The Dream in Contemporary Musical Theatre in Europe: K. Saariaho, S. Sciarrino, O. Neuwirth

• Applicant: Dr. Mauro Fosco Bertola
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 457342934

Over the last decades, Saariaho, Sciarrino and Neuwirth have become some of the most representative composers of the contemporary musical theatre production in Europe. The challenging of traditional operatic genres and medial hierarchies, the pluralisation of forms of presentation and the enhancement of the inter- and transmedial dimension of the genre constitute pivotal traits of these composers’ works, which are paralleled by a rejection of defining discursive dichotomies like the one between progress and regress. In these works, there is also a shift in the emphasis within the aesthetic production and discourse from the level of structure to the level of perception in its bodily dimension. Besides this, Saariaho, Sciarrino and Neuwirth share a common interest in dream: the oneiric is a defining feature not only of their respective poetological stances but also of their musical theatre works. Up to now, there has been no in-depth inquiry into the presence of dreams in Saariaho’s, Sciarrino’s and Neuwirth’s musical theatre, and there has been no attempt to contextualise their production with respect to dream-related operas both of the past and the present.In the otherness of an alogic experience, the oneiric experience challenges traditional concepts of identity and rationality; at the same time, it strengthens the sensory and emotional perception in its bodily dimension. Based on the dream, anthropologic models of subjectivity are negotiated anew across all arts, while traditional genres and their medial boundaries are put into question. Individual as well as collective sensory experiences eluding the logos are also challenged by means of dreams. In this sense, aesthetic representations of dreams constitute a discursive, medial and experiential-poetological node. In the present project, the dream thus functions as reagent: it renders the interaction of these three levels in the musical theatre of the abovementioned composers visible and allows examining this interaction both on a synchronic and a diachronic time axis. An introductory chapter investigating the presence and function of dreams in European musical theatre since Wagner and a final section, in which the results of the previous chapters are conflated and cross-examined with respect to contemporary musical theatre production, thus constitute an integral part of the project. By means of this, the project not only addresses a research gap but at the same time allows for the unearthing of the complex web of musical and cultural references informing the works of the abovementioned composers, enabling us to aptly contextualise their production and to open a new heuristic approach to their musical theatre as well as to contemporary opera in general. Ultimately, through an interdisciplinary exchange between musicology and the historically culture- and media-oriented dream research, the project innovates both disciplines as regards content as well as their respective methodological approach.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants