Hans Christian Andersen and J.P.E. Hartmann’s opera Ravnen as a ‘melodramatisation’ of Carlo Gozzi’s Il Corvo

Hans Christian Andersen and J.P.E. Hartmann's opera, Ravnen (1832), which includes several 'melodrama-numbers' - i.e. numbers with spoken dialogue over a musical accompaniment - is analysed and considered in the context of the Danish reception of French and German melodrama traditions. It is argued that while the aesthetics of these two melodrama traditions were generally considered quite far apart, and while French melodramas were generally considered and aesthetically inferior genre, Andersen's and Hartmann's youthful work nevertheless freely mixed influences from both traditions, as well as from the dramaturgy of Italian opera.