Verdi. Opera novel
Verdi. Roman der Oper is an artist novel by Franz Werfel published in 1924 .
action
In Werfel's novel, the composer Giuseppe Verdi goes to the Carnival in Venice in 1883 , where his artistic antipode , the self-confident and successful Richard Wagner , is currently staying. At the beginning of the novel, the two musicians meet: Wagner does not recognize Verdi, no words are exchanged. Verdi himself has long been working on a new opera, King Learwhose composition gives him difficulties. He sees himself as a representative of an older operatic style, an old order. This is painfully confirmed to him in conversations and discussions with his long-term friends. Verdi has been in a creative crisis for almost ten years; he cannot let go of the comparison between his own long ago successes and Wagner's completely new operas. He finally got the idea that he only traveled to Venice because of Wagner, "the German".
Verdi gives up work on his Lear and rigorously burns the sketches that have already been made. His crisis culminates in a night fainting attack. The next day he finds the courage to visit Wagner; but he just died last night. Through the touching encounter with a penniless, musical young man who eventually dies in a hospital, Verdi is reminded of the power of music with a single word. His next opera Otello will emerge from this first spark much later .
stylistics
Werfel uses a special narrative style in his work: Everything that happens in this novel is portrayed exclusively from Verdi's perspective, without the latter consciously transmitting messages to a reader. So this main character also acts as the reflector figure of the novel.
Others
Werfel's work appeared on April 4, 1924 as the first work in the " Paul Zsolnay Verlag " founded by Paul Zsolnay and, with its 60,000 copies sold in a very short time, formed the cornerstone of the publishing house.
Book editions
- First edition: Zsolnay, Berlin / Vienna / Leipzig 1924
- slightly changed (“newly viewed”) edition: ibid. 1930
- Current paperback edition: Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-596-29456-8