The Importance of Opera for German Studies
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10.3726/82037_51 The Importance of Opera for German Studies By Using the Example of the Santa Fe Opera for the Academic German Summer School of New Mexico By Peter Pabisch, University of New Mexico I In our quest for providing suggestions of how to meet the worldwide crisis in “Germanistik” or “German Studies” the given topic might lend itself as one alternative in subject matter and method to meet the challenge. Especially in the international realm of “German Studies” it has been a necessity for several decades, to interest students in the field of German via some attractive feature in the cultural realm. Not only in the United States, but in many other countries students are not confronted with German as a foreign language until they enter university. At best they start their study of the foreign language at senior high school, thus in their teens. There may be statistics and questionnaires describ- ing what made them choose German as a subject in the end, but even without them it can be surmised that a certain percentage of students enter this field because of some family relations, otherwise a subject matter may lure them into this realm of learning. Quite often they have seen a German play, even more likely a film, or visited a museum where a German painter was exhibited in whom they are interested – and all this may be connected with a visit to Germany or to Europe, more generally. In this vein of international travel a student in German may stay at a foreign school for a semester or even a year – and his / her interest might be awoken in this personal connection. Whatever the reason, it has been clear for a long time that special methods and proper attractions are required to alert students to the wealth and depth of a field such as German language and literature; opera may be this type of a vehicle to win students over. In the 1970s American pedagogues in the field of German introduced culture as a third pillar to the two other traditional pillars of language and literature. This cultural option was also adopted by other fields, such as other foreign languages or new ‘studies’ options from gender to cultural studies. Culture as a subject meant that students could be taught about foreign affairs in their own native language, i. e. in the United States in English, so that a large population of students could be reached. In German such options chosen by the students entailed their interest in the Third Reich, the holocaust, the German Jewish question, even in the Weimar Republic and its failure. Yet also 51 the study of fairy tales as introduced by the brothers Grimm and altered, yet popularized by Walt Disney, count to this introductory realm of interest. Other independent fields with a certain German predominance are philosophy from Immanuel Kant to Martin Heidegger as the major cornerstones of expertise, let alone the natural and other sciences. Whereas philosophy is still taught via its German representatives and originators, albeit in English translation, the sciences have been taken over by the Americans themselves in a progress also known as Americanization since the 1980s, when a new American generation replaced its often immigrant native German and German-Jewish teachers. Only in interdisciplinary discourse in the sciences and other fields such as the social sciences or education, German matters still tend to be considered. One huge field in the United States is found in classical music, including the ‘Lied’ and opera, and the richness of German contributions in this direction remains overwhelming. Besides great schools of music from Rochester to the Julliard School of the Performing Arts each large university can point to an impressive music program of its own. Among the particular subfields from composition to single instruments to smaller and larger music groupings, opera has a favored spot in many music(ological) schools of higher learning. From here great talent has been extracted on either side of the Atlantic, especially in the twentieth century, beginning with Gustav Mahler as director of the Metropolitan Opera in the last few years of his short life. Whereas for many years European talent was brought to the U.S.A., after World War II American talent trained in America has been hired in Europe increasingly. It has been in this advanced encounter of the respective cultures that the traditional field of “Germanistik“ found a haven in America. Not only do opera students, especially singers, need to study German at an advanced level, but from all the other fields already mentioned, students enter this field to perfect their knowledge in culture, history and literary connections. This need created “German Studies” that has turned out to be much more versatile and attractive by its interdisciplinary spread in the United States. Even quite a few native German or Austrian students on research and study years in the United States of America can catch fire and finish their master or doctoral degrees in the States, if they are offered an opportunity to do so. Whereas in Germany traditional methods of confrontational teaching prevail – caused by lectures and, more derogatively, by seminars with all too large audiences and no opportunity to discuss matters because of it. In North America, to the contrary, the once very modern ways of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s early nineteenth century educational reforms in Berlin have be- come the norm – at least on the upper level of the undergraduate and on the graduate level of studies. Here seminars must not exceed twenty to twenty five students and academic teachers can afford time for their students also to 52 address their concerns, wishes and criticism – even on a personal level. What is more, students are allowed to choose their own subject matter for their thesis or dissertation and do not have to bow to the dictate of their professor, as has been the case at many, yet fortunately not all places of higher learning in Germany and other traditional European countries. Students may opt for combinations of fields in the USA – German(istik) being a major, yet any reasonable other field being minor options of in-depth studies. Therefore dissertation topics prosper in a plethora of combinations that have entered Europe slowly over the last three decades, although in no overwhelming speed, which may cause one reason for the present crisis in this field in Germany. The fact that students of Germanistik in German speaking countries do not have to be introduced to the language has been a proposition in kind that the traditional treatment of the subject of Germanistik would suffice as is, also sustained by the reality that too many students wanted to enter this study, and strict elimination was a sad consequence, which also meant that teachers did not have to care for retaining so many students. As a result an alienation process between students and teachers was observed at many German univer- sities. Thus at the threshold of the ruling computer age and new ways of communication the field of Germanistik discovers itself at a loss of new ideas – and the student revolt of the sixties (1960s) has not brought the categorical change that was instigated by this earlier however explosive uproar. It would be unfair and even wrong to claim that the United States has found the answer to all related problems without any difficulties, yet certain types of methods have shown unique success, one of which the total immersion seminar type with its extraordinary, demonstrable results through objective testing in the advanced use of the language and in the subject matter of German Studies at the conclusion of these courses. This type of academic school is connected with the main campus of universities and offers its programs in the given language exclusively “24 hours a day” in total immersion in some remote location for four to six intensive weeks. Certain honor codes guarantee that students abide by the ruling of ‘German only’. Among the half a dozen schools of this nature in the United States the 36 year old German Summer School of New Mexico1 has adopted the proven methods of older models (Middlebury, Vermont; Yale; Portland, Oregon), yet has broadened its program from the traditional language and literature approach to almost fifty fields over the years, in combination with the main subject “Germanistik”. In addition, an atmosphere between students and teachers is adhered to that was characterized once by the Austrian artist 1 Founded at Taos Ski Valley near Santa Fe in 1975/76 by German professors George F. Peters and Peter Pabisch for the German Program of the University of New Mexico. 53 and filmmaker Harald Friedl who taught there one summer, obviously under most favorable terms. They reflect the positive reply by everybody whoever evaluated this new type of school; an excerpt of his letter states: Besonders geschätzt habe ich, dass die Deutsche Sommerschule mehr ist als ein intensiver Sprachkurs. Sicher, das hohe Niveau des Unterrichts, das große Enga- gement der Lehrenden und die individuelle Betreuung der Studentinnen und Studenten sind Kern des Programms. Darüber hinaus ist die Deutsche Sommer- schule aber auch praktizierte humanistische Lebenskultur. Unterschiedliche Men- schen kommen zusammen, um gemeinsam zu arbeiten. Deutsch ist nicht nur die Unterrichtssprache, sondern auch die Sprache der alltäglichen Interaktion. LehrerInnen und StudentInnen teilen den Alltag, die Auseinandersetzung mit der deutschen Sprache erstreckt sich also von Früh bis in die Nacht. Umfassender kann eine Lernerfahrung gar nicht sein, weil sich der Spracherwerb mit Alltags- situationen verbündet, beziehungsweise aus ihnen heraus entsteht. In Taos wird Bildung nicht abgehoben vermittelt, sondern Lernerfahrung als Teil des Lebens geboten.