Background information for a presentation of excerpts from three operas with a Romanticism theme.

1. Romanticism was a
movement in art, music,
and literature that started
around 1775 and that
featured the solitary artistic
hero, the grand gesture,
strong emotions, and the
single individual as central,
not society. It is hard to
define well and it is not the
same as “romantic”
Romanticism in Opera
Dave Shafer

2. Characters in
Romanticism are very
distinctive individuals,
larger than life, like
Napoleon here. They
can be rhapsodizing
poets, military heroes,
Casanova types, and
other expansive egos.
It is not the same as
“romantic” but shares
some features.

3. Ah, romance! We often
think only of the upside of
romance, of happy lovers.
But there can be the
downside too, of rejection
– either temporary or
permanent.
Opera covers all types.

4. Romantic love, like Romeo and
Juliet, is the subject of many
operas and much of literature. In
literature love can develop at a
reasonable pace. In operas there
is no time for that and it is
usually love at first sight, so the
plot can quickly develop. Lovers
see each other in expansive,
wonderful ways that send reality
on a holiday trip. In opera this
usually ends badly for the lovers.
Romanticism goes way beyond
romance and involves extra risk
and daring, or extreme anguish,
or a lover standing apart from
normal society.

5. Dark thoughts, as in this 1781 Fuseli painting “The Nightmare” are also
associated with Romanticism. Here it is intense private feelings.

6. Goethe Written in 1774, when
Goethe was 24 years old
The book that
started it all
1749 - 1832

7. The story and character of Werther were largely based on Goethe’s
own life. Werther was a highly sensitive young man, with a poetic
disposition. He liked to brood over moving experiences of nature in
the company of kindred spirits and dwell on his feelings. The Romantic
painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) captured this in some very
moody evening-time paintings. Goethe’s book was an immense (make
that Immense) success in Europe and was the first tragic novel in
European literature.

8. When Napoleon met Goethe, he told him that he had read
“Werther” 7 times. All across Europe young men were giving the
women they were wooing tiny bottles containing, they said, their
tears – to show how sensitive they were. This was all started by
“The Sorrows of Young Werther” in 1775. 120 years later
Massenet wrote the opera Werther and we will see some of it.

9. In 1765 a Scottish poet,
James Macpherson, claimed
to have discovered some
ancient poems in Gaelic and
published his translations.
Supposedly these poems
were by Ossian, an ancient
bard, and were very moody
and romantic. They had a
very great international
success and were much
admired by Napoleon,
Thomas Jefferson, and many
others – around the world.
Actually Macpherson
simply made them up and
they have been called the
most successful literary
falsehood in modern history.
One gloomy poem is featured
in the opera Werther.

10. The ancient Gaelic Bard Ossian conjuring up spirits
A pillar of early Romanticism. The poems were actually forgeries and not
ancient. In the opera Werther the moody Ossian poems play a role.

11. We will now watch key
excerpts from Massenet’s
Werther, with today’s
superstar tenor Jonas
Kaufmann. This is a great
opera video and has
wonderful singing and
acting, that convey
passionate romantic love.
It is that extra passion, by a
sensitive poet, that elevates
this above ordinary an
romance.

12. 1842 - 1912
Jules Massenet
Wrote many operas (I have 17
of them and there are a few more)
- one of my favorite opera
composers. Best known for
Manon (1884). Extremely lush
romantic music in all his operas.
Especially in Werther (1892),
which Massenet considered his
finest achievement. It is,
musically, sort of the French
version of Wagner’s Tristan and
Isolde

13. Leo Delibes, 1836-1891
Delibes’s 1883 opera Lakme tapped into the fascination at that time in
France and England with all things that were exotic. A group of French
painters specialized in Orientalism paintings, showing many scenes of
harems, slave auctions, etc. where much nudity could be shown. These
were all lurid imaginings not based at all on facts and were very popular
with the public. Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904) was famous for the art
we will see next.
Lakme opera, set in India

14. . Gerome did many harem scenes, most with very
much more nudity than this one.

15. This one is also pretty tame for Gerome. These paintings
and the next one are the kind of art in the Dahesh Museum
in Manhattan, which specializes in French Orientalism
paintings from the late 1800’s

17. Gerome showed many scenes with a black slave washing a nude white woman.

18. A few of the operas with an oriental theme
1848 - Il Corsaro – Verdi – Turkish harem
1863 - Pearl Fishers – Bizet - Ceylon
1871 - Aida – 1871 – Verdi – Egypt
1883 - Lakme – Delibes – India
1885 - The Mikado – Gilbert and Sullivan - Japan
1898 – Iris – Macagni - Japan
1903 - Madama Butterfly - Puccini – Japan
1926 -Turandot – Puccini - China
These exotic settings appealed to the Romanticism type of imagination
– of exploring “The Other” and picturing a life in a society very foreign
to our own.

19. Charles Gounod
1818-1893
We will end this
morning with some
scenes from Charles
Gounod’s opera
Romeo and Juliet.
Thanks to its success
he became known
as the “musician of
love”, a title he
embraced and at
the age of 70 he
said that love was at
the heart of his life
and his art.

20. Romeo and Juliet
have always been a
famous pair of lovers.
But what makes them
very relevant to
Romanticism is
Romeo’s daring. In his
famous balcony scene,
which we will see in
Gounod’s 1867 opera
Romeo and Juliet, he
risks his life by
sneaking into the
estate of his family’s
mortal enemies. That
daring, by an
individual with an
adventurous nature,
goes with one type of
Romantic hero. The
grand gesture, such as
by Cyrano de
Bergerac, is another
good example.
Both of the lovers are supposed to be 14 years old