''Zeitoper'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: "opera of the time") was a short-lived genre of

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

associated with

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

Germany. It is not known when or by whom the term was coined, but by 1928

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

("Zeitoper" in ''Melos'') was able to complain that it was more a slogan than a description. Like ''

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dram ...

'' it used contemporary settings and characters, comic or at least satiric plots (

Max Brand Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American writer known primarily for his Western stories using the pseudonym Max Brand. He (as Max Brand) also created the popular fictional character of young medical intern D ...

's ''Maschinist Hopkins'' is a sole tragic example) and aimed at musical accessibility. Two distinguishing characteristics are a tendency to incorporate modern technology ('' Jonny spielt auf'': trains, ''

Der Lindberghflug ''The Flight across the Ocean'' (german: Der Ozeanflug, link=no) is a '' Lehrstück'' by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, inspired by '' We'', Charles Lindbergh's 1927 account of his transatlantic flight in the plane ''Spirit of St. Louis''. ...

'': airplanes, '' Von Heute auf Morgen'': telephones, and even elevators) and frequent allusions to popular music, especially

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. This last, more than any social satire, earned the suspicion of the political right and ensured that it would not survive into the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

era.

Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...

's '' Jonny spielt auf'' (1927) is held up as the epitome of the genre.Sadie, p. 1221 Other composers are

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...

(''

Hin und zurück ' (Back and forth) is an operatic 'sketch' (Op. 45a) in one scene by Paul Hindemith, with a German libretto by Marcellus Schiffer. It acts as a parody of conventional opera tropes featuring a coloratura ariette, a jealousy duet, and a terzet for ...

'', 1927, '' Neues vom Tage'', 1929), Wilhelm Grosz ('' Achtung! Aufname!'' to a libretto by Bela Balazs), plus Weill's ''

Der Zar lässt sich photographieren ''Der Zar lässt sich photographieren '' (''The Tsar Has his Photograph Taken''.') is an opera buffa in one act by Kurt Weill, op. 21. The German libretto was written by Georg Kaiser, and Weill composed the music in 1927. It is a Zeitoper, a ge ...

'' (1928) and ''

Die Bürgschaft "The Pledge" (German: "Die Bürgschaft", ) is a ballad published by the German poet Friedrich Schiller in his 1799 ''Musen-Almanach''. He took the idea out of the ancient legend of Damon and Pythias issuing from the Latin ''Fabulae'' by Gaius Jul ...

'' (1932). The first Zeitoper to be composed was probably ''

Intermezzo In music, an intermezzo (, , plural form: intermezzi), in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term ha ...

'' (1924) by

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

. At the possible instigation of Krenek, the American George Antheil also wrote a ''Zeitoper'' for Frankfurt, ''Transatlantic'' (1930, originally titled ''Glare''). In '' Von Heute auf Morgen'' (1930)

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

attempted to have the last word on the fashion: at the end a child enters and asks the reconciled parents "What are modern people?" who respond with "That changes from one day to the next."

References

Notes Sources *Sadie, Stanley (ed.) (1998): "Zeitoper" in ''The

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', London. *Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages, Further reading *Cook, Susan C. (1988), ''Opera for a New Republic: the Zeitopern of Krenek, Weill and Hindemith''. University of Michigan. {{Opera genres Opera terminology Opera genres