Institute of German Studies

... gleicher Hand: Neuuen∫tadt. Weitere Provenienzhinweise sind in der Handschrift nicht vorhanden. Diesen Einträgen nach kam die Hs. 1542, also 62 Jahre nach ihrer Entstehung, aus dem Besitz des Kanonikers Johannes Hedersdorffer in den Besitz der Benediktinerabtei ...

Only a few legendary personalities awaked so much curiosity and atten-tion as the king-knight Arthur. The Arthurian legends started to spread in Europe with the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regnum Britanniae, 1136-1138). Therefore it is very surprizing that we find two decades earlier a scuptural image of Arthur in the arch of the North Gate (Porta della Pescheria) of the Cathedral of Modena, which can be dated to the first decade of the XIIth century, and somewhat later a mosaic with similar theme in the Cathedral of Ortanto. The present paper inquires various historical facts, including family relations of Countess Mathilde of Canossa in an attempt at establishing the circum-stances which brought and spreaded the fame of the king-knight to Modena and Otranto. The richness of the family relations of Countess Mathide of Canossa and of the sovereigns of Sicily could provide a key for understanding how could the “flux of information” from (Great) Britain reach Modena and South Italy (Otranto).

Only a few legendary personalities awaked so much curiosity and atten-tion as the king-knight Arthur. The Arthurian legends started to spread in Europe with the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regnum Britanniae, 1136-1138). Therefore it is very surprizing that we find two decades earlier a scuptural image of Arthur in the arch of the North Gate (Porta della Pescheria) of the Cathedral of Modena, which can be dated to the first decade of the XIIth century, and somewhat later a mosaic with similar theme in the Cathedral of Ortanto. The present paper inquires various historical facts, including family relations of Countess Mathilde of Canossa in an attempt at establishing the circum-stances which brought and spreaded the fame of the king-knight to Modena and Otranto. The richness of the family relations of Countess Mathide of Canossa and of the sovereigns of Sicily could provide a key for understanding how could the “flux of information” from (Great) Britain reach Modena and South Italy (Otranto).

German and Italian
Giuseppe Verdi has taken four dramas of Schiller (Die Jungfrau von
Orleans, 1801; Die Räuber, 1781; Kabale und Liebe, 1784; Don Karlos,
1787) as models for librettos of his operas (Giovanna d’Arco, 1845; I
masnadieri, 1847; Luisa Miller, 1849; Don Carlos, 1867). The oeuvre of
Schiller is characterized by a strong desire for liberty, which is expressed
also in his dramas in various forms. In Die Räuber one finds the
representation of the desire for the personal liberty, while in Kabale und
Liebe the questions of the right of love is unfied with a criticism of the
absolutism. In Don Karlos one finds again a criticism towards
absolutism, associated with the desire of the freedom of thought,
exemplified by the situation of national liberty in Fianders. Finally, in
Die Jungfrau von Orleans the ideas of national liberty became dominant.
The conceptual differences of theatre plays and operas require a more
simple construction of the librettos of the latter. Consequently, it is
interesting to observe which concepts of liberty of Schiller have been
taken over by Verdi, which were modified or even omitted.

The theme of this contribution is founded on literary and musical considerations about the idea of freedom analysed in my previous research. As a matter of fact, I dealt with this theme in 2013 in the Academy of Modena, by analysing and comparing Friedrich Schiller and Giuseppe Verdi's works. In this occasion I am going to deal with the drama Wilhelm Tell (1804) by Friedrich Schiller and the opera Guglielmo Tell (1829) by Gioacchino Rossini. They are their last theatre works, where they simultaneously reached the peak of their artistic path. At the end, we could say that both the authors firmly supported the idea of freedom, despite there are 25 years between the two works. In that time span, the idea of freedom suffered an important historical and political change which clearly emerges by comparing the two artistic products. For this reason, it is engaging to observe the sensitive way by which the two artistic geniuses represented their respective historical and political situations in their masterpieces.

The theme of this contribution is founded on literary and musical considerations about the idea of freedom analysed in my previous research. As a matter of fact, I dealt with this theme in 2013 in the Academy of Modena, by analysing and comparing Friedrich Schiller and Giuseppe Verdi's works. In this occasion I am going to deal with the drama Wilhelm Tell (1804) by Friedrich Schiller and the opera Guglielmo Tell (1829) by Gioacchino Rossini. They are their last theatre works, where they simultaneously reached the peak of their artistic path. At the end, we could say that both the authors firmly supported the idea of freedom, despite there are 25 years between the two works. In that time span, the idea of freedom suffered an important historical and political change which clearly emerges by comparing the two artistic products. For this reason, it is engaging to observe the sensitive way by which the two artistic geniuses represented their respective historical and political situations in their masterpieces.