Decentralising nineteenth-century opera: Copenhagen, Barcelona and Dresden, 1800-1860

Abstract

This thesis decentralises nineteenth-century European music for the stage by examining three cities – Copenhagen, Dresden, and Barcelona – that have traditionally been considered as the edge of nineteenth-century culture. These cities are located within a network of music for the stage and their contrasting positions within this network are analysed in the context of political events, theatrical organisation, genre, and individual agents. The position of each city within the European network was dependent on various influences; the repertory in each place blended French and Italian traditions with local theatrical practices. Considering multiple repertorial influences is crucial to an understanding of music for the stage in peripheral locations and is inseparable from ideas of cultural transfer. This thesis examines the effects of such political ideas as nationalism and reframes their importance by exploring the differences between local, national, regional, and international, and the realities of each of these within the repertories of Copenhagen, Dresden, and Barcelona. Considerations of how cosmopolitanism appeared in different ways in each of these cities illuminates the importance of these places in the network of nineteenth-century European music for the stage.

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ORCID for Clare Mary Merivale: orcid.org/0009-0002-6387-5114

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