by these composers can be found in my listening
log.
Arguably on of the world most famous operatic composers is
Richard Wagner. Known both for his
musical and political views, Wagner’s works created shock, intrigue and
admiration across the world. Credited
with inventing his own instruments, e.g. the Wagner tuba, he was not only an
innovator in respect of orchestral techniques, but also of using his music as a
form of political and emotional expression.
The familiar phrase ‘it isn’t over until the fat lady sings’ can be
traced to Wagner’s cycle of four operas, Der
Ring des Nibelungen (1848 - 74), in which the final ten minutes of the
composition focus on a solo from a, usually, larger framed woman! (The Phrase Finder: n.d.)
Wagner’s first opera, Rienzi
(1842), demonstrated Wagner’s mastery of the musical form, and later pieces
such as Lohengrin (1850) and Das Rheingold (1854) showed Wagner’s
constant development as a composer.
However, perhaps overshadowing his achievements as a composer
were Wagner’s political views, which, it is argued, can be later linked to
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Growing
up in a radically changing German society, Weiner (1995:12) writes:
“Wagner
believed modern, hypercivilized culture (which he associated with Jews) to be
distressingly superficial, and tradition-laden and communally defined German
culture to be wonderful authentic, worthy of veneration, and ‘deep’.”
In an academic essay written by Wagner in 1851 entitled
‘Judaism in Music’, Wagner, in no uncertain terms, expressed his distaste for
the Jewish population (Heffer: 2010). In
addition, Telegraph [online] (n.d.) describes how Adolf Hitler was
greatly inspired by the works of Wagner writing:
“Wagner's
anti-Semitic and fervently nationalistic writings are thought to have had a
quasi-religious effect on Hitler. His theories of racial purity were partly
drawn from Wagner.”
In Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical book, Mein Kampf (1971), he writes:
"At
the age of twelve, I saw ... the first opera of my life, Lohengrin. In one instant I was addicted. My youthful
enthusiasm for the Bayreuth Master knew no bounds."
(Hitler and Manheim: 1971:20)
Although there is very little evidence of Wagner’s
anti-sematic views within his compositions, Deutsche
Welle (n.d.) writes of the possibilities of ‘Wagner Code’, arguing that
perhaps:
“Wagner's
contemporaries would have known how to interpret this "anti-Semitic
code" in the roles.
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