Hitler and the Opera

It's probably because of my theatre major background, but I was particularly interested in the sections of the book in which Kershaw discusses Hitler's obsession with opera. Not to come off all snooty and cultured but I was fortunate enough to get to travel to Vienna after my senior year of high school and I attended my first opera ever in the world-renowned opera house, there. The performance definitely had an impact on me, and so reading about Hitler's appreciation of the opera was, in a way, quite relatable. I know Hitler's love of the opera began in Lintz and seemed to increase in Vienna, and he was a particular fan of Wagner. Now, I'm not a huge opera buff, but I have seen several more operas after my awakening experience in Vienna, and the scale, the grandeur, and the projected theatrics are always what impress me most about the whole experience.

So, to the actual point of this post, in my reading I began to wonder if Hitler's exposure to the highly theatrical style of opera may have subtly influenced his own oratory style. I know it's sort of a stretch, and Kershaw doesn't really suggest much of a connection, other than mentioning that Hitler does at one point attempt to write a Wagnerian-style opera (pg. 40). Yet it's interesting to explore the idea that somewhere, even in the back of his mind, Hitler's skill as an orator was somehow inspired by what he repeatedly experienced in opera houses. Obviously, Hitler never performed opera himself, so he never garnered the actual stage experience that might have been more of a point of intersection between his performative nature and his speech-making. However, opera music, especially Wagner, has a particularly explosive and richly dramatic tone that, I feel, very much connects with the way Kershaw describes Hitler's speech delivery in later chapters. As an interesting experiment YouTube one of Hitler's speeches and then a piece of Wagner, say Act I of Das Rheingold, and just listen. I found that the explosive and dramatic passion exists in the tone of both 'performances'.

I know we're only supposed to be discussing the early sections of the book, but to cite something from the next reading, Kershaw does refer, at one point, to Hitler's speeches as "theatrical". He also emphasizes that without Hitler's ability as an orator, he likely would not have made it far in politics. I cannot help but consider that Hitler's time spent in opera houses made some impression on him about the theatrical fury with which he would decide to deliver his speeches. I do not suggest that the opera is what gave him his 'rounded world-view', nor do I imply that the opera, or even his skill as a speech-maker, is what solely gave rise to Hitler.

Kershaw acknowledges several factors of Hitler's ascent in the later reading. And, while opera is not listed clearly among the factors, we cannot read about Hitler's formative years without discussing his focus on the arts, particularly the medium of opera. It's true, Kershaw can't explicitly state what kind of impact the exposure to opera had on Hitler, no one can. We can only speculate some aspects of Hitler's life that would later influence him. Yet, whether because of my own experiences, or because it is a seemingly unexplored relationship, the subject of Hitler and the opera is something I was irrevocably drawn to in the first reading.

Thanks for reading,

~Cat Crowley