The current exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music” brings into focus one of the most productive eras in the arts, in which poetry, art, theater, dance, music and fashion inspired each other, creating a synthesis of the arts rarely seen. It was the genius of one man in particular, who was the catalyst for it all — Serge Diaghilev.
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Giovanni Gabrieli, In ecclesiis
I vividly remember my first visit to Venice. Mind you, I came prepared, at least in the literary sense, as I had eagerly plowed through various portrayals of the city in novels ranging from Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Voltaire’s Candid and Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, to Child Harold’s Pilgrimage and The Aspern Papers by Henry James. However, there is really nothing that can prepare you for the astronomical price of a cup of coffee, and since the Piazza San Marco was inundated by water, the sight of thousands of badly-dressed tourists wading ankle-deep in sewage infested waters while trying to take photographs of each other. Of course, I was also mercilessly dive-bombed by enough pigeons to feed all major population centers in China for the next two decades.
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A recent exhibition of major works by the Pre-Raphaelite painters at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. brings into focus the close relationship between painting, poetry and music which existed throughout much of the 19th century.
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Every year on 7 December something magical happens in the Italian city of Milan. For one, the city celebrates its patron saint Ambrose (340-397). A revered archbishop, he is widely recognized as one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures who contributed significantly to the theology and doctrine of the Catholic Church. On that very day, the “Teatro alla Scala,” one of the most iconic and significant performing venues officially opens its season, and it has done so ever since 3 August 1778.
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Later mythologized as a true Italian, Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 10, 1813 in Busseto as a French subject, which seems to have disturbed him enough to lead him to represent that he had in fact been born in 1814, in which year the Dukedom of Parma, to which Busseto belonged, became an independent Italian state. Throughout most of the 19th century, Italy was not a political entity, but rather a cultural idea, where everyone, whether in Milano, Venice, Genoa, in the Piedmont and in the many other cities and states, could live as a member of an ancient, noble and respectable cultural community, irrespective of borders, customs and tariffs. A political union had been impossible, since the major European powers — Germany, Spain, France and Austria, as well as the Papal States — controlled the various Italian regions. The 19th century saw a re-awakening, the ‘risorgimento’ as it would later be called — a cry for political unity and independence, whose most outspoken representative was the writer Vittorio Alfieri, whom Verdi very much admired. Alfieri conceived Italian nationalism as a spiritual/political idea of liberation and freedom, a concept which became the focus of various political movements in the following years.
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Guillaume Dufay, Nuper rosarum flores
For almost 600 years, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower) has dominated the cityscape of Florence. Build on the site of an earlier cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata — a third century Christian virgin and martyr — construction of the new “Duomo” officially began in 1296 and lasted for the better part of 140 years. Based on designs by Arnolfo DI Cambio, who concurrently oversaw the construction of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio — the impressive fortress-palace guarded by Michelangelo’s David that served as the town hall of Florence — the floor plan of the new cathedral adhered to the form of a Latin cross. A central nave of four square-bays is framed by aisle on either side, with the chancel and transepts sporting identical polygonal designs, which in turn are separated by two polygonal chapels.
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In many of Wagner’s theoretical writings, such as “Die Kunst und die Religion” (Art and Religion – 1849), “Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft” (The Artwork of the Future – 1849) and “Oper und Drama” (Opera and Drama – 1852), the concept of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ — the totality of the work of art — became the central focus , which Wagner subsequently made the basis for his compositions.
According to Wagner, the ‘Zersplitterung der Kűste’ (the Split between the Arts) had occurred in Greek antiquity, with word, music and dance originally existing in perfect harmony. Initially, in the perfect Greek state, Greek tragedy embodied this harmony, but with the fall of the ‘Athenian Polis’, the arts started to diverge. For Wagner, (and this explains his youthful ‘revolutionary’ fervor during the revolutions of 1848) one should aspire to create a perfect society in which the perfect harmony of the work of art could again exist.
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In the 19th century, Paris was one of the most important music capitals of Europe. Richard Wagner, during his ‘Wanderjahre’ (years of wandering from Riga to London, Dresden and Zűrich – mainly to escape his various creditors), attempted several times (from about 1839 to 1861) not only to make Paris his home, but to introduce his works to the general French public — unsuccessfully, as we shall see. But over the course of these many years, Wagner was at least able to establish contacts with leading opera directors, conductors and composers, amongst them Franz Liszt, whom he had already befriended earlier in Dresden and Weimar, and Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Rossini and Gounod. The leading writers and artists at the time, in particular the poets Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé, were not only part of his circle of friends, but would defend Wagner’s music in published articles.
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Dresden, with its well-known Sächsische Staatskapelle, Kreuzchor and Semper Opera House, cannot only be considered one of the great ‘musical’ cities in Germany, but most importantly, its cultural and political milieu played a significant role in the musical and artistic education of one of the greatest opera composers of the 19th century, Richard Wagner.
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Fin-de Siècle Vienna’s ‘Second Generation’ Art and Music

In his opus, ‘Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften’ (The Man without Qualities) the Austrian writer Robert Musil, considered by many the Marcel Proust of Fin-de-Siècle Vienna, stated that Austria’s intellectuals, artists and writers found themselves on the threshold of the new century where “out of the oil-smooth spirit of the last two decades of the 19th century, …. there rose a kindling fever. Nobody knew exactly what was on the way; nobody was able to say whether it was to be a new art, a New Man, a new morality or perhaps a reshuffling of society”.
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