ADAPTING SCHILLER'S DON KARLOS: VERDI, POSA, AND THE PROBLEM OF THE ‘FAMILIENGEMÄLDE’

Abstract

AbstractThis paper begins by re‐opening the discussion of the influence of Diderot's dramaturgical theory on Friedrich Schiller's Don Karlos. I consider Marquis von Posa's function as a structural device outside the play's narrative present, as much as his role as a character within the narrative. I argue that Schiller's move from the domestic to the political does not constitute an abandonment of Diderot's theory, but rather its reformulation, with Posa as the new, shared situation against which other characters reveal their conditions. Giuseppe Verdi and the librettists Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle were required to mirror Schiller's change in narrative focus, but by adding their ‘Fontainebleau’ and ‘Auto‐da‐Fé’ scenes, they foreshadow, and thus prepare for, the change, thereby avoiding the need to rely on the morally ambiguous Posa. Diderot's theory is reflected in the opera through Verdi's adherence to nineteenth‐century voice‐character norms, coupled with the use of real‐world character parallels, allowing those on stage to represent an état dans la société. The importance of Schiller's extra‐temporal Posa is emphasised by Verdi's writing ‘old‐fashioned’ melodic material for him, but having it played on the newly developed and futuristic cornet à pistons, a recent innovation in nineteenth‐century brass instrument manufacture, with which, musically, Posa is closely associated.