German opera, the rediscovery of the Middle Ages, and the building of a nation

This chapter gives the reader a glimpse into the historical context for interest in the Middle Ages in Germany in the nineteenth century, along with the influence of medievalism on German nationalism. The chapter also investigates the growth of German opera as a genre independent of the French and Italian traditions. The author provides justification for his focus on six particular works that best exemplify the trend in medievalist German opera of the early nineteenth century, and proposes that musical medievalism may be conceptualized as the “non-exotic other” on the operatic stage. The six works explored in this book include Carl Maria von Weber’s Euryanthe (1823), Franz Schubert’s Fierrabras (1823), Heinrich Marschner’s Der Templer und die Jüdin (1829), Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1850), and Robert Schumann’s Genoveva (1850).