ETA Hoffmann, Cosmopolitanism, and the Struggle for German Opera
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E. T. A. Hoffmann, Cosmopolitanism, and the Struggle for German Opera Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft Series Editor Norbert Bachleitner (University of Vienna) Editorial Assistance Paul Ferstl Rudolf Pölzer Founded by Alberto Martino Editorial Board Francis Claudon (Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne University) Rüdiger Görner (Queen Mary, University of London) Achim Hölter (University of Vienna) Klaus Ley (Johannes Gutenburg University of Mainz) John A. McCarthy (Vanderbilt University) Alfred Noe (University of Vienna) Manfred Pfister (Free University of Berlin) Sven H. Rossel (University of Vienna) VOLUME 192 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/favl E. T. A. Hoffmann, Cosmopolitanism, and the Struggle for German Opera By Francien Markx LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Unknown artist. Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin (circa 1821). Oil on copper. 51.5 × 64.5 cm. Germany, xix century. Inv. no. GE-5089. Reproduced with kind permission of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Copyright the State Hermitage Museum, photo by Alexey Pakhomov. Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954521 issn 0929–6999 isbn 978-90-04-30956-2 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30957-9 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7 Prelude 9 Prologue: German Musical Drama and the Emerging Public Sphere 15 Hamburg – Leipzig – Weimar and Gotha – The National Theater Projects – Mannheim – Vienna – Berlin – E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Theatrical and Operatic Experiences – Evaluating Hoffmann’s Contribution(s) to Opera ACT I. NARRATING OPERA (CRITICISM) FOR THE ALLGEMEINE MUSIKALISCHE ZEITUNG (Berlin, Bamberg, Leipzig/Dresden, 1808-1814) Chapter One Ritter Gluck: On The Art of Judging Opera 71 The Power of Anecdotes – Querelle des Gluckistes et des Piccinnistes. Christoph Willibald Gluck in the French Press – Gluck in the German Press – E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Views on Gluck – Ritter Gluck: A Response to Forkel – Narrating Gluck’s Public Image – Berlin: An Operatic Backwater – A Tale Illuminated by Music – Ritter Gluck: Towards a New Aesthetics of Opera Chapter Two Don Juan: Reflections on (Performing) Mozart’s Don Giovanni 119 E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Don Juan and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s Don Giovanni – Contemporary Performance Practices – E. T. A. Hoffmann and Mozart’s Don Giovanni – Restaging Don Giovanni – Approaches to Mozart – Mozart’s Score and Donna Anna’s Secret – Reflections on Donna Anna’s Role – A Tale Inspired by Music Chapter Three Poet and Composer: Operatic Insights of an Insider 161 Turbulent Times – The Dialogue Der Dichter und der Komponist – Theoretical Discourse: The Poet (A. W. Schlegel) and the Composer (E. T. A. Hoffmann) – How Not to Write a Libretto: Der Opern-Almanach des H[er]rn A. v[on] Kotzebue – Musical Practice – Der Dichter und der Komponist: A Program for Romantic Opera? – A Word to the Composer: Über einen Ausspruch Sachini’s – Der Dichter und der Komponist and the Future of German Opera – The Poet and the Composer: Hoffmann’s Own Creative Production ACT II. BACK IN BERLIN: BALANCING ACTS AS ARTIST AND CRITIC (1814-1822) Prelude: Brühl and the Berlin Theater 223 Chapter Four ‘Patriotic Acts’: Undine on the Berlin Stage ossia Accomplishments of a Trio (Fouqué, Hoffmann, and Schinkel) 231 Preparing the Stage – Fouqué’s Undine – The Staging of Hoffmann’s Undine – Voices of the Critics – Carl Maria von Weber’s Review of Undine for the AMZ – Weber and the German Ideal – Romantic Ideal versus Reality – Dénouement Chapter Five Berlin Reviews I: Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt and Vossische Zeitung 289 Reviews of 1815 – Reviews of 1816 – Envisioning the Future: Visions of a Realist – Contributions for the Vossische Zeitung: Reviewing a Befriended Reviewer – Hoffmann’s Final DW Contribution: Die Kunstverwandten or the Joys and Sorrows of Producing an Opera – Art Beyond Boundaries: Towards a Universal Operatic Style Chapter Six Berlin Reviews II: Standing up for Spontini 329 A Parisian in Berlin – Hoffmann’s Warm Welcome – Briefe über Tonkunst in Berlin. Erster Brief – Hoffmann’s Remaining Berlin Reviews – Zufällige Gedanken or Ritter Gluck Revisited – Spontini’s Opera Olimpie – Hoffmann’s Translation of Olimpie – Hoffmann’s Last Review: Nachträgliche Bemerkungen über Spontinis Oper Olympia – Further Observations on Hoffmann’s Last Review Chapter Seven Falling Silent: The Freischütz Controversy 401 A Tumultuous Première – Contemporary Letters and Comments – ‘Made in Germany’ or An Opera’s Success Story – Reflections on Hoffmann’s Silence Postlude 439 Bibliography 443 Index 479 Acknowledgments This book has benefited greatly from the help of a number of people, most notably Lisa DeBoer, Gloria Eive, Margaret Jean Flynn, Matthew Franke, Hansje Langedijk, John A. McCarthy, Michael Minnema, and Carl Niekerk, all of whom, at various stages, helped to improve its final version through their careful readings, thoughtful comments, or valuable advice. I thank them all for inspiring me to complete this project. I am also grateful to the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin; the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien; the Residenzgalerie Salzburg; the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie for granting permission to reproduce the included images. Finally, I would like to thank the staff at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; the Fenwick Library, George Mason University; the Koninklijke Biblio- theek, Den Haag; the Library of Congress; the Nederlands Muziek Instituut; the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam; the Universiteitsbiblio- theek van Amsterdam; the Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht, the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg; the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv; and the Univer- sitätsbibliothek Rostock for their help in providing all of the research materials for this study. Part of Chapter Two was published as an article entitled ‘E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “Don Juan”: Views of an Eccentric Enthusiast?’, in Seminar, 41: 4 (November 2005), 367-379. Article DOI: 10.3138/sem.v41.4.367. Seminar - A Journal of Germanic Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press. Prelude Das Publikum fing an, nach und nach unruhig zu werden. Wiederholte Pause. Neuer, verstärkter Tumult. Die deutsche Oper wollte noch immer nicht zum Vorscheine kommen. Die Direktion kam bei dem zunehmenden Lärmen in die größte Verlegenheit; endlich erschien Hanswurst, ganz erschöpft und in Schweiß gebadet und sprach: ‘[…] Es geht, ehrlich gesagt, der deutschen Oper sehr übel. Sie leidet an Krämpfen und ist durchaus nicht [fest] auf die Beine zu bringen. Eine Menge Hilfeleistende sind um sie beschäftigt, sie fällt aber aus einer Ohnmacht in die andere’. (The public gradually began to get restive. Another moment’s silence, and the restiveness became more marked. German opera still refused to appear. As the noise increased, the management became really embarrassed until Hanswurst appeared, exhausted and bathed in sweat, and said: ‘[…] To be quite honest, German Opera is not at all well. She suffers from nervous cramps and can’t stand properly. She is surrounded by would-be helpers, but falls from one faint into another’.)1 (Carl Maria von Weber, Tonkünstlers Leben, 1813) Carl Maria von Weber penned this humorously bitter account of the state of German opera a few months after he became director of the opera in Prague in January 1813. The passage from his novel Tonkünstlers Leben goes on to describe the failed efforts of staging the German opera by clothing her in French and Italian costumes, but nothing seems to fit. When the opera finally appears (‘A Romantic-patriotic music drama’), its language is so inaccessible and complicated that it leaves even Hanswurst in profound and ponderous thoughts, so that he has to apologize to the audience for falling into this ‘bad old German habit’ of philosophizing. Although it covers only a few pages, this satire on German opera was written over the course of several years (between 1813 and 1818) and the novel itself remained a fragment that Weber worked on intermittently between 1809 and 1820. The genesis of this text is, in some ways, emblematic of the fitful attempts then under way to create a German opera. This struggle to create opera in the vernacular is generally associated with 1 For material originally in German, French or Italian, existing English translations are cited if available, with their source indicated in a footnote. In all other instances, translations are mine. – FM Carl Maria von Weber, Sämtliche Schriften von Carl Maria von Weber, ed. by Georg Kaiser (Berlin and Leipzig: Schuster & Loeffler, 1908), pp.484-485; Carl Maria von Weber, Writings on Music, translated by Martin Cooper, edited and introduced by John