ERC Study Day & Book Presentation „MUSIC THEATRE AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE“

The ERC-Study day is organised by the ERC PROJECT “Opera and the Politics of Empire in Habsburg Europe, 1815–1914” in cooperation with the CENTRE OF COMPETENCE FOR THEATRE (CCT) and the Leipzig RESEARCH CENTRE GLOBAL DYNAMICS (ReCentGlobe).

The interdisciplinary study Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire. The German Musical Stage at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century by Austin Glatthorn was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2022. It reveals the interconnected world of music theatre during the 'Classical era'. Three experts in the field will discuss the book with the author. For those who cannot attend in person, the event will also be broadcast via ZOOM. The event will be held in English.

Author

• AUSTIN GLATTHORN is a research fellow at the University of Southampton. His research focuses generally on musical life in early modern Europe. His new book draws on a wealth of archival sources and digital tools to uncover how material and discursive networks mediated an entangled web of Central European theatres—networked by postal communication and mobility—that served as preconditions for a shared musico-theatrical culture.

Discussants

• ELLINOR FORSTER is assistant professor at the Department of History and European Ethnology at the University of Innsbruck. Her research focuses on conceptions of space, border studies, cultural history of the political and administration around 1800, sensory studies, legal and gender history and historiographic history.
• AXEL KÖRNER is professor of Modern Cultural and Intellectual History at the University of Leipzig. In addition to modern Italian, European and Habsburg history, as well as transnational history and the history of political thought, he published widely on the history of opera and music in transnational perspective.

Chair

• BARBARA BABIĆ is a research fellow at the Chair of Modern Cultural and Intellectual History at the University of Leipzig. Her research examines the mobility of European music theatre throughout the nineteenth century, by focusing especially on the Parisian and Viennese boulevard stage (melodrama, parody, operetta), on Italian opera (especially Rossini), and on theatrical life in Habsburg Southeastern Europe.

About the book

Packed full of new archival evidence MUSIC THEATRE AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE reveals the interconnected world of music theatre during the 'Classical era', investigating key locations, genres, music, and musicians. Austin Glatthorn explores the extent to which the Holy Roman Empire delineated and networked a cultural entity that found expression through music for the German stage. He maps an extensive network of Central European theatres; reconstructs the repertoire they shared; and explores how print media, personal correspondence, and their dissemination shaped and regulated this music. He then investigates the development of German melodrama and examines how articulations of the Holy Roman Empire on the musical stage expressed imperial belonging. Glatthorn engages with the most recent historical interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire and offers quantitative, empirical analysis of repertoire supported by conventional close readings to illustrate a shared culture of music theatre that transcended traditional boundaries in music scholarship.