Cover illustration: C.E. Döpler, Figurino per Brünnhilde, 1876

Chair: Alessio Francesco Palmieri Marinoni.

National identity, as the identity of any community, can find expression in typical costume or in specific articles of clothing. In the 19th century, on the heels of the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire, a renewed national spirit urged historians, archaeologists and artists to question their identities and, in particular, to take steps to construct a past which could be demonstrated and validated even through the history of costume and dress.

While some nations drew their reference models and their inspirations from the so-called ‘golden ages’ – such as the Renaissance or the classical era – others looked in decidedly less familiar directions: the period of the barbarian invasions, for instance. In the second half of the century, thanks to the work of Richard Wagner and the flock of scholars he enrolled to create his ‘total work of art’ (Gesamtkunstwerk), there began a process of inquiry aimed at identifying the costume of the ancient Germanic peoples.

This seminar will investigate how the invention of a costume based on a misconception and a rejection contributed to creating an image that is very precise, very false – and very difficult to unseat from the contemporary imagination.

SEMINAR PROGRAM:

• Historicism in musical theatre
• The ‘Wagner affair’: identification of a costume for the Nordic peoples
• Josef Angelo Neumann and the ‘Richard Wagner Travelling Theatre’
• An error goes viral: ballet dress and high fashion dresses
• Errors embedded in daily life

SUGGESTED BOOK TO READ:

Heinzle, J. “Indianer-Häuptlinge in Walhall. Ein Mythos wird kostümiert”, in Literaturkritik. Zum 100. Geburtstag von Marcel Reich-Ranicki, no. 5, 2000 https://literaturkritik.de/id/17897

Beonio Brocchieri, V. H. (2013) Celti e germani. La nazione e i suoi antenati, EM Publishers