The Dissonant Gesamtkunstwerk. Wagner Productions between Artistic Craft and Aesthetic Ideology

This project explored Richard Wagner’s theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk in relation to modernity. Drawing upon the history of Wagnerian singing, the project found Wagner’s artistic theory to have had varied material effects. Particular attention was paid to the concept of the multifunctional Singschauspielerin [singing actress], which subverts the division of labor common in the modern opera industry, as well as to the debate surrounding the declining quality of Wagnerian singing.

The project was additionally supervised by Prof. Dr. Anno Mungen from the Research Institute for Music Theater Studies, Schloss Thurnau.
Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2015–2017
Head researcher(s): Luka Nakhutsrishvili

Publications

Luka Nakhutsrishvili

  • The promising ruins of the German prima donna. Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and German musical discourse in the nineteenth century, in: Geschichte und Repräsentation. Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte 46. Göttingen: Wallstein 2018, 33–71
  • Richard Wagner als Kulturheros. Metonymien und Inflationen einer brüchigen Identität, in: Zaal Andronikashvili, Giorgi Maisuradze, Franziska Thun-Hohenstein, Matthias Schwartz (eds.): Kulturheros. Genealogien. Konstellationen. Praktiken. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos 2017, 282–308
  • The Artist in the Epoch of Baudelaire and Wagner and the “Tannhäuser”-Scandal in the Paris Opera, Introductory essay to Charles Baudelaire, Richard Wagner and ‘Tannhäuser’ in Paris, translated by Luka Nakhutsrishvili. Tbilisi: Bakur Sulakauri 2016, 7–34 [in Georgian]
  • Gesamtkunstwerk mit Stimmendämmerung. Für eine aporetische Perspektive der Wagner-Rezeption, in: Sven Friedrich (ed.): Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft. Perspektiven der Wagnerrezeption im 21. Jahrhundert. Wagner in der Diskussion vol. 11. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2014