Verdi, Wagner, and Politics in Opera. Bicentennial Ruminations

Mitchell Cohen was invited during summer 2012 by the FMSH’s programme EPoPs (Psychologie Politique Sociétale).

This paper is composed of a series of reflections on some aspects of the relation between politics and opera. It focuses on Verdi and Wagner. This year marks the bicentenary of both composers and Mitchell Cohen, a professor of political science at the City University of New York compares the political ideas in operas (and in other writings) by both composers. Both men are identified with nationalism, but their nationalisms were radically different.