Early German Romantic Opera

Mozart dreamed of establishing serious German-language opera.  This is finally realized in the 19th Century.

Changes in the 19th Century:

á          18th C is "Age of Reason;" Natural Law is important for everything; 19th century is not to make moral comment but to examine human passion.  Emotion is uppermost

á          Late 18th and into 19th c. literature reflects emotional content; this is time of romantic literature. Themes of romantic literature:

á          longing for unattainable, melancholy, weltschmerz

á          searching for roots in a distant place or time

á          individualism: 19th century composers saw their works as self-expression

á          Gesamtkunstwerk: concept of opera as a complete, unified work that brings together music and words as one perfect whole. In Germany they looked for a ÒsupremeÓ art that combined many arts in synthesis.

Romantic experiments in opera in Germany:

á          ETA Hoffman (1776-1822) wrote Undine, which contains some important developments/traits that will be found in Romantic opera:

á          subject matter becomes standard: scenes with supernatural beings

á          folk-like melodies

á          thematic reminiscence (will lead to Leitmotif)

á          Leitmotif is short musical theme, easily identifiable, represents a character, emotion or state of mind like Fate, Destiny. 

á          C. M. von Weber (1786-1826) was influenced by Undine and adopted the idea of thematic reminiscence. Weber expanded on ideas he liked in HoffmanÕs opera, and wrote Der Freischutz (1821 premier)

á          Alludes to GoetheÕs Faust with the soul-selling idea.

á          Contains numerous allusions to Nature, which Germans loved

á          Characters: heroine of utmost innocence and purity; hero with best intentions; villain who receives just desserts. 

á          In overture, Weber paints picture of forest using horn calls.  Overture contains themes that will be heard again later in the opera

á          After overture, opening scene has simple peasant quality that Weber tried to bring out as he depicted scene of village life in rural Germany

á          Romantic musical aspects: minor key, dim 7, dynamic surprises, stormy character

á          WeberÕs early death probably helped to stall the development of German Romantic opera;  Wagner would bring it to fruition later in the 19th Century