Ursula Winter

• This article deals with the reception of Dante and Goethe in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s and Hector Berlioz’s compositions La Vita Nuova and La Damnation de Faust. Although Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nova and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust belong to completely different genres and epochs, the texts provide the basis for the oratorio-style works from the Romantic era, which justifies a comparative analysis of the latter. The examined reductions, extensions, modifications and rearrangements of the texts in the libretti – which were compiled almostThis article deals with the reception of Dante and Goethe in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s and Hector Berlioz’s compositions La Vita Nuova and La Damnation de Faust. Although Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nova and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust belong to completely different genres and epochs, the texts provide the basis for the oratorio-style works from the Romantic era, which justifies a comparative analysis of the latter. The examined reductions, extensions, modifications and rearrangements of the texts in the libretti – which were compiled almost entirely by the composers themselves – as well as the instrumental parts and the use and functions of the orchestra, the choir and the soloists, portray the intermedia relations between literature and music in the selected compositions. The chosen examples will show that the common idea of setting literature to music and the translation studies concept of intersemiotic translation are not appropriate for all literature-based pieces of music, as the analysis of both works demonstrates that with regard to vocal music a distinction should be made between the musicalization of literature and the literarization of music.…