Gesamtkunstwerk Musical? Zwischen Fortschrittsglauben und (nach-) postmodernen Potenzialen

Abstract

According to the german Wikipedia, Musical theatre as a genre of music theater is a „Gesamtkunstwerk“. At first glance, this label seems more than questionable. The concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, as established in particular by Richard Wagner, intended not only a combination of different art forms, but moreover a synthesis of the work of art and life.

This kind of conceptual confusions are often symptomatic and refer to something that can be ignored or examined more closely. Thus, the description of the musical as a „Gesamtkunstwerk“ seems significant for an age in which the utopian-revolutionary, as demanded by the classical avant-garde, has made way for postmodern polyperspectivity. This tendency does not only apply to forms of musical theater, but is particularly evident here, since the stage (in contrast to recording media and streaming, for example) is a constitutive medium of performative events in the „here and now“, effective between and through people. This makes it a discursive place of aesthetic material that reflects social norms, desires, and ideologies.

What do current musical productions show us in this respect, and can they be analyzed at all with a concept of „material“ as shaped by Adorno in music theory? Can we really speak of the musical under today’s conditions as a „Gesamtkunstwerk“, freed from avant-garde pathos and a cultic aura? Are we dealing here with „all inclusive” offerings in a double sense: something of everything, for everyone – and does a progressive potential lie precisely in this, beyond past aporias of progress?