This dissertation discusses an opera of the contemporary Austrian-American composer Dr. Nancy Van de Vate, a little known adaption of Erich Maria Remarque's novel “Im Westen nichts Neues” (published in English under the title “All Quiet on the Western Front”). The production which premiered in Osnabrück, Germany in September 2003 was well received by the national press. However, this opera which is undoubtedly an important piece of contemporary work setting literature to music, hasn't yet attained the recognition it deserves either from critics or from (musical) academia. The present study applies an intermedial approach to the textual, dramatical, theatrical and musical aspects of this work while at the same time illustrating the process of crossing from the written medium, in this case a novel, to composition in the operatic medium. It addresses the adaption of Remarque's novel to opera from the point of view of literature and cultural art. It does not concentrate entirely on musical aspects or the score, but presents the observation that this operatic composition is a multimedia and intermedia phenomenon based on a text subsequently designed for a performance on stage. weiterlesen