gesamtkunstwerk means total artwork; an artistic creation such as an operatic performance that encompasses music, theatre and the visual arts. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
gesamtkunstwerk is pronounced /ɡəˈsɑmtkʊnstˌvɚk/.
Why “gesamtkunstwerk” is a great word
GESAMTKUNSTWERK — [Noun] An ideal total work of art that synthesizes multiple artistic disciplines, such as music, drama, poetry, and visual design, into a unified and immersive whole. From German Gesamtkunstwerk, from gesamt ("total, entire") + Kunst ("art") + Werk ("work, creation"); the term was given definitive currency by the composer Richard Wagner in the 19th century. Unlike "synthesis," which denotes a general process of combination, or "opera," which specifies a musical-theatrical form, Gesamtkunstwerk is the aspirational concept of a creation where no single art is subordinate, but all are fused in service of a sublime totality. It is the architectural acoustics of a theater designed to vanish the orchestra, the leitmotif in the score inseparably entwined with a character's fate, and the scent of stage-smoke blending with the orchestral swell to forge a single, overwhelming reality—a fleeting, manufactured proof that the fractured senses can, for an evening, be made whole again.
noun
- Total artwork; an artistic creation such as an operatic performance that encompasses music, theatre and the visual arts.“Andre Emmerich, Mr. Hockney's longtime New York dealer, said: "There's a nice German word, gesamtkunstwerk. It means the entirety is a work of art."”