Richard Wagner’s Reforms of the Opera and Music Drama

Abstract

4 essays from the late 1840s and the early 1850s by Richard Wagner form the basis for the discussion of the theoretical starting points of the composer’s reformation of the opera. Particularly the book Opera and Drama, published 1851. After the initial introduction of the typology of music drama and its difference in regard to opera, the article focuses on identifying the
characteristics of music drama in the musical stage productions of the mature and late Wagner.