Martin Nedbal. Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven. Abingdon: Routledge (Ashgate), 2017. xvi + 243 pp. £120.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4724-7657-9; $36.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-3672-2955-9.
Those familiar with Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film The Magic Flute might recall various moments when characters pause to reflect on a scene, hold up a sign inscribed with a moral platitude, and sing about it. Moral maxims such as these permeate German-language opera, and particularly did so during the time of Mozart and Beethoven. Nedbal's new book traces this little-observed facet of the repertory, fleshing out the 'social, cultural and political background for this intensely moralistic Viennese German opera tradition' (p. 1).
But precisely what connects morality with German (as opposed to Italian or French) opera? As Nedbal explains in the introduction, nineteenth- and twentieth-century nationalistic scholars such as Ludwig Schiedermair and Hans Michel Schletterer viewed 'didactic fervor and moral uprightness as a defining feature of German opera' (p. 1). In other words, for them it was an inherent trait of good German art. For Nedbal, however, this perception of German music as uniquely morally ameliorating began long before the nineteenth century. As this book demonstrates, the story of German opera's moral maxims begins with the oldest known German-language opera surviving with music: Georg Philipp Harsdörffer's and Sigmund Gottlieb Staden's Seelewig (1644). Even here, the connection is not entirely straightforward. As readers learn, Harsdörffer modelled his libretto directly on a German translation of the Venetian poet Nicolò Negri's five-act verse drama Anima felice: favola boscareccia et spirituale, while offering a veiled critique of 'previous ("Italian") works' (p. 3) in the prologue. This opening example hints at the complexities associated with tracing the theme of morality in German opera, which, as the book suggests, was pervasive in Mozart's Vienna.
Late eighteenth-century Vienna is an especially interesting cultural milieu for a study of morality in opera given the extent to which censors shaped theatrical life. ...
The first chapter employs Gluck's La rencontre imprévue as an entry point to aesthetics, morality, and censorship at the Burgtheater. Performed in German as Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunst, oder die Pilgrime von Mecca, the opera 'revolves around ideas of absolute fidelity and clemency' (p. 21). Nedbal focuses on revisions for the Viennese stage, initially by Count Durazzo for a 1764 performance, in which alterations [End Page 481] to enhance moral didacticism are evident, but also for the 1780 performance, underpinned by the statesman Joseph von Sonnenfels's Briefe über die Wienerische Schaubühne (1767–9). ... As it turns out, Sonnenfels's aesthetics delineates the kind of discourse around morality and national styles that supports Nedbal's argument: that French and Italian opera were viewed as superficial, whereas Gluck's success lay in his perceived return to a noble simplicity capable of generating a sympathetic response from listeners, which was attributed to his 'Germanic genius' (p. 31).
The second chapter turns to the National Singspiel company and focuses on moral maxims in finales. Nedbal demonstrates that Mozart distinguishes the moral maxim musically in the finale of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and argues that this compositional treatment was prompted 'by the debates and new approaches to reformed German theatre developed by Viennese intellectuals, bureaucrats, composers, librettists and adapters associated with the National Theatre' (p. 52). ...
The subsequent two chapters are dedicated to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and suburban theatrical life. ...
The uniqueness of Die Zauberflöte's moralistic Germanness is further elaborated in the following chapter, which offers a comparison with similar heroic comic operas. ...
The fifth chapter centres on Baron Peter von Braun's new Singspiel troupe created at the court theatre in 1795. The post-revolutionary decade is especially interesting in Vienna as the new Singspiel troupe performed a plethora of French operas in German translation. ...
Cultural transfer with respect to French operas adapted for Vienna paves the way for the final chapter, which focuses on Beethoven's Fidelio. This is the most intriguing chapter and its title, 'How German is Fidelio?', only hints at what is ultimately at stake. First, Nedbal (I believe correctly) emphasizes Fidelio's, generic conventions as a Singspiel, which have long been ignored. Far more important, however, is what Beethoven's use of Singspiel conventions might mean, and it is here that implications become provocative. Nedbal refers to Beethoven's own writings to suggest that the composer elected to set to music only texts that he deemed morally edifying (pp. 195–6). He shows that the composer's music 'helps the audience internalize the text of a moral statement' (p. 203). Finally, he tackles the question of why Fidelio's Germanness might have been historically suppressed, speculating that in some cases, the work has been sanitized from negative connections in the twentieth century, such as its 1938 performance to celebrate the Anschluss of Austria (p. 215). Indeed, for Nedbal it is difficult to separate Beethoven's opera from the notion of German moral superiority, and at a time when musicology is increasingly engaged with ethics, this is a theme that perhaps deserves further elaboration. After all, there are indications scattered throughout the book that these moral dimensions of German opera had their roots in other national traditions—this hybridity begins, as readers might recall, with Harsdörffer's Seelewig. The cosmopolitan Viennese context featuring Italian, French, and German repertories further underscores how complicated debates such as these might be. For one, if Italian and French opera was so morally problematic, why did it continue to be so popular? But the most important issue arising from this book is ultimately ethical. One might hope that Nedbal's book will prevent further interpretations of classical music as somehow unquestionably and inherently morally ameliorating.
0 Replies