Schiller’s List
Adrian Mourby looks at the long line of history operas inspired by the works of the German romantic poet Friedrich Schiller and finds Hollywood is still inspired by Schiller’s style.
Friedrich Schiller’s impact spread through many Western art forms. Like Hugo, Goethe and Pushkin he is not only remembered for what he wrote, but also for what he inspired, most notably the films and operas that grew out of his dramas. Rossini’s William Tell, Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans and a total of four Verdi operas (I Masnadieri, based on Die Rauber; Luisa Miller, based on Kabale und Liebe; Giovanna D’Arco, based on Die Jungfrau von Orleans; and Don Carlos) were all drawn from Schiller originals.
Pushkin may have had more influence in Russia, Goethe and Hugo may have inspired more operas that were wholly fictional in subject matter, but no-one comes close to Schiller’s role as godfather to the history opera.
The emergence of this peculiarly nineteenth-century art form probably owes its genesis to the times in which Schiller lived. Born under the Ancien regime, and yet not dying until Napoleon had appropriated nationalism and killed off the Holy Roman Empire, the German poet-dramatist had seen history re-awaken and prove to the world that it was an ongoing process of immediate and lasting importance.
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