Book contents
- Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire
- Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Music for an Imperial Stage
- 1 An Empire of Theatres
- 2 (In)forming Repertoire
- 3 Letters from the German Stage
- 4 ‘Germany’s Daughter, Melodrama’
- 5 Staging Imperial Identity
- Epilogue: Echoes of an Empire
- Appendix 1: German Theatre Companies and Performance Locations Reported in the Theater-Kalender, c.1800
- Appendix 2: Music Theatre and Musicians Referenced in the Theater-Kalender, c.1800
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - ‘Germany’s Daughter, Melodrama’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2022
- Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire
- Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Music for an Imperial Stage
- 1 An Empire of Theatres
- 2 (In)forming Repertoire
- 3 Letters from the German Stage
- 4 ‘Germany’s Daughter, Melodrama’
- 5 Staging Imperial Identity
- Epilogue: Echoes of an Empire
- Appendix 1: German Theatre Companies and Performance Locations Reported in the Theater-Kalender, c.1800
- Appendix 2: Music Theatre and Musicians Referenced in the Theater-Kalender, c.1800
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Turning to the genre that was included in the repertoire of nearly every company, this chapter explores melodrama. Featuring only a select few performers, melodramas were showpieces for the finest dramatic actors and vehicles for their fame. The genre spread rapidly throughout the Empire, and although some recognized the role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) in melodrama's inception, it was eventually labelled ‘Germany’s daughter’. The success of Ariadne auf Naxos (Gotha, 1775) by Georg Benda (1722–95) led to an intense period of melodramatic reform. This chapter traces this reform movement through such pieces as Sophonisbe (Leipzig, 1776) by Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748–98), Benda’s Philon und Theone (Vienna, 1779), and Zelmor und Ermide (Vienna, c.1779) by Anton Zimmermann (1741–81). Arguing that such pieces as these pushed melodrama's generic boundaries to the verge of opera and imparted instrumental music with new aesthetic powers, this chapter offers new insight into music-text relations, generic hybridity, and melodrama's aesthetic entanglements with opera and symphonic music.
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- Music Theatre and the Holy Roman EmpireThe German Musical Stage at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century, pp. 170 - 217Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022