Book contents
- Wagner in Context
- Composers in Context
- Wagner in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I Place
- II People
- III Politics, Ideas, and Bodies
- IV Life, Language, and the Ancient World
- V Music and Performance
- Chapter 29 Orchestration
- Chapter 30 Wagner and Analysis: Siegfried and the Rheinmaidens
- Chapter 31 The Scene of Grand Opera
- Chapter 32 Wagner on the Move
- Chapter 33 Stage Technology
- Chapter 34 Historic Stagings: 1876–1976
- VI Reception
- Further Reading
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 31 - The Scene of Grand Opera
from V - Music and Performance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2024
- Wagner in Context
- Composers in Context
- Wagner in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I Place
- II People
- III Politics, Ideas, and Bodies
- IV Life, Language, and the Ancient World
- V Music and Performance
- Chapter 29 Orchestration
- Chapter 30 Wagner and Analysis: Siegfried and the Rheinmaidens
- Chapter 31 The Scene of Grand Opera
- Chapter 32 Wagner on the Move
- Chapter 33 Stage Technology
- Chapter 34 Historic Stagings: 1876–1976
- VI Reception
- Further Reading
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Wagner’s attitude towards the Paris-centred tradition of grand opéra and its German-language cousin, große Oper, was equivocal. On the one hand, he mercilessly dissects the shortcomings of the genres in his Zurich writings; on the other hand, borrowings are rife and a notable exemplar exists in Rienzi. After disentangling and contextualising that contradiction in relation to Wagner’s early works and writings, this chapter considers the tensions between municipal and international resources in staging ‘grand’ works, the shifting associations of German genre such as Singspiel, große romantische Oper, and große Oper, and the witness born to this by Wagner’s prose drafts for incomplete works such as Die Sarazenin and Friedrich I.
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- Wagner in Context , pp. 311 - 320Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024