After Wagner: Histories of Modernist Music Drama from Parsifal to Nono

327 Pages·2014·9.689 MB·English

by  Mark Berry

after wagner

After Wagner
Histories of Modernist Music Drama
from Parsifal to Nono

Mark Berry
THE BOYDELL PRESS
© Mark Berry 2014
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
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The right of Mark Berry to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2014
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 84383 968 2
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
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Contents
List of Music Examples vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: ‘After Wagner’ 1
Part I In the Shadow of German Idealism:
From Parsifal to Capriccio
Prelude 21
1. Wagner ‘After Wagner’: Parsifal 26
2. Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Biblical Way’: Towards Moses und Aron 64
3. Richard Strauss: Paths to (and from) Capriccio 99
Part II Composition after the Second World War:
From Germany to Italy, and Back Again?
Prelude 123
4. Luigi Dallapiccola, Il Prigioniero:
Imprisonment, Liberty, and the Word 127
5. Luigi Nono, Intolleranza 1960 149
6. Hans Werner Henze: Paths to (and from) Natascha Ungeheuer 172
Part III Performance and the Fruitful Instability of the Work:
From Parsifal to Nono
Prelude 205
7. Stefan Herheim’s Parsifal 210
8. Staging Lohengrin, or Not 234
9. From Wagner to Nono 251
Bibliography 275
Index 297
music examples
1. Die Jakobsleiter hexachord 72
2. Moses und Aron primary note-row 80
3. Aron’s entrance: use of row thematically 80
4. La Roche motif 118
5. Tosca, bb. 4–7 135
6. Il prigioniero: opening bars 135
7. The Mother tells of her dream 136
8. ‘Insane imaginings’ 137
9. ‘Hope’ row 138
10. ‘Fratello’ 138
11. Prayer for safe passage 140
12. Band of sound, bb. 40–79 162
Ex. 6–11 (from Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero) are reproduced by kind
permission of Hal Leonard MGB, Italy,
vi
Acknowledgements
This book has been a good time in the making. Admittedly, its gesta-
tion pales beside that of Parsifal; it was nevertheless quite long enough.
Most books draw upon a lifetime’s experience, at whatever stage that
life may find itself. Perhaps, though, there is a distinction of degree to
be made here; if so, then this case errs more towards the cumulative, if
necessarily incomplete, synthesis than many. That is a reflection in part
of the subject matter, in part of the way in which I have organised it,
and in part of the way in which, for better or worse, my mind seems to
work. A full list of acknowledgements, even if I were capable of pro-
viding it, would therefore be absurdly long; it might even have to be
my autobiography. I shall therefore restrict myself to mentioning some
of the greatest obligations, and shall hope that a general acknowledge-
ment of heartfelt thanks will in no way offend those who, more or
less arbitrarily, are not thanked individually here. ‘Virtual history’ is
a dubious business; ‘virtual acknowledgements’ would extend beyond
parody. This would nonetheless have been a very different, in many
ways poorer, book without contributions from people and institutions
who will go unnamed.
There can be no question of failing explicitly to thank the British
Academy for a Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Leverhulme Trust for
an Early Career Fellowship, both of which offered me time and space to
pursue the early stages of my research. In that respect, I must also thank
the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse, where I was a Fellow from 2001
to 2009. Although the debts I have incurred to the most ancient of the
Cambridge colleges are many, I trust that it will not go amiss if I explicitly
cite but one, namely the friendship and unwavering support of the late
Neil Plevy; he remains greatly missed. My relationships with other friends,
colleagues, members of staff, and pupils remain cherished. I should also
like to thank Royal Holloway, University of London, and specifically
the Department of Music, for having appointed me to a Lectureship, for
subsequent friendship and collegial support, and not least, for a term’s
sabbatical leave, in which a further tranche of writing took place. Thanks
should go to the Arnold Schoenberg Center for making me welcome
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After Wagner
twice as a visitor, once during that period of sabbatical leave; its library
and archive, as well as the generous assistance of the archivist, Eike Feß, are
greatly appreciated. (It was also a splendid thing to experience the epiphanic
inspiration of an impromptu visit from Nuria Schoenberg-Nono, daughter
and widow to two of this book’s featured composers.)
Many friends and colleagues have, of course, contributed to more
informal and more general discussion, both in traditional form and –
increasingly – via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Moreover,
some thornier translation problems have been more readily resolved as
a result of general enquiries to Facebook ‘friends’. Such contributions,
almost countless, are greatly valued, but again, I must limit myself. Formal
acknowledgement therefore goes to the following, who have commented
on earlier versions of material published here, whether in writing or in
presentation of seminar papers: Michael Bentley, Tim Blanning, John
Deathridge, Alexander Goehr, Robin Holloway, John Hughes, Erik Levi,
Tim Jenkins, Barry Millington, Hamish Scott, and Alice Wood. Earlier
versions of material in the first two chapters appeared respectively in The
Wagner Journal, 3/3 (2009), 29–59, and in Music and Letters, 89 (2008),
84–108; I am grateful to those journals and their editors for having granted
me the opportunity to try out ideas further developed here. I owe much
to discussion of related issues with, amongst others: James Stevens Curl,
Gregory Fullelove, Hermann Grampp, Paul Harper-Scott, Gavin Kelly,
Sebastian Kokelaar, Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe, Emanuel Maess, Benjamin
Moore, Anna Morcom, Rowena Naciri, Anne Ozorio, Oliver Perry,
Tamsin Rolls, Hugo Shirley, Michael Tanner, Nicholas Vazsonyi, David
Watkin, and Ross Wilson.
Attendance at performances discussed has sometimes been at personal
expense; I have also been fortunate enough to receive press tickets for
some. In no particular order, I should therefore like to thank the Bayreuth
Festival (2011 and 2012, for both Parsifal and Lohengrin, and Per-Erik
Skramstad for supporting my application), the Southbank Centre (Il
prigioniero), the Berlin State Opera (Lohengrin, Lulu), Oper Leipzig
(Lohengrin and Al gran sole carico d’amore), the Opéra national de Paris
(Katya Kabanova), RC Theatre Productions (Don Giovanni: The Opera),
the Salzburg Festival (Lulu and Al gran sole carico d’amore), and the Young
Vic Theatre (American Lulu). More generally, thanks go to concert halls,
opera houses, orchestras, other musicians, directors, and so on, for having
truly opened my eyes and ears in practice to the role of performance in
broadening and questioning understanding of the ‘musical work’. Pierre
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Acknowledgements
Boulez, a ghostly presence throughout much of the book, deserves espe-
cial mention for a career which, like those of Wagner, Schoenberg, and
others before him, has stood as inspiring witness and conscience for his
strenuously held conception of new music.
At Boydell and Brewer, Michael Middeke and Megan Milan have shown
great courtesy, support, and not least, patience, throughout my dealings
with them. Michael’s role as commissioning editor was crucial from the
time when he visited me in Cambridge and encouraged me to put forward
a proposal, and throughout. His suggestions for improvements were all
well made and, I hope, well enough taken.
Finally, and returning to the longer durée, I thank my family, especially
my parents, to whom this book is dedicated, for support and forbearance,
both before and after my first encounter with Wagner and his works.
Although the following ‘must’ customarily be said, necessity lessens
neither its importance nor its sincerity: all errors, omissions, and other
shortcomings remain my responsibility and mine alone.
Mark Berry, London
Feast of St John the Silent, May 2014
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