Opera and the Long-Playing Record Theodor W. Adorno; Thomas Y. Levin October, Vol. 55 (Winter, 1990), 62-66. Stable URL hitp:/flinks.jstor-org/sicisici=0 162-2870% 28199024%2955% 3062%3 AOATLR% 3E2.0,CO%3B2-R October is currently published by The MIT Press, Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hup:/www,jstororglabout/terms.hml. ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at hupslwww.jstor.orgijourals'mitpress.html ch copy of any part of'a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the sereen or printed page of such transmission, ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support @ jstor.org. hupulwww jstor.org/ Wed Oct 12 11:07:25 2005Opera and the Long-Playing Record* THEODOR W. ADORNO ‘TRANSLATED BY THOMAS Y. LEVIN In the history of music it is not all that rare for technological inventions to gain significance only long after their inception. This was the fate of the valve horn with the chromatic scale, which did not become fully utilized until Wagner. ‘The saxophone, a connecting link between woodwind and brass instruments, was already hesitantly used by Bizet," but only entered the domain of serious music by means of a detour through jazz. A similar development now seems to be taking place with the phonograph record. In music, Technik has a double meaning? On the one hand, there are the actual compositional techniques and, on the other, there are the industrial pro- ‘cesses that are applied to music for the purpose of its mass dissemination. ‘The latter do not, however, remain completely external to the music. Behind both the + This stay was ist published aie Oper Ucberwinter auf der Langepilplate': Theodor Jw, adoro teri Reon der Shape.” Der pap 8 arch 24 TOO, p 168 han teen reprinted under the tile “Oper und’ Langspieipate™ in ‘Theodor W. Adorno, Gramale Schnjion vol 19 (Frankfort Mc: Subrkamp Verlag, 1984), pp. 58558, © 1988, Sukamp Verlag [this and subsequent notes are by the trator} 1 Adorno referring to Georges Bizets employment ofthe saxophone in the two orchestral suites for "LArisenne,® incidental music writen in 1872 fora dram by Alphonse Daudet. The Composers hestaton regarding the new instrument is exprewed in prefatory noe othe oighal “cidon where he explains that one can leave out the saxophone i one kes and have it part payed Instead by various other wind instruments se german, Technik refers both to artistic technique Gin the sens of compiional style) and to {chology In is study of film moe comuthored with Hanns Eaer, Comporrg forthe Films (New York: Oxlord University Press 1947), Adorno articulate thi distinction with regard to cinema a8 follows: In the realm of motion pictres the term techninie’ has a double mearang that can cay lead to confusion. On the onc hand, tecniqe ithe equivalent ofan industrial process for producing foods: eg the discovery that picture and sound can be recorded on the same stip comparable 2 ErCivemton of the ar brake: The other meaning of technique’ fe seat, W desigeates the methods by which an arise fatenion can be adaquately teased" (p. 9, note S;-compare alo ‘Adorno, Cosemmelte Schriften, vol 18 {1976} p. 19, note 2). For more’on the quetion of musical technigoe, se Adorno’ remarks in hit 1958 cay “Musik und Technik" GeamelieSehrfn, vol 16.1990) pp. 229-48, ransated by Wes Blomuer at "Musi and Technique,” To 82 (Summer 1979, ppOpera and the Long-Playing Record 63 technologico-industrial and the artistic discoveries there is the same historical process at work, the same human force of production. ‘That is why they both converge. ‘As late as 1934 it still had to be claimed that, as a form, the phonograph record had not given rise to anything unique to it. This may well have changed since the introduction of long-playing recordings, irrespective of whether, on the one hand, LPs might have been technologically possible from the very start and were only held back by commercial calculations or due to lack of consumer interest, or, on the other, one really only learned so late how to capture extended ‘musical durations without interrupting them and thereby threatening the coher- ence of their meaning. In any case, the term “revolution” is hardly an exaggera- tion with regard to the long-playing record. The entire musical literature could now become available in quite-authentic form to listeners desirous of auditioning and studying such works at a time convenient to them, The gramophone record comes into its own, however, by virtue of the fate of a major musical genre: the opera. It has been more than thirty years since any operas have been written for opera houses that—if one is allowed to insist on such high standards—manifested something of world spirit (Weligest]. The supply of traditional operas on the stages reserved for them has, however, become folderol for opera fanst or cult objects for culture worshippers. Thus the tireless efforts to modernize operas in opera houses with new sets and new stagings—at the expense of their substance. This confrontation as surrealist tease has itself already become institutionalized, and rapidly loses its effect. In its heroic periods, modern music distanced itself from the production of opera for ‘opera houses and groped toward a theater qualitatively different from the high bourgeois representation of the nineteenth century.® The current avant-garde has taken this up once again—probably most radically and convincingly by Kagel.® 3. Adorno is here referring to his own remarks made decades eatlier in Phonograph Record. sorefyord in Englah in orginal on Adorno’ ute of foreign words, see my introduction to ‘Adorno's easy "On the Question: “What i German?” enti "Nationals of Language ‘Adorno’s Prentuért,” New German Critique 6 (Fal 1985), pp, 111-19, see Adorn refering to works sich ar Alban Bergs"Lahe and Arnold Schoenberg's "Motes tind Aron,” about which he note elewhere Tes hardly a coincidence tha since: Ll aod ‘Mees de Aron’ no operas have boen written thar were truly tfodern and sulineouely authentic" (Za ‘incr Umirage’ Neve Oper und Publi.” Gemma Stren, val. 18, pr #94), For more on ‘Adorno’ postion on opera, ce his 1985 exay "Burgerihe Oper (ow in Gesammele Schrten vl 16. pp, 24-39) whch wil soon be avaible in tatuation ender the tile “Bourgeois Opera (por Through her Byes, ede David Levin (London: Rats, 1991). or” Following ial experiments inthe 1950s with musur comer, compoter Mauricio Kagel thorn in Argetinn in 11) began experimenting with diferent cletroscousc apd audiowisal trea, which he subsequently trlted into various sorts of theatrical and mulmedia performance Pieces, Kagel alo incorporated the teat aspect of performance fet ata new compostional the Form of the