Carl Maria von Weber and the Search for a German Opera.(Book Review)

By Stephen C. Meyer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. [xii, 253 p. ISBN 0-253-34185-X. $39.95.] Music examples, illustrations, appendices, bibliography, index.

The title of Stephen Meyer's book hints at one of the problems confronting scholars who study early nineteenth-century German opera. The period between the death of Mozart (1791) and the premiere of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz (1821) remains one of the most understudied chapters in the history of opera. Anyone searching for German opera finds a number of figures such as Peter Winter and Conradin Kreutzer, whose works are seldom performed or studied in depth. With the exception of Beethoven's Fidelio, no German opera from the period survives in the modern repertoire. Likewise, much remains to be done on the social and cultural forces that shaped composers' thinking about opera.

Meyer's book touches on a number of issues and resists easy summarization. The most dominant theme is the complex relationship between theories of opera expounded by German critics (and to a lesser extent the views of writers on broader cultural matters) and the practice of composers, especially Weber. In the first chapter, Meyer lays out three broad areas for examining this relationship: the quest for operatic forms to create a greater unity between text and music; the German upper bourgeoisie and the ways opera reflected their interests; and the role of opera in fostering a sense of national identity. While alert to the variety of operatic practices in Germany, he sensibly uses Weber's tenure as music director in Dresden (1817-26) as a focal point for his study.

Two operas performed under Weber's direction, Winter's Das unterbrochene Opferfest and Etienne-Nicolas Mehul's Joseph, illustrate the range of models available to composers seeking a closer union of text and music. Since each work was given in a version different from the composer's original intentions, the productions also reveal much about the tastes of German audiences and critics. Winter's opera was presented in two versions, the first in Italian translation with recitatives replacing spoken dialogue. In addition, an unknown hand altered the structure of some numbers to bring them in closer conformity with the conventions of Italian opera, thereby showing its continued influence in Germany in the nineteenth century. The other version retained the German language but omitted the comic characters. Meyer argues convincingly that this change resulted in a work "more stylistically homogeneous" (p. 48) and hence more in keeping with the aesthetic goals of a wide range of composers, among them Weber, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Louis Spohr.

Mehul's opera comique Joseph presents a different case. In contrast to Das unterbrocherie Opferfest, Joseph was already consistent in style in its original form. Thus, the only major change Weber incorporated was the substitution of Ferdinand Franzl's reworking of the opera's final chorus. Franzl's version places greater emphasis on the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, a sentiment that in turn is extended to all the other characters on stage. In this final scene, Meyer rightly sees a counterpart to the desires for "national renewal" (p. 52) expressed in the writings of the poet Ernst Moritz Arndt and the painter Peter Cornelius's fresco "Joseph gibt sich seinen Brudern zu erkennen." Meyer's discussion of Joseph is also helpful in explaining seemingly contradictory tendencies in German opera of the period. The hope of composers and critics that opera would develop a greater national consciousness occurred in tandem with the popularity of a foreign product, French opera comique. Many previous writers, among them John Warrack and Winton Dean, have demonstrated the impact of works by Luigi ...