Verdi and the Germans
From Unification to the Third Reich

This book explores how the reception of Italian opera, epitomised by Verdi, influenced changing ideas of German musical and national identity.

Gundula Kreuzer (Author)

9781107638402, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 June 2014

384 pages, 13 b/w illus. 1 table
24.4 x 17 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

'Kreuzer shows a courageous willingness to confront some uncomfortable truths. Her engrossing book is a vivid illustration of how music can be used in the service of politics and a warning that we ignore the significance of the arts at our peril.' Music and Letters

This seminal study of Giuseppe Verdi's German-language reception provides important new perspectives on German musical culture and nationalism from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Kreuzer argues that the concept of Germany's musical supremacy, so dear to its nationalist cause, was continually challenged by the popularity of Italian opera, a genre increasingly epitomised by Verdi. The book traces the many facets of this Italian-German opposition in the context of intense historical developments from German unification in 1871 to the end of World War II and beyond. Drawing on an exceptionally broad range of sources, Kreuzer explores the construction of visual and biographical images of Verdi; the marketing, interpretation and adaptation of individual works; regional, social and religious undercurrents in German musical life; and overt political appropriations. Suppressed, manipulated and, not least, guiltily enjoyed, Verdi emerges as a powerful influence on German intellectuals' ideas about their collective identity and Germany's paradigmatic musical Other.

Preface
1. Introduction: Italian opera and German historiography
2. Verdi's Requiem and the anxious young Kaiserreich
3. Maestro to Meister: Verdi purified
4. The 'Verdi renaissance'
5. Verdi in the Third Reich
6. Epilogue: post-war Verdi
Appendix 1. Verdi's Requiem in German-language countries, 1875–1901
Appendix 2. Successful Verdi revivals in German-language theatres, 1901–51
Select bibliography.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9], 20th century & contemporary classical music [AVGC6], Western "classical" music [AVGC]