The Total Work of Art `The Total Work of Art: From Bayreuth to Cyberspace is an outstanding accomplishment. Matt Smith has written an original and provocative analysis that "fast forwards" the Gesamtkunstwerk into the 20th and 21st centuries, demonstrating how the project of creating a total work of art has been taken up by very different artists working not only in theater but also film, theme parks, experimental happenings, and digital media. This work will recast how scholars approach the total work of art and help stimulate new research across several fields.' Jon McKenzie, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA `In this groundbreaking study, Matthew Smith shows us that the ideal of a total work of art was the driving engine behind the greatest accomplishments and the scariest fantasies of modern culture. Weaving Wagner, Warhol, and virtual reality into a rich and compelling narrative, The Total Work of Art is theater studies at its best. This book, written with precision and flair, should be required reading for anyone interested in theater history. And who knows, it just might serve as a blueprint for the theater of the future.' Martin Puchner, Columbia University, USA Richard Wagner, Oskar Schlemmer, Bert olt Brecht, Leni Riefenstahl, Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Bill Gates: these disparate figures all represent important stages in. the development of the total work of art. Impacting fields of theatre, architecture, music, literature and film, the tradition of the total work of art-has exerted tremen- dous influence on modern culture, in a way that has so far been only partially understood. The tradition of the total work of art has been studied primarily as a branch of the history of opera. This wide-ranging study, however, stresses the connection between the total work of art and developments in mass culture. Comparing Bayreuth and Disneyland, the Crystal Palace and the Bauhaus Totaltheater, Brechts Epic Theatre and Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will, Matthew Smith finds that the total work of art has as much to do with mass media as with high art, with commercial spectacle as with music drama. The Total Work of Art will be of interest to students and scholars across a broad range of disciplines, including theatre and performance studies, history of art, music history, cultural studies, and comparative modernism. Matthew Wilson Smith is Assistant Professor of English at Boston University. The Total Work of Art From Bayreuth to Cyberspace Matthew Wilson Smith Routledge 1Z Taylor Francis Group NEW YORK AND LONDON First published 2007 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor Francis Group, an in forma business © 2007 Matthew Wilson Smith Typeset in Baskerville and Gill Sans by Book Now Ltd, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Smith, Matthew Wilson. The total work of art: from Bayreuth to cyberspace/by Matthew Wilson Smith. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. I. Aesthetics. 2. Performing arts. 3. Popular culture. 4. Mass media. 5. Art—History. I. Title. BH39.S5527 2007 700.I—dc22 2006029612 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBNIO: 0-415-97795-9 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-415-97796-7 (pbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-96316-4 (ebk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-97795-1 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-97796-8 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-96316-6 (ebk) For my parents Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 The total work of art in an age of mechanical reproduction 8 2 Total stage: Wagners Festspielhaus 22 3 Total machine: the Bauhaus theatre 48 4 Total montage: Brechts reply to Wagner 71 5 Total state: Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will 92 6 Total world: Disneys theme parks 114 7 Total vacuum: Warhols performances 134 8 Total immersion: cyberspace and the total work of art 157 Conclusion 187 Notes 189 Works cited 206 Index 221 Illustrations Figures 2.1 Stage model of Die Walkiire, Act 1, at Bayreuth, 1876 28 2.2 Bayreuth Festspielhaus groundplan, 1873 31 2.3 The view from the Festspielhaus stage, over the "mystic gulf' and out towards the auditorium 32 2.4 The three Rhinemaidens (Minna Lammert as Flosshilde, Lilli Lehmann as Woglinde, Marie Lehmann as Wellgunde) at Bayreuth, 1876 33 2.5 Swimming machines for Das Rheingold at Bayreuth, 1876 34 2.6 Parsifctl, Act 3, Bayreuth, 1930 (staging from 1882 production) 43 2.7 La Lumiare Èlectrique, cover, 1881 45 3.1 Gropius's Totaltheater design, 1926 52 3.2 Schlemmer's "abstract stage," 1924 56 3.3 Schlemmer's "inarionette," 1924 57 3.4 Schlemmer's "technical organism," 1924 57 3.5 Schlemmer's "solemn tragedians," 1924 59 3.6 Two mannequins by Rudolf Belling, c. 1923 68 3.7 Die Reklame ("The Advertisement"), cover, 1929 69 4.1 Premiere of Der Lindberghflug, 1929. Brecht in foreground, to right 86 5.1 Die Meistersinger, Act 3, Benno von Arent production, 1935 101 5.2 Triumph des Willens, film still, 1935 102 6.1 Aerial view of Anaheim, including Disneyland, c. 1955 123 7.1 Andy Warhol, Handle with Care — Glass — Thank You, 1962 152 7.2 Andy Warhol, Where Is Tour Rupture?, 1960 153 7.3 Andy Warhol, Tunafish Disaster, 1961 154 7.4 Amiga World, cover, 1986 156 8.1 Char Davies, Osmose, "Tree Pond," digital frame captured through head-mounted display during live performance, 1995 162 8.2 Roy Ascott, Aspects of Gaia, 1989 165 8.3 Tamiko Thiel and Zara Houshmand, Beyond Manzanar, 2000. Spectator at the controls; on the screen, Iranian garden 181 x Illustrations 8.4 Bgond Manzanar internment camp with newspaper headlines 183 8.5 Beyond Manzanar: Japanese garden 184 8.6 Beyond Manzanar: bomber perspective 185 Tables 5.1 Structural positioning of allusions to Rohm purge 106 5.2 The doubling of fascist male bonding with allusion to Rohm 111 Acknowledgments No one writes alone. My first thanks go to Andreas Huyssen and Martin Meisel, who have been there from the beginning. With their different backgrounds, different approaches, and equally brilliant minds, Martin and Andreas proved the perfect bifocal lens through which to view the history of the total work of art. I am deeply in the debt of these two great scholars. I am also grateful to the many friends, mentors, and colleagues who shared ideas, corrected mistakes, and offered encouragement. Particularly invaluable were Arnold Aronson, Mara de Gennaro, Elinor Fuchs, Julie Stone Peters, Martin Puchner, John Paul Riquelme, and the members of the Columbia Theatre Colloquium. Special thanks also to Ivan Ascher, Silvia Beier, Julia Prewitt Brown, Justin Campbell, Bill Carroll, Joyce Chopra, Amanda Claybaugh, Bonnie Costello, Gregory Fletcher, Sheila Ghose, Darren Gobert, Tom Dale Keever, Laura Korobkin, Tara McGann, Ellen McKay, Susan Mizruchi, Lee Monk, Anita Patterson, Elizabeth Ruf, Laurence Senelick, Jim Siemon, Doug Smith, Erin Snyder, Shilarna Stokes, Sean Sullivan, Rosanna Warren, James Winn, my wonderful colleagues in the English Depai tment at Boston University, and the past and present members of the Tertulia Junior Faculty Colloquium. I have depended upon their aid and encouragement. Sections of this manuscript were presented at the American Society for Theatre Research, the American Comparative Literature Society, the Modern Language Association, Performance Studies International, the Columbia Historical Music- ology Colloquium, the Tertulia Colloquium at Boston University, the American Studies University Seminar at Columbia University, and the Paradigma Confer- ence at the University of Mainz. I am indebted to the members and organizers of those panels, not all of whom I can name here, as well as to the audience respon- dents. I am additionally grateful to the students, both at BU and Columbia, in my graduate seminars on American spectacle. A particular note of thanks goes to Stephanie Byttebier and Cara Norris, who assisted me in editing the manuscript. I owe a further debt of thanks to Bill Germano, a great intellectual and a master editor. Bill's support and advice was crucial in the transformation of my project into the present book. My heartfelt thanks to Talia Rodgers and Minh Ha Duong as well, for ably picking up the thread and guiding the book through to publication. xii Acknowledgments My parents, Patrick and Elisabeth, have always supported my twin interests in theatre and in scholarship. They have stood solidly behind me throughout this process, for which I cannot thank them enough. I dedicate this book to them. Last but not least, how can I thank Sarah Rose Cole, who has been equally unwavering in every way? Sarah has never ceased to believe in this book, and has read and re-read drafts with a care that goes far beyond both the call of duty and the demands of affection. She has my gratitude and my love. Visual and textual credits The cover image and Figures 2.1 through 2.6 come courtesy of the National Archives of the Richard-Wagner-Foundation, Bayreuth. Figure 3.7 comes courtesy of University of California Press. Figure 5.1 comes courtesy of the Theaterwissenschafliche Sammlung at the Universitat zu Koln. Figure 5.2 comes courtesy of Photofest. Figure 6.1 comes courtesy of the Anaheim Public Library.