An exploration of avant-garde music and operatic form in Weimar Germany
Weimar Germany -- the age of Bauhaus and Brecht -- was a time of
significant activity in all areas of the artistic avant-garde.
Musicologist Susan Cook explores this intriguing period in a look at
Zeitoper (topical opera)and its primary exponents, Ernst Krenek, Kurt
Weill and Paul Hindemith. Zeitoper has proved to be of importance as an
experimental form that broadened the definition of modern opera and
musical theatre, incorporating elements previously thought unsuitable.
Celebrating modern life in its libretti, its scores borrowed heavily
from American dance music and jazz.
Opera for a New Republic is the first book to provide a broad
historical, cultural and artistic context for the development of this
operatic genre. Through it we learn that Zeitoper, although short-lived,
has proved to be a vital component in the development of
twentieth-century operatic style.
Susan Cook is Professor of Musicology at the University of Wisconsin.