Gesamtkunstwerk

Wagner's concept of the 'total artwork' — a synthesis of music, poetry, drama, visual art, and dance into a unified aesthetic experience, contrasted with the fragmented state of the arts.

Against the division of the arts: Wagner argued that Greek tragedy was the original total artwork — an integrated unity. The modern arts had fragmented into separate, specialized disciplines. Opera as the form for synthesis: music, text (libretto), stage design, acting, and gesture could be fused into a single overwhelming aesthetic experience. Leitmotif as connective tissue: musical themes associated with characters, objects, and ideas woven through the work. Realized at Bayreuth. Influenced Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Modernist aesthetics, and later multimedia art.