Wagner’s theories of "Gesamtkunstwerk" vs. his own practices

Professor Thomas Grey, Stanford University– Wagner’s theories of “Gesamtkunstwerk” vs. his own practices Professor Grey will speak about Wagner’s concept of the total work of art as it relates to theatricality and movement. Grey will emphasize the Tannhäuser experiment of including ballet within the opera and modern theatrical  trends in “choreographic” staging. The discussion will give examples of such staging from the Tannhäuser Bacchanale, Ride of the Valkyries, the dancing in Meistersinger Act 3, and the Flower Maidens in Parisfal.

We meet at the JCC-SF at 3200 California Street (at Presidio) San Francisco, CA

Meetings begin at 1:00 p.m/

Thomas Grey is a Professor of Musicology and by courtesy, German Studies at Stanford University.

His special fields of study are: Wagner, 19th-century opera, history of musical aesthetics and criticism, Romantic music and visual culture. Professor Greys Publications include Wagner’s Musical Prose: Texts and Contexts, 1995. Editor and co-author of Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, 2000, and Cambridge Companion to Wagner, forthcoming. Articles and reviews in JAMS, 19th Century Music, Music Library Association Notes, Current Musicology, Opera Quarterly, Cambridge Opera Journal, Beethoven Forum, Wagner, 19th-Century Studies; Analyzing Opera, 1989; Music Theory in the Age of Romanticism, 1996; The Arts Entwined (2000); Music and German Identity, 2001; The Don Giovanni Moment (2005); International Dictionary of Opera, Revised New Grove Dictionary, and ENO Opera Handbooks. Chapters contributed to The Wagner Compendium, 1992; The Mendelssohn Companion, 2001; Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, 2003; Cambridge History of 19th Century Music; New History Of German Literature; and Cambridge Opera Handbooks: Tristan und Isolde, forthcoming. Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Musicological Society (1999-2001). Grey is on the editorial/advisory boards of the Cambridge Opera Journal, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Wagner Spectrum.

Programs are free to members and for guests a donation of $10 is recommended