The project focuses on music theatre horror, i.e. staged realisations of uncanniness, terror and horror in operas, melodramas and plays with music. Using the example of London Gothic plays around 1800, the project explores the origins, forms and developments of music theatre horror to decipher its connections to representations transcending time and genre. In Gothic plays, popular from the 1790s onwards, music and sound contributed significantly to the impact of genre typical tropes including dungeons, Gothic monasteries, castles and demonic or spectral apparitions. The range of horror and terror to be gathered under the umbrella of the horror concept gives insight into conventions of music theatre horror, particularly in combination with the diversity within the Gothic play genre, which includes operas, plays with music as well as melodramas. This then points to potential insights into genre-specific explorations of the varied facets of horror, which may close an essential research gap within the context of the “uncanny” or “horror” in music. Considering Gothic plays from a performative instead of a literary perspective likewise offers methodologically valuable approaches leading to a fuller understanding and analysis of popular music/theatre hybrid forms.

Das Projekt wird von der DFG (Modul: Eigene Stelle) mit einer Laufzeit von drei Jahren (Okt. 2023 bis Sept. 2026) gefördert.

Dr. Anna Ricke (Projektleitung)

Lorenz Münch (Studentische Hilfskraft)