Composition and architecture – in the nineteenth century they became part of a greater entirety: of opera, the total work of art that was able to carry its audience away into a completely different world, at least when Richard Wagner was involved.
Yet not only the music,
but also the innovative
design of the opera
house was to make
a major contribution
to the magical effect.
»Without your help, I cannot think
of a performance for some time,«
Wagner rhapsodized in 1854 in
a letter to his favorite architect,
Gottfried Semper.
At that time Semper had already built his first opera house in Dresden, which was later destroyed by fire, but otherwise was making ends meet with occasional commissions.
In 1864 his and Wagner’s dream of a monumental festival hall seemed within reach. For the eighteen-year-old King Ludwig II, they planned in Munich “a large theaterin the finest style” – with an orchestra pit, stairs, colonnades and a huge stage machinery. However, the newly crowned client was not able to implement this plan.
Some of the ideas were later
included in the design of the
Dresden Semper Opera of today.
To this day, Semper’s design
of a triumphal amphitheater
for Munich influences our idea
of an ideal opera house.
And it remains an inspiration:as a vision of the
enchantment of stone
by sound, and of
sound by stone.