Romantic Spectacles: From Virtuosos to Grand Opera (mar 1, 1800 – jul 1, 1850)

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In the early nineteenth century, spectacle emerged as an important way of drawing audiences to public concerts and operas. One result was the rise of the traveling virtuoso with mass, rock star-like appeal. (Paganini and Liszt)

During the nineteenth century, the size of the audience for music grew rapidly in response to economic, demographic, and technological developments. A new and larger public led to what is often called "the democratization of taste." Attitudes toward these developments varied as with those toward democracy itself. The elites feared that the democratization of taste would lead to a decline in the artistic quality of music. For the populists, it signaled the enlivening, enrichment, and above all enhanced accessibility and social relevance of art.

In both he concert hall and the opera house, this democratization led to a new competitiveness, as older aristocratic patronage gave way to the collective patronage of a ticket-buying public. Public performance embraced spectacle, most notably in the multimedia extravaganzas mounted by opera houses. Spectacle played a newly important role for solo instrumentalists as well. The surest road to success no longer lay in reaching high--toward a secure position at the most exclusive social plane--but rather in reaching wide by attracting large audiences. The ability to astonish became paramount what had once been the domain principally of vocal stars now drove star instrumentalists as well. The age of the globe-trotting virtuoso was born. We are still living in it.

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