Since its premiere in 1868, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg has defied repeated upheavals in the cultural-political landscape of German statehood to retain its unofficial status as the German national opera. The work’s significance as a touchstone of national culture survived even such troubling episodes as its public endorsement in 1933 as ‘the most German of all German operas’ by Joseph Goebbels or the rendition in previous years by audiences at Bayreuth of both national and Nazi-party anthems at the work’s culmination. This chequered reception history and apparent propensity for reinterpretation or reclamation has long fuelled debates over the socio-political meanings of Wagner’s musical narrative. On the question of Beckmesser, for instance, heated arguments have surrounded the existence of antisemitic stereotypes in the work as well as their possible indication of a racial-political dimension to Sachs’s restoration of Nuremberg society. Through a combination of musical-textual analysis with critical theory, this book interrogates the ideological underpinnings of Die Meistersinger’s narrative. In four interconnected studies of the characters of Walther, Sachs, Beckmesser, and Eva, the book traces a critical potential within the opera’s construction of provincial and national identities and problematizes existing discourse around its depiction of race and gender.

Music, theatre and politics have maintained a long-standing relationship that continues to be strong. The contributions in this volume bridge the conventional chronological division between 'late Romantic' and 'modern' music to thematize a wide array of i

Weighs the value of Germanophone culture, and its study, in an age of globalization, transnationalism, and academic change.

Medievalism, or the reception or interpretation of the Middle Ages, was a prominent aesthetic for German opera composers in the first half of the nineteenth century. A healthy competition to establish a Germanic operatic repertory arose at this time, and fascination with medieval times served a critical role in shaping the desire for a unified national and cultural identity. Using operas by Weber, Schubert, Marshner, Wagner, and Schumann as case studies, Richardson investigates what historical information was available to German composers in their recreations of medieval music, and whether or not such information had any demonstrable effect on their compositions. The significant role that nationalism played in the choice of medieval subject matter for opera is also examined, along with how audiences and critics responded to the medieval milieu of these works. In this book, readers will gain a clear understanding of the rise of German opera in the early nineteenth century and the cultural and historical context in which this occurred. This book will also provide insight on the reception of medieval history and medieval music in nineteenth-century Germany, and will demonstrate how medievalism and nationalism were mutually reinforcing phenomena at this time and place in history.

This opera has been described as "e;the longest single smile in the German language"e;. But Roland Matthews indicates that violence is not far beneath the surface of this portrait of medieval Nuremberg. Arnold Whittall's analysis gives a bird's-eye view of the complexity of the score. Timothy McFarland explores the significance of the choice of subject: that nostalgia for a pre-industrial community, which was a symptom of the German nationalist movement. The long text has many subtleties which opera audiences can hardly appreciate without reading it, and the musical themes are numbered to indicate where they occur.Contents: 'My most genial creation...', Roland Matthews; A Musical Commentary, Amold Whittall; Wagner's Nuremberg, Timothy McFarland; Die Meistersingers von Nuernberg: Poem by Richard Wagner; The Mastersingers of Nuremberg: English translation by Frederick Jameson, revised by Gordon Kember and Norman Feasey

Hegemonic transitions are never clear, and they usually emerge from a period of multi-polarity in the world-system. Two types of state tend to contend for power: trading states and territorial states, although most states are never “pure” and tend to contain within them multiple polities with different agendas. This book describes the hegemonic transition between two major trading states, Britain and America. British decline began in the late Victorian era, but the transition to American power was slow, and other states also sought hegemony. Transitions between trading states focus on economic struggle, though struggles between trading and territorial states and between territorial states are marked by armed conflict. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson saw three arenas of competition developing between Britain and America: in international transportation, international communication, and petroleum. But Britain was challenged economically by America as early as 1861 via the Morrill Tariff, her economic hegemony was gone by the 1880s, and she was “defeated” by 1947. From the 1880s on both America and Germany sought to replace Britain as hegemonic power not only through their implementation of protectionist economic policies, but also through the adoption of revised versions of the world-economy, through new technologies, and, in the case of Germany, military power. Britain struggled to stay in place. Britain’s world-economy was that of a pure trading state. Maritime trade in organic materials was organized through global capitalism and control over submarine cable telecommunications rather than territorial possession. America’s rise was greatly helped by being a capitalist power in possession of a secure territorial base in the mid-section of the North American continent, but America suffered from multiple polities competing for power, with the South particularly problematic. Germany developed a radically new world-economy that synthesized resources using organic chemistry. German science and technology began to diffuse to American corporate laboratories before World War One. After that war, diffusion to American laboratories and universities was massive and helped secure American hegemony.

Vols. for 1969- include ACTFL annual bibliography of books and articles on pedagogy in foreign languages 1969-

Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg has been one of the most performed operas ever since its premiere in 1868. It was adopted as Germany's national opera ["Nationaloper"], not least because of its historical coincidence with the unification of Germany under Bismarck in 1871. The first section of this volume, "Performing Meistersinger," contains three commissioned articles from internationally respected artists - a conductor [Peter Schneider], a stage director [Harry Kupfer] and a singer [Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau], all experienced in the performance of this unusually demanding 5-hour work. The second section, "Meistersinger and History," examines both the representation of German history in the opera and the way the opera has functioned in history through political appropriation and staging practice. The third section, "Representations," is the most eclectic, exploring in the first place the problematic question of genre from the perspective of a theatrical historian. The chronic issue of Wagner's chief opponent, Eduard Hanslick, and his musical and dramatic representation in the opera as Beckmesser, is then addressed, as are gender issues, and Wagner's own utterances concerning the opera. Contributors: Nicholas Vazsonyi, Peter Schneider, Harry Kupfer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hans Rudolf Vaget, Lutz Koepnick, David B. Dennis, Klaus Van Den Berg, Thomas S. Grey, Lydia Goehr, Eva Rieger, Peter Höyng. Nicholas Vazsonyi is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina.