French Literature Reviews - 2026
T. Picard, Verdi - Wagner. The Opera's Imaginary and National Identities
Comparative and World Literature
Review published in the critical dossier of Acta Fabula "Music! Let's Read" (May-June-July 2015, Vol. 16, no. 5): "The Musical Imaginary Through the Lens of Politics" by Thierry Santurenne.
***
Timothée Picard, Verdi - Wagner. The Opera's Imaginary and National Identities
Arles: Actes Sud, 2013.
336 p.
EAN 9782330022976.
Publisher's overview:
"The end of music!" Such would be the consequence of Germany's defeat in the First World War, if we are to believe Thomas Mann, who theorized a veritable "clash of civilizations" in which the music of Verdi and Wagner served as key symbols. Understanding how these two composers came to be the quintessential representatives of "Italianness" and "Germanness," of "Mediterranean" and "Nordic" cultures, and determining what these concepts truly meant—and still mean—to Italians or Germans, the French or the British, across past and present, is the central objective of this book.
As a counterpoint, the author explores which cultural figure might play a comparable role in France. He also demonstrates how this confrontation draws upon common tropes that existed long before the 19th century, tracing them back to the origins of opera, whose birth major European nations have continually rewritten in order to claim sole paternity for it.
Timothée Picard is Professor of General and Comparative Literature at the University of Rennes and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. A specialist in European Wagnerism (Dictionnaire encyclopédique Wagner, Actes Sud – Cité de la Musique, 2010, winner of the "Prix de la critique" and "Prix des Muses") and, more broadly, in the study of musical concepts and representations throughout the history of ideas, he contributed to the Dictionnaire Verdi (Robert Laffont, coll. "Bouquins", 2013). He is a regular contributor to the journals Classica and L’Avant-Scène Opéra.
The nineteenth-century construction of national musical styles often relied on deep-seated cultural dichotomies contrasting Mediterranean and Nordic traditions. Within European cultural history, operatic works and their creators frequently functioned as embodiments of broader geopolitical and aesthetic rivalries. Timothée Picard examines how Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner were established as quintessential representatives of their respective nations, shaping collective perceptions of Italianness and Germanness across various European audiences over time. The study also considers the search for a comparable cultural figure within the French tradition and investigates the foundational myths surrounding the birth of opera.
These investigations situate themselves within the broader interdisciplinary field linking musicology, comparative literature, and the history of ideas. By exploring how nations have historically claimed paternity for operatic origins, the volume addresses the persistent interaction between artistic representation and national identity. Readers interested in European musical history, nineteenth-century aesthetics, and the cultural reception of opera may find it relevant to their pursuits.