DRAMA Schiller’S Don Carlos: the Concept of the Sublime Opera and Theater Productions Grace Washington, D.C

Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 10, Number 2, Summer 2001 DRAMA Schiller’s Don Carlos: The Concept of the Sublime Opera and Theater Productions Grace Washington, D.C. hether it was intended as such or Wnot, the unprecedented, nearly simultaneous performances of Friedrich Schiller’s “dramatic poem,” Don Carlos, both in an English-language Washing- ton premiere at the Shakespeare The- atre, and in Verdi’s Italian operatic ver- sion (Don Carlo) at the Kennedy Center, represented a significant political-cul- tural intervention in the nation’s capital during the first weeks of the incoming Bush Administration. Certainly the ref- erences to auto da fé (burning of heretics) in the play, and the actual scene in the opera, as well as the horror of the Grand Inquisitor, brought to mind the current Administration’s commitment to the death penalty, and the dangers inherent in its right-wing, so-called Christian Carol Rosegg Fundamentalist popular base, as reflect- Robert Sella as Don Carlos and Enid Graham as his stepmother Queen Elizabeth, in the ed in the Bush Administration’s Faith- Shakespeare Theatre production of Friedrich Schiller’s “Don Carlos.” Based Initiative and its Attorney Gener- al John Ashcroft. In addition, the two it was a joy to see this play performed in the sale of Hessian mercenaries to the performances provided a unique oppor- the United States, and I would hope that British during the American Revolu- tunity to see the same poetic ideas devel- director Michael Kahn and the Shake- tion—Schiller’s passion is for republican oped in two different, but related, speare Theatre, which also performed freedom, as against an oligarchical media: drama and opera. Schiller’s Mary Stuart ten years ago, will imperial system. This conflict, and his The impact of the performances was perform other Schiller plays, and help political commitment to republicanism, further enhanced by the wonderful spark a renaissance of Schiller—whose is clear in all of his aesthetical, as well as “Don Carlo(s) Alive!” project of the works were much more widely known historical writings. For example, in his education departments of the Shake- in the period of the Lincoln Presiden- lecture, “The Legislation of Lycurgus speare Theatre and the Washington cy—in the United States. and Solon,” Schiller counterposes the Opera, which brought students and Although Schiller developed as an slavocracy of Sparta under Lycurgus, teachers from nine public, independent, artist on the shoulders of Shakespeare, where the individual is merely an and parochial schools in Washington, he had the advantage of living during instrument of the state, to the freedom D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, to the successful American Revolution of Athens under Solon, where the state explore these two works over the course against the British Empire. Don Carlos is only justified if it serves the develop- of three months [SEE accompanying was begun in 1783 and completed in ment of the people. articles, page 79]. The educational 1787, eleven years after the Declaration intent of the effort was also reflected in of Independence, four years after the Don Carlos, A Republican Prince the extensive background notes provid- War of Independence was finally won, As Schiller makes clear in his “Letters on ed in the program “Asides,” and in the and only two years before the adoption Don Carlos,” the play is not primarily Stagebill. of the U.S. Constitution and the abortive about friendship or about love, as some As president of the U.S. Schiller Insti- French Revolution. comments in the Shakespeare Theatre’s tute, and the editor and primary transla- As can be seen in Don Carlos, in his program notes tend to suggest. As tor of three volumes of Schiller’s “Romantic Tragedy” The Virgin of Schiller writes: “And what were thus the works—including Don Carlos, “Letters Orleans, and in his drama Wilhelm so-called unity of the play, if it should not on Don Carlos,” and much of his poetry Tell—as well as in his early play Intrigue be love, and could never be friendship? and aesthetical writings—I must say that and Love, where he takes a stand against From the former proceed the three first 74 © 2001 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. acts, from the latter the two remaining, of Don Carlos is not fully realized. dinal! I’ve done the part that’s but neither occupies the whole. Friend- From the very beginning, Carlos’s pas- mine, / Perform the part that’s yours.” ship sacrifices itself, and love is sacrificed, sion must not obscure his potential to He exits, and the play concludes. but it is neither the latter nor the former, rise above that passion, to become such a Kahn, however, ends the drama in a which is made a sacrifice by the other. republican prince. As Schiller writes, sensational manner, which undermines Thus must still some third be at hand, “The future great man should slumber the sublime state of mind to which Car- that is different from friendship and love, in him.” Robert Sella, who played Car- los has finally risen. In the performance, for which both have worked and to los, did not sufficiently maintain this when the King exits, Carlos is surround- which both have been sacrificed—and if tension in the character. At the end of ed and apprehended by agents of the the play hath a unity, where else could it the play, Carlos says to Elizabeth: “A Grand Inquisitor. He is confronted with lie than in this third?” purer fire hath purified my being. All a life-size crucifix, and light effects are Schiller then goes on to write that my passion dwells within the graves employed to suggest that he will suffer the favorite subject of discussion in the o’th’ dead. No mortal appetites divide the fate of auto da fé—being burned at decade prior to his writing Don Carlos this bosom more. O Mother, finally the stake. In the face of the horror of the was “about spreading a purer, gentler I see, there is a higher good, more to be Inquisition, Don Carlos lets out a terri- humanity, about the highest possible wished for than possessing thee.” At this fying cry. freedom of the individual within the point in the performance, when Don In a recent article entitled “A Philos- state’s highest blossom.” He continues Carlos overcomes his passion, the transi- ophy for Victory: Can We Change the that, when he became acquainted with tion is almost out of character, for lack Universe?,”* Lyndon LaRouche makes the Prince of Spain, he determined to of adequate foreshadowing in the pre- the following observation: make him the dramatic instrument for ceding action. “Schiller’s greatest achievement, realizing this dream. “Everything I This is compounded by the way beyond what Shakespeare accomplished found, as through a ministering spirit, director Kahn chooses to end the play. at his best, lies in Schiller’s degree of thereby played into my hands; sense of In Schiller’s text, when they are discov- emphasis upon the principle of the sub- freedom in struggle with despotism, the ered together, the Queen collapses in a lime. This distinction is shown most effi- fetters of stupidity broken asunder, swoon, and Carlos rushes to her and ciently in his treatment of Jeanne d’Arc. thousand-year-long prejudices shaken, takes her in his arms. The King then Classical tragedy tends too often, to show a nation which reclaims its human says to the Grand Inquisitor: “Now Car- how a society destroys itself, often by rights, republican virtues brought into the deep-going moral practice, brighter ideas into circulation, defects of those it has the minds in ferment, the hearts elevat- chosen to place in posi- ed by an inspired interest—and now, to tions of great authority, complete the happy constellation, a as we might be worried beautifully organized young soul at the about the newly inaugu- throne, come forth under oppression rated President George and suffering in solitary unhindered Bush, today. That is bloom.” useful, and uplifting for Thus, the drama, as Schiller writes, the audience which rec- treats of an “enthusiastic design, to bring ognizes the possibility of forth the happiest condition, which is a willful choice of alter- achievable to human society, and of this native to tragedy. How- enthusiastic design, how it appears in ever, it were better to conflict with the passion” of Don Carlos affirm the alternative, for his stepmother, the youthful Queen which, as in the real-life Elizabeth. But for Schiller, Don Carlos case of the Jeanne d’Arc “had to pass through the fire of a fearful treated by Schiller, test and prove himself in this fire. Then locates the higher mean- only, if we have seen him wrestle suc- ing of life and purpose cessfully with an internal enemy, can we of action, as in promise him victory over the external Beethoven’s Opus 132 hindrances, which are thrown against string quartet, in the him upon the bold reformer’s path.” sublime.” Schiller’s ‘Sublime’ __________ My major criticism of the performance Carol Rosegg * Executive Intlligence of the play, as well as of some comments Carlos appeals to his father Philip II, played by the Review, March 2, 2001 in the program notes, is that this concept Shakespeare Theatre’s Ted van Griethuysen. (Vol. 28, No. 9). 75 LaRouche writes further: “The com- Don Carlos has overcome her youthful In the opera, Verdi has Don Carlo parison of Schiller’s treatment of Jeanne passions to rise to the level of cognition, rush to the tomb of Charles V in a d’Arc to Shakespeare’s tragedy of Ham- confronts the Earl of Leicester—her for- monastery to meet Elisabetta.

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