Music theater and horticulture
The musicologist Klaus Pietschmann and the art historian Matthias Müller from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are realizing an interdisciplinary project on the interrelationship between garden art and courtly music theatre practice at the early modern princely court.
The research project, which is endowed with around 550′,000 euros, will focus in particular on the Dresden court in the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to two doctoral positions, there will also be a postdoctoral position, which will be filled by Basel music theater scholar Helena Langewitz. The project "Garden and music theater at the Dresden court of the 17th and 18th centuries: Medial and functional interrelationships in the service of stately metaphor and princely representation" will start in January 2022.
Lavishly designed gardens and opulently decorated operas were central elements of princely representation in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were also closely interlinked: On the one hand, garden decorations formed an integral part of the furnishings of opera seria and opera buffa, while on the other, the gardens themselves served as performance venues for musical theater performances.
Original article:
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/14393_DEU_HTML.php
