Discuss the significance and definition of Romantic dance and opera

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Romantic spirit had no greater match for its theatricality than in the dance and operatic arts. Opera, in particular, was well-suited to carry any and all Romantic ideals. Romantic opera was grand both in size and in spirit, a flamboyant spectacle that united all aspects of theatrical production: music, dance, stage sets, and costumes. The composer Richard Wagner produced multi-layered music-dramas that shattered long-standing Western theatrical traditions. Heroic in size, Wagner's orchestra generally engulfs the listener in a maelstrom of uninterrupted melody and his plots derived almost exclusively from heroic themes from Germany's medieval past. Intense to an extreme, Wagner's operas sought to capture the Romantic sublime in musical form. The artist's mission, Wagner insisted, is to communicate "the necessary spontaneous emotional mood."
Ballet gained immense popularity in the Romantic era. Evolving from classical ballet, which began in the royal courts, Romantic dance brought a new, more sensuous spirit. Many of the ballets were based on mythical stories, in which fantasy reigned. Often, a male hero is tempted by an angelic female (adhering to the Eve stereotype), pursuing her to tragic consequences. The traditional equation of beauty and innocence in the person of the idealized female is well illustrated in the comments of one French critic, who, describing "the aerial and virginal grace of Taglioni," exulted, "She flies like a spirit in the midst of transparent clouds of white muslin—she resembles a happy angel." Clearly, the nineteenth-century ballerina was the Romantic realization of the Eternal Female, a figure that fitted the stereotype of the angelic woman.