Music Drama

Abstract

In this fragment of Theodor Adorno’s Versuch Uber Wagner (1952), the author analyzes Richard Wagner’s aesthetic conception of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or a “total work of art.” Drawing on both Wagner’s theoretical works and his operas, Adorno reveals the contradictions of this concept, emphasizing its fundamental difference from Hegel’s definition of art. Examining the relationship between the evolution of opera, the autonomy of the artist, and the development of cultural industries, he shows that despite Wagner’s rejection of the division of labor and his desire for perfect unity, the Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk not only fails to eliminate this division of labor but further reinforces it. According to Adorno, Wagner’s music drama is deeply contradictory: the music is locked within the action, leading to an intensification of subjective expression and an excess of plot over music. Wagner himself was aware of these contradictions both at the level of conception and at the level of the practical realization of the work.