Abends in die Scala

In “Loge und Liebe,” the opera box becomes the setting for stories filled with sound and movement, testifying to the poetic magic of the relationship between the song- and sound-swept action on stage and the feverish excitement of the audience. Italian bel canto stimulates French storytelling, while Wagnerian passion ignites the intoxication of “Liebestod” in decadent prose. For the poet Gustave Flaubert, the magic formula of “aesthetic mysticism” guarantees the inner musicality of his stylistic artistry. Victor Hugo, on the other hand—much to Goethe’s horror—elevates the ugly and the grotesque to elements of art and breathes life into opera and the musical with villains such as Rigoletto, Quasimodo, and Thénardier.

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