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Expressionism

The expressionism emerged at the beginning of the century as a style fundamentally concerned with the inner expressiveness of the individual, in its psychological deepening, as opposed to the dominant naturalism at the turn of the century, which in opera gave the verismo. In this current, interpersonal relationships, emotionality and the psychic states of the characters were especially valued. On a literary level, its referents were Franz Kafka, James Joyce and the German playwrights Ernst Toller, Frank Wedekind and Georg Kaiser. For expressionist authors, art was a form of expression, not entertainment, so they were more concerned with the message they wanted to convey than with style or musical or plot device.

In France, this style was practiced by some composers who formed a group called Les Six (Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric and Louis Durey), interested in musical avant-garde and popular rhythms, with an informal and spontaneous style. Poulenc, author of his own librettos, stood out for his lyrical melodies. His first opera was Les mamelles de Tirésias (The breasts of Tiresias, 1947), on a text by Guillaume Apollinaire. It was followed by Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), based on a work by Georges Bernanos. In La voix humaine (The human voice, 1959) he presented an opera with only a soprano speaking on the telephone for forty minutes, with libretto by Jean Cocteau. Milhaud was a pupil of Paul Dukas and Vincent d'Indy. He produced major historical works, such as Christophe Colomb (1930), Bolívar (1950) and David (1954), as well as minor works: Les Malheurs d'Orphée (The Evils of Orpheus, 1926), Le pauvre matelot (The Poor Sailor, 1927) and La mère coupable (The Guilty Mother, 1966). Honegger began in the operatic field with Philippa (1903), which was followed by Judith (1925), Antigone (1927) and the operettas Les Aventures du roi Pausole (1930), La Belle de Moudon (1931) and Les Petites Cardinales (1937). Also in 1937 he composed jointly with Jacques Ibert L'Aiglon, his last opera. Linked to this group was Erik Satie, best known for his symphonic and piano compositions, who composed several operettas: Geneviève de Brabant (1899), Pousse l'amour (1905), Le Piège de Méduse (1913). Also worth mentioning are Jacques Ibert (Angélique, 1927; Le Roi d'Yvetot, 1930).

In Germany, Franz Schreker began in post-romanticism, but later opted for a style close to expressionism. His first opera was Der ferne Klang (The Far Sound, 1910), with which he achieved great success. It was followed by Die Gezeichneten (The Marked Ones, 1918), an opera of great complexity that required an orchestra of 120 musicians, with a somber and tortured theme, fully immersed in the depressing spirit of the postwar period. In Der Schatzgräber (The Treasure Hunter, 1920) he also showed a theme centered on loneliness, despair and sexual desire. His last works, Christophorus (1931) and Der Schmied von Gent (The Blacksmith of Ghent, 1932), were sabotaged by the Nazis, who considered him a degenerate musician, with the accentuated motif of being Jewish.

Paul Hindemith started in expressionism with three one-act operas (Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, 1919; Das Nusch-Nuschi, 1920; Sancta Sussana, 1921), but later evolved into a neo-baroque style with use of polyphony. In that sense, Cardillac (1926) was a transitional work, while in Mathis der Maler (Matthias the Painter, 1928) he combined medieval influences with German folklore and counterpoint techniques. After being considered a degenerate musician by the Nazis, he went into exile in Switzerland and the United States. Die Harmonie der Welt (The Harmony of the World, 1957) was the culmination of his neo-baroque style.

Kurt Weill was a representative of the so-called New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), a movement that in a certain way reacted against expressionist subjectivism, although it used many of its resources, while having points in common with neoclassicism and assimilating new musical forms such as jazz, tango or cabaret. He sought in his works a type of musical theater that featured the best artists and professionals, from playwrights to dancers. His first operas were Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (The Tsar takes a photograph of himself, 1928). From then on he formed a fruitful partnership with the playwright Bertolt Brecht, which produced numerous successes: Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928), Happy End (Happy Ending, 1929), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, 1929) and Der Jasager (The Yes-Sayer, 1930). His greatest success was The Threepenny Opera, based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch. In 1933 he premiered Der Silbersee (The Silver Lake), with a libretto by Georg Kaiser. Shortly thereafter he went into exile in the United States, where he made several musicals.

Erwin Schulhoff composed in 1928 his opera Flammen (Flames), a work of a fantastic nature, in which the author abandoned the Aristotelian theatrical rules in force until then in theater and opera for the sake of a new concept of staging, which understood theater as a game, a show, a fantasy overflowing reality. Berthold Goldschmidt, a pupil of Schrecker, was director of the Darmstadt Opera. In 1930 he adapted Fernand Crommelynck 's Der Gewaltige Hanrei (The Mighty Hanrei), premiered in 1932, although his Jewishness caused it to be immediately withdrawn, so he emigrated to the UK.