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

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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 version (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

© 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. When the let, shows the higher level in Schiller, as mer lover, now betrayer—for the last King arrives to turn him over to the Plato’s dialogues supersede the methods time. In Schiller’s text, Mary tells Leices- Inquisition, suddenly a monk, dressed as of the such great artists as Aeschylus and ter that she has risen to the state of mind the Emperor, steps from the tomb. The Sophocles.” in which earthly inclinations no longer officers, fearing what they believe to be By ending the play as director Kahn tempt her; but, in the performance, the an apparition, free Carlo, who is then does, he effectively undermines the sub- director had Mary kiss Leicester at pre- led away by the monk. lime state of mind to which Don Carlos cisely this sublime moment.) Thus, even though he changes the has risen, by defeating the internal Even in Don Carlos, written early in ending of the original, Verdi’s conclu- enemy of his passion for Elizabeth, so his career, Schiller had already gone sion shows that he understands that he may devote himself to the libera- beyond Shakespeare in this sense, by Schiller’s intention. Don Carlo does not tion of Flanders from the Hapsburg emphasizing the principle of the sub- die at the hands of the Inquisition. He imperial system of his father Philip II. lime (Erhabene). If we look at the pro- lives in what LaRouche calls the simul- As early as April 14, 1783, soon after he tagonists of Shakespeare’s tragedies, taneity of eternity. Compare this ending began to think about writing Don Car- such as Hamlet, Lear, Othello, or Mac- to that of The Virgin of Orleans, where los, Schiller had written that Carlos “has beth, they are destroyed—and with Jeanne d’Arc’s final words are, “Brief is the soul of Shakespeare’s Hamlet . .. them, their states—because they refuse the pain, eternal the joy,” words which and the pulse of myself.” to rise above circumstance and their pas- Beethoven set to music in a canon. But Carlos is not a tragic figure like sions, to the level of reason. Their Ironically, even though Schiller is Hamlet. In contrast to Hamlet, who in destruction is as inevitable as a conclu- critical of the Marquis Posa, it is Posa’s his Act III “To be or not to be” solilo- sion deduced logically from a false- sublime self-sacrifice for Don Carlos quy, decides not to change his suicidal axiomatic assumption. and for the liberation of Flanders, which behavior for fear of the “undiscovered In the case of Schiller’s heroes, how- is instrumental in effecting the radical country,” Don Carlos, by the play’s con- ever, even if they are destroyed, they internal change in Don Carlos himself. clusion, has risen to the level of self-con- succeed in triumphing over death. In Schiller makes the same point in his scious cognition, embracing the “undis- his essay “On the Sublime,” Schiller poem “The Pledge” (“Die Bürgschaft”). covered country” in his intention to flee makes precisely this point about man. There, it is Damon’s willingness to sac- Spain to liberate the oppressed people of Man is not free, insofar as there is even rifice himself for his friend, which con- Flanders. The fact that King Philip one exception to his freedom, namely, quers the heart of the tyrant Dionysus. delivers him to the Inquisition is not death. By overcoming death through Similarly, in his Philosophical Letters, in ultimately tragic, but rather, sublime, in the submission of one’s own will to the the section entitled “Sacrifice,” the char- a way which anticipates Schiller’s treat- Divine Will, one demonstrates that acter Julius writes: “It is thinkable, that I ment of Jeanne d’Arc in The Virgin of man is not a mere animal, motivated by enlarge mine own happiness through a Orleans. self-preservation and the search for sacrifice, which I offer for the happiness This is why the ending of the perfor- pleasure and avoidance of pain. It is in of others—but also then, when this sac- mance is so wrong. In real life, Jeanne the face of death, that man demon- rifice is my life? And history has exam- d’Arc was burned at the stake. In his strates his true human nature, as char- ples of such sacrifice—and I feel it Virgin of Orleans, Schiller, as in Don Car- acterized by a super-sensuous, moral livelily, that it should cost me nothing, los, changes the literal history, to have independence. to die for Raphael’s deliverance. . . . It is Jeanne die on the battlefield in defense indeed ennobling to the human soul, to of the nation of France, which only Truth in Verdi sacrifice the present advantage for the came into existence decades later under In this light, it is useful to contrast the eternal.” Louis XI, as a result of her decisive, ear- ending of Verdi’s opera Don Carlo, to lier leadership. However, it is as incon- the play. There are many changes which The Shakespeare Theatre ceivable that Schiller’s Don Carlos Verdi introduces to the Schiller original, The best individual performances of the would have responded to the Inquisition including emphatically the conclusion. Shakespeare Theatre production were in the way Kahn portrays, as that Jeanne In the play, after King Philip has the those of King Philip, played by Ted van d’Arc would have. Marquis Posa assassinated, Carlos dis- Griethuysen, the Grand Inquisitor by (A number of years ago, I saw a per- guises himself as a monk, in order to Emery Battis, the Duke of Alba by formance of Schiller’s Mary Stuart in make his way to Elizabeth’s chamber Ralph Cosham, Domingo by Floyd Hannover, Germany, where a similar past the guards, who superstitiously King, Count of Lerma by Edward Gero, mistake was made by the director. In believe that the ghost of his grandfather, and Elizabeth by Enid Graham. that play, just before she is taken away the Emperor Charles V, walks the corri- In Schiller’s play, the Queen is the to be beheaded, Mary Stuart, who like dors in monk’s attire. most beautiful soul. She is as much a

76 revolutionary as Posa, and as Carlos eventually becomes, but she suffers neither from Carlos’s crippling passion, nor from Posa’s tragic delusion about the King. One’s heart reaches out to her, in that she has what Schiller describes as both grace and dignity, under conditions in which she is a virtual prisoner in the Spanish Court. In the scene between Princess Eboli and Don Carlos, Eboli, played by Eliza- beth Long, did not convey sufficient emotional depth, in her discovery that Don Carlos still loved Elizabeth and not her, to justify her subsequent betrayal of the Queen and submission to the King’s wishes. The Marquis Posa, played by Andrew Long, is a character with whom Schiller came increasingly to Margot Ingoldsby Schulman, The Washington Opera identify in the process of writing the Dwayne Croft as Rodrigo (Marquis Posa) (right) and Paata Burchuladze as King Philip, play. Contrary to those who falsely por- in the Washington Opera production of “Don Carlo.” tray Schiller as reflecting the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the French quis to kneel and kiss the hand of the when it were better translated, “Give to Revolution, his ideas were actually those King. This is the punctum saliens of the us the liberty of thought.” of the American Revolution. In fact, it play. Posa begins the scene by saying that has been suggested that the positive he would not be the servant of a King; The Washington Opera model for Posa was the Marquis de and yet, in the course of the scene, in The production of Don Carlo by the Lafayette, who fought in the American which he attempts to win over the King Washington Opera continues the com- Revolution in 1776, and in 1784 made a to his ideas of freedom, he instead is won pany’s celebration of the Verdi Cente- trip to America which made a great over to the delusion that he can bring his nary. The performance was excellently impression in Europe at the time ideals to fruition by working through the directed by Sonja Frisell, and the Schiller began to compose the drama. King, by becoming his servant, despite orchestra and opera chorus beautifully But, on the other hand, Schiller was the King’s rebuff of those very ideals. conducted by Sir Edward Downes. harshly critical of the Marquis in his Kneeling and kissing the King’s hand, as Verdi began working on the opera in “Letters on Don Carlos,” criticizing him called for by Schiller, would have helped 1866, shortly after the successful conclu- for arrogating to himself a “despotic to underscore Posa’s failure at this criti- sion of the American Civil War. It was arbitrariness in respect to his friend” and cal juncture in the play. premiered in Paris on March 11, 1867. for taking “refuge in intrigue.” Speak- Otherwise, the production’s period The original version included five acts, ing of the Marquis, Schiller wrote: “I costumes were welcome indeed, at a but was later cut to four by Verdi in 1883. selected . . . an entirely well-wishing time when so many performances The act which was excised from the character, entirely exalted over every attempt to appear “relevant” by propiti- original was the first, set in the forest of self-serving desire, I gave him the high- ating today’s New Age zeitgeist. The Fontainebleau in France. This act, est respect for another’s rights, I even scenery was very effective, particularly which is still often performed, is espe- gave him the creation of a universal in conveying the Byzantine nature of the cially important in setting the stage for enjoyment of freedom as his aim, and I Spanish court. the entire opera, and the decision not to believe myself to be in no contradiction Although I have not been able to include it in this performance, did with universal experience, if I cause study Robert David MacDonald’s trans- weaken the audience’s comprehension him, even on the way thither, to stray lation, the play’s most famous line was, of the character of Don Carlo and of the into despotism.” unfortunately, translated poorly. In the circumstances of Elisabetta’s marriage to In the performance, the paradoxical well-known Act III dialogue between King Philip. Although this scene does nature of Posa’s character needed to be the Marquis Posa and King Philip, Mac- not appear in Schiller’s play, it nonethe- brought out more clearly. One missed Donald renders Schiller’s stirring call in less gives the audience an introductory opportunity to achieve that was at the the mouth of Posa to the King—“Geben glimpse of the earlier love shared by end of Act III, Scene 10. The stage direc- Sie uns Gedankenfreiheit”—as the Don Carlo and Elisabetta. Don Carlo in tions given by Schiller call for the Mar- reduced “Give us the right to think,” this scene is portrayed as a “future great

77 man.” We also see Elisabetta’s nobility must be a truthful representation of the historical detail in his drama, or that and voluntary self-sacrifice for the cause idea underlying the sensory experiences Verdi reworked Schiller’s play for the of peace, out of love for the people of of the panorama, but, the panorama and opera, in no way detracts from the his- France, who have suffered the ravages the stage are different media, differing to torical and poetical truthfulness of both of war between France and Spain. that effect, that, to present the idea of cer- presentations, which is to be found in Otherwise, the performance was tain events on a vast area and lapse of the idea. Both the play and the opera magnificent. Paata Burchuladze, as King time, compactly on the stage, the composer correspond to the essence of the histori- Philip, was excellent in conveying this must, as Schiller did with the figure of cal reality referenced. Moreover, both complex character. Daniel Sumegi, as the Posa in Don Carlos, create on stage the performances, employing different Grand Inquisitor, was blood-curdling. idea which may not correspond exactly, in media, call upon their audience to act Elizabeth Bishop, as Princess Eboli, was every detail introduced, to the actual his- today to bring about the liberation of excellent in conveying the character, tory, but corresponds, with historical mankind—a liberation not achieved by although the “veil song” in Act One, Part truthfulness, to the essence of the histori- Don Carlos, Posa, or Elizabeth. II, was not as energetic as one would cal reality referenced. The truth remains As Schiller writes in “On the Pathetic”: have liked. Veronica Villarroel played the same in both cases, but the media “Poetry can become to man, what love is Elisabetta beautifully, with tremendous upon which the truth is staged, differ. to the hero. It can neither advise him, nor nobility throughout. The only criticism I There is no excuse, for writing tragedy as strike for him nor otherwise do work for have is that, at times, early in the perfor- fiction, nor for interpreting Classical him; but it can educate him as a hero, it mance, her voice was drowned out by the tragedy as the writing of fiction. Thus, no can summon him to deeds and to all that orchestra. Miguel Olano, who substituted great tragedian would ever compose a he should be, equip him with strength.” for Ramon Vargas owing to illness, and work in response to some arbitrary choice Having viewed these performances, who had performed in the opera Turando of subject-matter; he would always we are moved to complete the republican the night before, gave an admirable per- choose a subject whose treatment was revolution of which the Marquis Posa, formance as Don Carlo, as did Dwayne faithful to real history, and would choose Don Carlos, and Elizabeth dreamed. We Croft as Rodrigo. only subjects for which he had first dis- are moved to emulate Elizabeth’s grace covered a truthful representation of the and dignity, to fight for Posa’s republi- Artistic Composition and History real-life tragedy, a truth demonstrable on can ideal, while avoiding his recourse to Since Verdi clearly altered the Schiller stage, by the means available to him.” intrigue and despotism, and to imitate text in composing his opera, and since Thus, the fact that Schiller altered Don Carlos in overcoming our own pas- Schiller himself altered sions—even if, as in his case, it involves historical detail in writing an injustice perpetrated against us—and the original drama, it is to rise to the level of cognition, before useful to reflect on the humanity as a whole is plunged into a relationship between an new Dark Age, much like that which artistic composition and the Spain of Philip II visited upon historical detail. The fact is Europe in the Sixteenth century. that a work of art is never As Heinrich Heine wrote in his essay an historical documentary; attacking the Romantic School: “Schiller nonetheless, it must always wrote for the great ideas of the Revolu- be truthful. As Schiller tion; he destroyed the Bastilles of the writes in his essay, “On the intellectual and spiritual world; he Pathetic,” “It is the poetic, helped to build the temple of liberty, not the historical truth, that very great temple which is to upon which all aesthetical embrace all nations like a single com- effect is grounded. The munity of brothers; he was a cosmopoli- poetic truth does not exist tan . .. . Schiller threw himself heart therein, that something and soul into history, became enthusias- has actually occurred, but tic about the social progress of mankind, rather therein, that it could and wrote about world history.” Con- occur, therefore in the trasting Schiller’s works to those of inner possibility of the Goethe, Heine writes, “Goethe’s works matter.” do not beget deeds as do Schiller’s.” In his aforementioned Ultimately, it is the inspiration to action essay, Lyndon LaRouche for the betterment of mankind, which elaborates on this point as constitutes the truly noble aim and pur- follows: “The idea present- Margot Ingoldsby Schulman, The Washington Opera pose of Classical dramatic art. ed on the Classical stage, Elizabeth Bishop as the Opera’s Princess Eboli. —William F. Wertz, Jr.