Update on my history research paper:
I've decided to focus on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg rather than Wagner's more famous/musically more significant operas for two reasons. First, given the restricted length of the paper, I think it would an injustice to even attempt to write about about a work like Tristan und Isolde or the Ring cycle. Second, because this is for a history course and not a music course, I want to analyze a work that is more interesting for its historical context than its musical innovation. Die Meistersinger certainly fits the bill: composed in the years leading up German unification in 1871, it is not coincidentally also Wagner's most openly nationalistic work.
I don't normally publish my schoolwork on here, but I've had so much fun researching and writing about Wagner—not to mention the fact that this is the first history paper I've written after high school—that I might post an abbreviated version of my paper after I make some more edits.
In the meantime, enjoy the majestic overture performed by the Vienna State Opera:
I've decided to focus on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg rather than Wagner's more famous/musically more significant operas for two reasons. First, given the restricted length of the paper, I think it would an injustice to even attempt to write about about a work like Tristan und Isolde or the Ring cycle. Second, because this is for a history course and not a music course, I want to analyze a work that is more interesting for its historical context than its musical innovation. Die Meistersinger certainly fits the bill: composed in the years leading up German unification in 1871, it is not coincidentally also Wagner's most openly nationalistic work.
I don't normally publish my schoolwork on here, but I've had so much fun researching and writing about Wagner—not to mention the fact that this is the first history paper I've written after high school—that I might post an abbreviated version of my paper after I make some more edits.
In the meantime, enjoy the majestic overture performed by the Vienna State Opera:
And here is Sandor Konya's exquisite rendition of "Morgenlich leuchtend," the climactic aria of Die Meistersinger:
