Das Rheingold

March 2010

Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris (History of music – Musical analysis)
Paris University 3 ((Institute of Theatrical Studies)
Paris University 7 (German Department)
Paris University 8 (Music Department / musical dramaturgy)
Lille University 3 (Philosophy Department / aesthetics)

Course teachers: Corinne Schneider – Michaël Ertzscheid – Frédéric Maurin – Liliane Crips – Carmelo Agnello – Bernard Sève

Further to a course that gave the students the chance to attend a rehearsal and meet the conductor, Philippe Jordan, an inter-university conference assembled 80 students from the above institutions, which, each within their own field, shed specific light on the work in question.

The complexity of the Tetralogy and Rheingold in particular, together with Richard Wagner’s musical genius, make this a work requiring a multidisciplinary approach. The heights of Wagnerian conception, the scope of his inspiration, the idea of the total work of art made Wagner concerned about surpassing the heaviness and conventional historicism of stage aesthetics in vogue in Germanic countries. This ideal of Gesamtkunstwerk will be approached through the unity of text, music and drama, opposed to the material act of bringing it to the stage.