Chapter 17:
Romantic Opera
Wagner and
“Music Drama”
Key Terms
Music drama
Gesamtkunstwerk
Leitmotiv
Thematic
transformation
Prelude
Deceptive cadence
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
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
Richard Wagner (2)
(1813-1883)
Bavarian King Ludwig II a Wagner fanatic
• Sponsored 1st productions of Ring operas
His 2nd wife was Liszt’s 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 (?)
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 composer—also 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
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
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
Beethoven’s symphonies
Wagner skillful in thematic transformation
• A Romantic variation-like technique
• Pioneered by Liszt in his symphonic poems
Leitmotivs (2)
With leitmotivs & their transformations –
• Wagner’s 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 Wagner’s
day
• John Williams in Star Wars or Indiana Jones
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
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde
Background (2)
Schopenhauer echoed Wagner’s 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
Wagner’s affair ended when Mathilde’s
husband found out & put his foot down
Story (1)
Wagner’s story draws on medieval legend
Story shows ever-growing power of love
Act I takes place on shipboard
• Tristan escorts Isolde (a vanquished king’s
daughter) to Cornwall to marry his king
• Isolde tries to poison Tristan, her father’s killer
• Her maid brings a love potion by mistake
• Tristan & Isolde fall hopelessly in love
Story (2)
Act II takes place in Cornwall
• Their love (Will) sweeps all obstacles away
• It overpowers Isolde’s fierce pride, her scorn
for Tristan, & her marriage vows to the king
• It dissolves Tristan’s 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
Story (3)
Act III takes place on a desolate coast
• Tristan refuses to die until Isolde comes to him
• Long soliloquy probes Tristan’s 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
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
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
Tristan und Isolde
“Philter” Scene (1)
Captive on Tristan’s 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
Tristan und Isolde
“Philter” 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
orchestra’s rich contrapuntal web
Tristan und Isolde
“Philter” Scene (3)
No let-up in drama’s forward momentum
• Orchestra paints each character & their
changing emotions with great accuracy
• Music moves seamlessly from maid’s song to
dialogue to sea chantey to Kurvenal’s song
Tristan und Isolde
“Philter” Scene (4)
Leitmotivs from the Prelude reappear
• Threefold Love-Death motive accompanies
dialogue about a love potion
Tristan und Isolde
“Philter” 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
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
Wagner’s 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
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 today’s film composers
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
Verdi vs. Wagner (2)
Functional harmony
with decorative
chromaticism
Homophonic
Extreme
chromaticism
destabilizes tonality
Polyphonic
• Vocal melody with
orchestral
accompaniment
• Elaborate web of
vocal and orchestral
lines
Fast-paced, razoredged drama
Singers carry the
show
Deliberately slow but
inexorable
Orchestra tells the
story with leitmotivs
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