Chapter 17: Romantic Opera

1
Chapter 17Romantic Opera

• Wagner and
• Music Drama

2
Key Terms

• Music drama
• Gesamtkunstwerk
• Leitmotiv
• Thematic transformation
• Prelude
• Deceptive cadence

3
Wagner and Music Drama

• The most influential Romantic composer after
  Beethoven
• His innovations revolutionized opera and
  orchestral music
• Complete artwork concept
• Guiding motive (leitmotiv) technique
• Elaborate theories on art, music, opera
• Opera had degenerated from original serious drama
  to concert in costume
• Arias hopelessly artificial always interrupting
  dramatic flow for a song

4
Richard Wagner (1)(1813-1883)

• Intellectual pursuits as a youth
• Literature, music, philosophy, mythology,
  religion
• Began career as an opera conductor
• Early works influenced by Weber
• Early German Romantic opera style
• Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin
• Exiled after revolution of 1848-49
• Formulated principles for music drama
• Began work on The Ring of the Nibelung

5
Richard Wagner (2)(1813-1883)

• Bavarian King Ludwig II a Wagner fanatic
• Sponsored 1st productions of Ring operas
• His 2nd wife was Liszts daughter Cosima
• She left Wagner conductor von Bülow for him
• He built his own opera house in Bayreuth
• Annual festival still performs only Wagner
• Wagner stirred enormous controversy
• Half visionary half con man
• Highly influential in music the other arts
• The most important Romantic composer (?)

6
The Total Work of Art (1)

• New kind of opera the music drama
• Powerful new concept Music shares honors with
  poetry, drama, philosophy
• Called a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk)
• Wagner had total artistic control
• He was not merely the composeralso writer,
  director, producer, designer, conductor
• Based on old German myths legends
• They present weighty philosophical issues
• Use of myth as embodiment of deepest unconscious
  truths anticipates Freud

7
The Total Work of Art (2)

• New intensity of emotional expression
• Slow tempos suggest timelessness of myth
• Orchestra given new importance in opera
• Larger than ever new instruments added
• Brass section now equal to other sections
• Superb orchestration provided exciting,
  intoxicating new tone colors
• Orchestra now carried the opera along
• No more recitatives, arias, ensembles, etc.
• One long orchestral web woven with singing

8
Leitmotivs (1)

• Leitmotiv guiding, or leading, motive
• Motives associated with some person, thing, idea,
  or symbol in the drama
• They give thematic continuity to the unbroken
  orchestral web
• Modeled after motivic development in Beethovens
  symphonies
• Wagner skillful in thematic transformation
• A Romantic variation-like technique
• Pioneered by Liszt in his symphonic poems

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Leitmotivs (2)

• With leitmotivs their transformations
• Wagners orchestra can now guide the listener
  through the story
• It can tell us what the hero thinks or feels when
  he is saying something else
• It can show a person or idea changing as drama
  progresses
• Leitmotivs used widely since Wagners day
• John Williams in Star Wars or Indiana Jones

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Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Background (1)

• Two major inspirations
• Discovered philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer
• Love affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, wife of a
  wealthy patron
• For Schopenhauer, all human existence consists of
  Will or Appearance
• Will emotions drives
• Appearance ideas, morals, reason
• Will always dominates Appearance
• Will is sensed directly only through music

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Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Background (2)

• Schopenhauer echoed Wagners beliefs
• Music was especially suited for emotional
  expression
• The deepest truths could be plumbed in music
• Tristan und Isolde is not just a love story
• Wagner chose sexual love to exemplify Will
• He presents love as the dominant force in life
• This love transcends all worldly Appearance
• Wagners affair ended when Mathildes husband
  found out put his foot down

12
Story (1)

• Wagners story draws on medieval legend
• Story shows ever-growing power of love
• Act I takes place on shipboard
• Tristan escorts Isolde (a vanquished kings
  daughter) to Cornwall to marry his king
• Isolde tries to poison Tristan, her fathers
  killer
• Her maid brings a love potion by mistake
• Tristan Isolde fall hopelessly in love

13
Story (2)

• Act II takes place in Cornwall
• Their love (Will) sweeps all obstacles away
• It overpowers Isoldes fierce pride, her scorn
  for Tristan, her marriage vows to the king
• It dissolves Tristans perfectly chivalry his
  loyalty to the king, his uncle
• Tristan Isolde meet under cover of night
• Longest unconsummated love scene in opera
• Through treachery, their tryst is discovered
• Tristan is mortally wounded and escapes

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Story (3)

• Act III takes place on a desolate coast
• Tristan refuses to die until Isolde comes to him
• Long soliloquy probes Tristans psychological
  struggles to accept all that has happened
• When she arrives he dies in her arms
• Isolde sinks down in rapture expires in an
  ecstatic, mystical vision of love beyond death
• The two move in a realm where reality, morals,
  reason, even life death, have lost their power
• Love as ultimate transcendent experience

15
Prelude to Tristan und Isolde (1)

• Magnificent depiction of romantic love
• Especially its endless, sensual yearning
• Full of unresolved, deceptive cadences
• Music restlessly, ceaselessly surges forward
• Introduces several important leitmotivs
• Begins with threefold Love-Death motive

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Prelude to Tristan und Isolde (2)

• Death motive other new motives emerge (or
  transformations of earlier themes?)
• Death motive
• Overall gradual crescendo climaxes with ff return
  of threefold Love-Death motive
• Broods dies away without any cadence

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Tristan und IsoldePhilter Scene (1)

• Captive on Tristans ship, Isolde her maid
  Brangaene discuss their situation
• Brangaene suggests Isolde repay King Mark with a
  potion to bind him in chains of love
• But Isolde pulls out a poison philter (potion)
• She plans to kill Tristan drink the rest
  herself
• Sailors chantey tells that land is near
• Kurwenal enters to escort Isolde to Tristan so
  they can prepare for landing

18
Tristan und IsoldePhilter Scene (2)

• Singing style neither aria nor recitative
• Ranges freely between the two
• Singers vital as actors, bearers of the words
• But musically each is just another voice in the
  orchestras rich contrapuntal web

19
Tristan und IsoldePhilter Scene (3)

• No let-up in dramas forward momentum
• Orchestra paints each character their changing
  emotions with great accuracy
• Music moves seamlessly from maids song to
  dialogue to sea chantey to Kurvenals song

20
Tristan und IsoldePhilter Scene (4)

• Leitmotivs from the Prelude reappear
• Threefold Love-Death motive accompanies dialogue
  about a love potion

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Tristan und IsoldePhilter Scene (5)

• Death motive used ominously at the mere thought
  (not even the mention!) of death
• When Isolde actually seizes the death philter,
  the orchestra explodes
• In the end, Brangaene switches philters
• Tristan Isolde drink an aphrodisiac instead

22
Ring of the Nibelung (1)

• Four-opera cycle took 27 years to finish
• Towering artwork comparable to the Taj Mahal, the
  Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Sistine Chapel
• Wagners story based on Norse myths
• Epic tale spans several generations
• With gods, dwarves, giants, dragons, water
  nymphs, humans, a ring of power
• Tolkien drew on the same myths in writing Lord of
  the Rings

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Ring of the Nibelung (2)

• Wotan, king of the gods, attains absolute power
  through deception theft
• But he loses the Ring that will doom his family,
  his enemies, his empire
• Music of enormous expressive range
• Depicts innocence, spite, rage, regret, love at
  first sight, passion, exuberance, wonder
• Rich, vast web of leitmotivs
• Matched flexibly with people events
• Paved the way for todays film composers

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Verdi vs. Wagner (1)

• Italian passion
• Drawn from popular plays or novels
• Features princes, prostitutes, poets, peasants
• Recitative, chorus, aria, ensemble
• Tuneful melodies
• Regular phrases

• German philosophy
• Drawn from German legends myth
• Features knights, princesses, gods, giants,
  dwarves
• Each act a long symphonic poem
• Infinite melody
• Irregular phrases

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Verdi vs. Wagner (2)

• Functional harmony with decorative chromaticism
• Homophonic
• Vocal melody with orchestral accompaniment
• Fast-paced, razor-edged drama
• Singers carry the show

• Extreme chromaticism destabilizes tonality
• Polyphonic
• Elaborate web of vocal and orchestral lines
• Deliberately slow but inexorable
• Orchestra tells the story with leitmotivs

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Verdi vs. Wagner (3)

• Verdi at his best
• Fast-paced, nonstop drama
• Powerful expression of emotions
• Realistic story characters
• Glorious vocal music

• Wagner at his best
• Gripping, psychological drama
• Profound revelations
• Timelessness of myth
• Glorious orchestral music