Richard Wagner vs. Giuseppe Verdi

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The best proof as to objective value of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic legacy can very well serve the fact that even today, it is practically impossible to attend these composers’ opera productions, without booking tickets for at least 1-2 years ahead of time. Apparently, the idea that both composers were nothing less of musical geniuses of an unmatched significance is not altogether deprived of rationale. In this paper, we will aim at substantiating the validity of this thesis, while specifying the particularities of Wagner and Verdi’s approaches to the art of opera and also explaining the metaphysical preconditions, which prompted both composers to explore their artistic creativeness in truly remarkable manner.

Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi were contemporaries, born in the same year of 1813. They both have become a national pride of their countries – Germany and Italy, respectively, they both went down the history of music as opera reformers, and they both strived to utilize their operas as intellectual vehicles for promoting their philosophical and political ideas. At the same time, even the viewers that are being exposed to Wagner and Verdi’s opera performances for the first time instantly realize that there is a striking contrast between how both composers had approached their professional task.

And the most obvious difference appears to be the fact that, while composing their masterpieces, Wagner and Verdi were concerned with consistently different subject matters. Whereas, Verdi tried to provide viewers with three-dimensional insight onto most of his operas’ characters, as something that in his view had a value in itself, Wagner strived for nothing less then instilling viewers with entirely new, romantic outlook onto objective reality, while encouraging viewers to adjust their own lives to the notion of existential idealism.

In his article “Force of Destiny”, Tim Ashley points out at intrinsic difference between Verdi and Wagner as both: private individuals and composers: “He (Wagner) and Verdi are antithetical. Wagner tries to change the world by alternately destroying, refashioning and redeeming it in a nihilistic frenzy. Verdi celebrates existence by exploring life in all its variety with infinite compassion. Wagner is ultimately elitist, totalitarian. Verdi, by contrast, is music’s greatest democrat” (Ashley, 2001).

Richard Wagner had never positioned himself as being solely a composer and the analysis of his biography leaves no doubt as to the fact that, besides having excelled in composing music, Wagner had also excelled in literary criticism, journalism and in variety of philosophical and political pursuits. He was a supreme scholar of ancient Greek philosophy and art – it is namely on the ground of their shared interest in exploring the particularities of this philosophy that Wagner had become a personal friend of Friedrich Nietzsche.

We can say that Wagner’s operas had created preconditions for the emergence of Second and consequently the Third German Reich. Wagner had made a point in refusing to utilize everyday images and scenes as semantic framework for his operas, which in its turn, can be explained by his negative attitude towards the concept of Opera Theater as serving solely the purpose of entertainment. Moreover, Wagner refused to even consider the possibility that art can be sold or bought, which is why neither of Wagner’s operas has been written on order.

Giuseppe Verdi, on the other hand, is known for his diametrically different attitude towards the process of opera writing. It is namely the prospect of monetary reward that had prompted Verdi to turn composing operas into his full time occupation. Verdi was absolutely disinterested in having his works to serve the purpose of promoting a particular political ideology.

The ultimate message of most of Verdi’s operas can be defined as follows: in order for an individual to be able to effectively deal with life’s challenges, he or she must be willing to adopt an intellectually flexible mode of existence. This is the reason why, even though that most of Verdi’s operas can be characterized by their somewhat confusing storylines, they nevertheless are free of Wagnerian motifs of mysticism, political loyalty and intolerance.

In his article “Giuseppe Verdi”, Algernon St. John-Brenon portrays the most famous Italian opera composer as humble and down-to-earth individual: “He (Verdi) made no attempt to deal with the element of the sublime, which has been defined as that quality which makes humanity think the better of itself and would assure our fancy a larger empire. He never tried to soar so high. He was the opera composer of the people, as he was the child of the people” (John-Brenon, 1916, p. 131).

The foremost feature of Verdi’s masterpieces is their strongly defined psychological sounding. In his operas, Italian composer had never resorted to exploitation of mythical or legendary motifs, while remaining solely concerned with exposing characters’ existential challenges as such that derive out of the fact that, throughout their lives, people are being forced to act as social beings. It is not merely by an accident that, even while he was still alive, Italians had granted Verdi with a honorary title of “Maestro of Risorgimento” – thus, confirming the utterly humanistic quintessence of his operas.

The fact that both composers differed in their attitudes towards surrounding social and political reality had deeply affected the technical subtleties of their operas’ performances. Whereas, Wagner strived to manipulate with viewers’ mood, in order to make them more psychologically predisposed towards the ideas, contained in his operas, Verdi considered his task as being conceptually simpler – to keep viewers in the state of continuous intellectual suspense.

This is the reason why most of Wagnerian operas are being marked with extreme chromaticism, as opposed to Verdi’s operas, the main melodic feature of which is their uninterrupted tonality. In his 1893 article “Verdi and Wagner”, Edward Naylor had made a good point while suggesting that: “Verdi’s work is continuous. In proof of this there are plenty of examples: Emani (I844), Rigoletto (1851), Traviata (1853), or Un Ballo in Maschera (1859)… Quite on the other hand, and secondly, Wagner’s work is not continuous in this sense (tonality)… Wagner’s discovery of the Leitmotiv as a basis for musical composition removed him from the Italian plane to another quite incompatible with it, and caused a difference in standpoint between Wagner and Verdi which makes it forever impossible to institute any analogy between their later works” (Naylor, 1893, p. 3).

Unlike Verdi, in most of his operas Wagner had taken a full utilization of his newly invented technique of inter-exchanging the flow of monochromatic melody, with orchestral full engagements. In its turn, this used to produce a powerful emotional effect upon the audience. Listening to “Siegfried Funeral March”, featured in Wagner’s opera “Götterdämmerung”, exemplifies the validity of such our statement. At the same time, Wagner’s “musical reformism” did not result in his operas being deprived of their melodic integrity.

Quite contrary – regardless of whether we listen to only the fragments from Wagner’s operas, or to these operas in full, we get to experience the same aesthetic pleasure, due to Wagner’s music being utterly organic in all of its emanations. As in his article “To Understand Verdi and Wagner We Must Understand Mozart”, James Webster had put it: “Wagner’s tonality is best described as “floating”, “wandering” in a no-man’s-land between vitiated functionality and incipient atonality” (Webster, 1987, p.176).

Giuseppe Verdi, on the other hand, remained an adherent of Italian classic operatic tradition – that is, his works are being marked with clearly defined dominance of choreography over orchestrography. For example, in his opera “Rigoletto”, it is namely the libretto, which defines the particularities of this work’s musical composition. However, even listening to this opera leaves no doubt as to the fact that, throughout his life, Verdi’s perception of operatic aesthetics has been greatly influenced by Wagner’s genius.

In her article “Italian Opera, Verdi and Rigoletto: A General Overview”, Sophie Wackenhut says: “The balance between the dramatic and simplistic aspects of music (in Rigoletto) draws the listener into the operatic experience.

The melodrama presented by the orchestral music often overpowered the human voices of the singers on stage” (Wackenhut, 2001). Apparently, just as Wagner, Verdi was quite capable of utilizing innovative approaches, when composing operas; however, while being fully aware of possible risks, associated with such practice, Verdi tried no to take chances with the audience. In its turn, this provides us with the insight onto the fact that it was not merely the degree of both composers’ artistic talent, which defined their popularity with the audience, but also audience’s own existential qualities – after all, there are so many more differences between Italians and Germans, besides the fact that they speak different languages.

In this part of our paper, we will compare Wagner’s opera “Lohengrin” with Verdi’s opera’s “Rigoletto”, as we believe that such comparison will strengthen the theoretical soundness of ideas that are being expressed earlier. In “Lohengrin”, Wagner retells Wolfram von Eschenbach’s story of “Knight of the Swan”, where the motifs of spiritual purity, one’s allegiance to its sense of duty and military valor define story’s overall semantic meaning. While being accused of having murdered her brother, Elsa of Brabant calls for a knight who would be willing to defend her good name by the mean of challenging Elsa’s accusers to a mortal combat.

A mysterious knight in shining armor (Lohengrin) agrees to fight for Elsa on a condition that she would never ask him about his actual identity. After having helped Elsa, Lohengrin proposes to her and she agrees; however, during the course of a wedding ceremony, Elsa yields to its curiosity and asks her fiancé to reveal who he really is. Lohengrin tells Elsa that is a defender of Holy Grail and that he now must leave her, because she had broken her initial vow. Opera ends on a tragic note, because Elsa dies from grief, after having realized that she would never be able to see Lohengrin again.

This Wagner’s masterpiece fits rather well into the concept of “Wagnerian opera” as such that features following elements: Mythological essence of the plot. Division of opera’s characters on inheritably good (Lohengrin, Elsa) and inheritably evil (Ortrud, Friedrich). The absence of thematically complete scenes – characters’ dialogues and monologues replace traditional operatic arias, which add up to opera’s overall structural integrity. At least five melodic leitmotifs are being present throughout opera’s entirety.

Let us now to briefly outline the plot of Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto”. Duke’s jester Rigoletto pokes fun at husbands of those women that were being seduced by his master. In its turn, this gains him many enemies, who eventually succeed in plotting to have Rigoletto’s own daughter Gilda being kidnapped by Duke’s servants. Rigoletto swears to take a revenge on Duke and hires a hitman Sparafucile to free Duke’s soul out of his body. However, this enterprise goes terribly wrong and instead of killing Duke, Sparafucile mistakenly kills Gilda. Just as Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, “Rigoletto” ends on utterly tragic note – after having lost its only daughter, opera’s main character realizes that he is being left all alone in the world.

This particular Verdi’s opera is best characterized by following semantic and structural particularities:

Almost every character is being presented to the audience as equally capable of emanating both: good and evil, even though that opera’s context implies that representatives of nobility lead a parasitic form of existence.
Motivational factors behind characters’ actions are marked with utter realism.
The presence of only one leitmotif (curse) throughout opera’s entirety.
Orchestral accompaniment plays an independent role, although this role is not being as strongly defined as it is the case with Wagner’s “Lohengrin”.
Arias are not being used for dividing opera structurally, as in operas of Rossini and Bellini, but to assure that scenes follow each other in rather smooth consequential manner.

Thus, we can conclude that even though, during the course of composing their masterpieces Wagner and Verdi remained well within the boundaries of European operatic tradition, their approaches to writing opera did not only reflect the fact that composers’ life philosophies were fundamentally different, but also that their activities were nothing but a sublimation of German and Italian nations’ existential psyches.

In the article from which we have already quoted, Edward Naylor comes up with another idea, which actually helps us to understand why operas of Verdi and Wagner simultaneously can and cannot be compared: “Italy is more naturally a singing country, and Germany more decidedly inclined to cultivate instruments at the expense of voices. And then again, as it appears to me, Wagner was a man of vast intellectual power and cultivation; Verdi, on the contrary, was more especially (what a musician should be) of vast artistic power” (Naylor, 1893, p. 4).

In its turn, this idea explains why Verdi’s influence on the consequential development of European operatic tradition can hardly be compared to that of Wagner’s – whereas, intellectual excellence has an artistic value of “thing in itself”, the pure artistry can only be appreciated for as long as it remains fashionable. Therefore, even though both composers have rightly deserved the title of musical geniuses, as we have mentioned in introductory part of this paper, it would not be an exaggeration, on our part, to refer to Wagner as being more of a genius, as compared to Verdi.

Even today, the production of Wagner’s operas continues to spark public controversy (in Israel, staging Wagner’s operas is considered to be a criminal offence), which can only have one meaning – the political and philosophic ideas, promoted by Wagner in his operas, continue to provide viewers with the insight onto the true essence of socio-political dynamics. In its turn, this can hardly be tolerated by the agents of mediocrity, who have now found themselves in position of imposing intellectual censorship on just about anything they consider as not being quite politically correct.

However, Richard Wagner is a figure of such an enormous political, historical and artistic importance that the self-proclaimed guardians of public morality are simply being afraid to refer to him as “racist”, “sexist” or “male chauvinist”, as they now do to the majority of Europe’s 19^th century prominent intellectuals. Therefore, without denying the fact that Giuseppe Verdi had greatly contributed to cultural progress of Western civilization, we want to emphasize that it is namely the operatic legacy of Richard Wagner, which is worthy complete and unrestricted admiration.

Bibliography

Ashley, T. (2001). Force of Destiny. The Guardian. Web.

Berry, M. (2004). Richard Wagner and the Politics of Music-Drama. The Historical Journal, 47 (3), 663-683.

Jacobs, R. (1941). Wagner’s Influence on Hitler. Music & Letters, 22 (1), 81-83.

John-Brenon, A. (1916). Giuseppe Verdi. The Musical Quarterly, 2 (1), 130-162.

Rossi, N. (1968). The Land of Verdi Revisited: A Musical Pilgrimage. Music Educators Journal, 54 (9), 47-95.

Stamatov, P. (2002). Interpretive Activism and the Political Uses of Verdi’s Operas in the 1840s. American Sociological Review, 67 (3), 345-366.

Naylor, E. (1893). Verdi and Wagner. Proceedings of the Musical Association, Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association, 20th Sess. (5), 1-10.

Webster, J. (1987).To Understand Verdi and Wagner We Must Understand Mozart. 19th-Century Music, 11 (2), 175-193.

Wackenhut, S. Italian Opera, Verdi and Rigoletto: A General Overview. Sweet Briar College. Web.

Vazsonyi, N. (2005). Marketing German Identity: Richard Wagner’s “Enterprise”. German Studies Review, 28 (2), 327-346.

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Richard Wagner vs. Giuseppe Verdi

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