Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations Used in the Notes
- Introduction. Rhapsody and Rebuke: Goethe's Faust in Music
- Part I Goethe's Faust: Content and Context
- Part II Legacies: Goethe's Faust in the Nineteenth Century
- Part III Topographies: Stagings and Critical Reception
- Part IV New Directions: Recent Productions and Appropriations
- 15 As Goethe Intended? Max Reinhardt's Faust Productions and the Aesthetics of Incidental Music in the Early Twentieth Century
- 16 Music and the Rebirth of Faust in the GDR
- 17 Music, Text and Stage: Peter Stein's Production of Goethe's Faust
- 18 ‘Devilishly good’: Rudolf Volz's Rock Opera Faust and ‘Event Culture’
- Select Bibliography
- Index
17 - Music, Text and Stage: Peter Stein's Production of Goethe's Faust
from Part IV - New Directions: Recent Productions and Appropriations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 August 2017
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations Used in the Notes
- Introduction. Rhapsody and Rebuke: Goethe's Faust in Music
- Part I Goethe's Faust: Content and Context
- Part II Legacies: Goethe's Faust in the Nineteenth Century
- Part III Topographies: Stagings and Critical Reception
- Part IV New Directions: Recent Productions and Appropriations
- 15 As Goethe Intended? Max Reinhardt's Faust Productions and the Aesthetics of Incidental Music in the Early Twentieth Century
- 16 Music and the Rebirth of Faust in the GDR
- 17 Music, Text and Stage: Peter Stein's Production of Goethe's Faust
- 18 ‘Devilishly good’: Rudolf Volz's Rock Opera Faust and ‘Event Culture’
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘Aber doch,’ sagte Goethe, 'ist alles [im Faust] sinnlich und wird, auf dem Theater gedacht, jedem gut in die Augen fallen. Und mehr habe ich nicht gewollt. Wenn es nur so ist, daß die Menge der Zuschauer Freude an der Erscheinung hat; dem Eingeweihten wird zugleich der höhere Sinn nicht entgehen, wie es ja auch bei der Zauberflöte und andern Dingen der Fall ist. (Goethe to Eckermann, 29 January 1827).
[But really everything [in Faust] is for the senses and, when realized in the theatre, will be easily appreciated by the eye. And that is all I wanted. If the majority of spectators only take pleasure in what they see, at the same time, to the initiated, the higher sense will not be lost, as is indeed the case with the Magic Flute and other things.]
Goethe emphasized the importance of spectacle in Faust as part of an audience's total sensual (‘sinnlich’) experience of the work on stage. At the same time, for the initiated, the work's deeper meaning lay beyond what simply meets the eye. As the Director states in ‘Vorspiel auf dem Theater’ [Prelude at the Theatre], the masses come to the theatre to see spectacle and action, but the Poet reminds him that this must be combined with poetry. Goethe's Faust embraces the most diverse kinds of poetry and some of the most lyrical. It is just as much a work for the ear as it is for the eye. In addition to the many sections of the text that call for musical accompaniment or musical interludes, or those that have inspired countless composers to Lieder and opera, the poetry itself embraces all registers of language and creates an unparalleled range of musical effects.
As a work for the stage Faust presents great challenges to the director. Peter Stein's production, premiered at EXPO Hannover in 2000, was, it was claimed, the first ever unabridged production of both parts of the play by a professional theatre company.
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- Music in Goethe's FaustGoethe's Faust in Music, pp. 276 - 288Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017