Conformism or Challenge: The Opera House in the Third Reich

Abstract

Amongst all musical genres, it is arguable that the relationship between music and politics is seen at its most tangible in the area of opera. Certainly the Nazi leadership appeared to exploit opera, over and above concert or choral music, in order to bolster its own cultural image. Hitler’s patronage of Bayreuth and Goering’s active involvement in the artistic policy of the Berlin State Opera remain the most obvious examples of such a process. But aside from image-building, it is a more open question whether developments in opera during the Third Reich mirror the ideological pre-occupations of the Nazi state. An examination of the artistic policy pursued in Germany’s opera houses and the favoured repertoire of the period produces a more complex picture, a picture in which there are some striking ambiguities. For while the Nazis installed the necessary bureaucracy with which to control operatic developments throughout the country, their efforts were blunted by the conflicting interests of party leaders, theatre administrators and creative musicians.