Romeo and Juliet (fabric)
Romeo and Juliet are one of the most famous (unhappy) lovers in cultural history.
precursor
The story of Hero and Leander from Greek mythology is usually mentioned as the first model . The Roman poet Ovid based his verse tale Pyramus and Thisbe (around 1 AD) on it.
Since the 12th century the subject has begun to attract interest again: the medieval story Tristan und Isolde, which exists in many versions, or the Roman de Cligès by Chrétien de Troyes deal with unhappy lovers who die in quick succession. In the 14th and 15th centuries there are numerous variants, such as by Giovanni Boccaccio ( Decamerone IV, 10 and X, 4) or the Spanish tragedy La Celestina (1499) by Fernando de Rojas , where the unhappy love of Calixto and Melibea is told becomes.
founder
The first novella in which the lovers are called Giulietta and Romeo and lives in Verona is by Luigi da Porto ( Hystoria novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti , 1524). He was already based on a similar story by Masuccio Salernitano from 1476 ( Il novellino , XXXIII).
The version by Matteo Bandello ( La sfortunata morte di dui infelicissimi amanti , 1554) became better known . The French adaptation by Pierre Boaistuau ( De deux amans, dont l'un mourut de venin, l'autre de tristesse , 1559), which in turn served as a model for Arthur Brooke ( The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet , 1562) and Translated by William Painter ( The goodly History of the true, and costant Love between Rhomeo and Iulietta , 1567).
William Shakespeare relied on Brooke and Bandello with his drama An Excellent Conceited Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet , published in 1595 and premiered in 1597 . This version is the best known to this day. Another theatrical version that is apparently not based on Shakespeare, but on his sources, is Lope de Vegas Castelvines y Monteses , 1606–1612.
Fabric elements
Depending on the version, the Romeo and Juliet fabric contains different elements. The unhappy love that ends with the couple's death is common to most versions. Likewise, that love does not remain unfulfilled, but leads to a sexual relationship that is inappropriate in the eyes of the social environment. In the assessment of love by the authors and the public, however, a change takes place after 1600.
Before that, the lovers are deceived cheaters who are punished fairly in all eyes, especially in Fernando de Rojas variant. This makes the material one of the vanitas depictions that warn of the consequences of greed. Tristan and Isolde, as nobles, are “appropriately” guilty because they have been rendered willless by a magic potion, and can thus become tragic characters - while de Roja's characters remain “low” comedy heroes who have succumbed to their passions (see class clause ).
In Shakespeare's portrayal, on the other hand, there is already sympathy for the couple, although he maintains the framework of the deceived cheat. Shakespeare exposes the hostility of families as a reprehensible situation that is avenged by the death of the children. In this respect, his variant of the material is also a traditional depiction of vanitas. By psychologizing the main characters, however, they gain additional sympathy.
In the period that followed, especially since the 18th century, the public has increasingly been on the side of the couple who are directed against social norms, just as one is on the side of the rascal in modern picaresque novels. Even suicide is increasingly made plausible as a legitimate decision and the class clause is overcome by allowing the lower couple a tragic experience (as in Gottfried Keller). In this way, the fabric helped shape the concept of romantic love.
Adaptations
Since the Shakespeare renaissance in the second half of the 18th century, the material has been worked on frequently. From then on, the adaptations are mostly based on his famous drama. In many versions ( melodramatic ) music has an important meaning. The love death motif has its own tradition , which developed primarily on the opera stage.
drama
- Christian Felix Weisse (1768): Romeo and Julie
- Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter (1776): Romeo and Juliet
- Ephraim Kishon (1974): It was the lark
Narrative and novel
- Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1649): Desperate Love (example narration)
- Gottfried Keller (1856): Romeo and Juliet in the village (novella)
radio play
- Ines Eck (1995): Romeo and Juliet between animals (text landscape)
Opera and musical
- Georg Anton Benda (1776): Romeo and Julie
- Daniel Steibelt (1793): Roméo et Juliette
- Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (1796): Giulietta e Romeo
- Nicola Vaccai (1825): Giulietta e Romeo
- Vincenzo Bellini : I Capuleti ei Montecchi (1830)
- Melesio Morales : Romeo y Julieta (1863)
- Charles François Gounod (1867): Roméo et Juliette
- Frederick Delius (1901): A Village Romeo and Juliet (after Gottfried Keller )
- Riccardo Zandonai (1922): Giulietta e Romeo
- Heinrich Sutermeister (1940): Romeo and Juliet
- Boris Blacher (1947): Romeo and Juliet
- Leonard Bernstein (1957): West Side Story
- Rudolf Kelterborn (1991): Julia
- Gérard Presgurvic (2001): Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour
- Lee Hoiby (2004): Romeo and Juliet
- Riccardo Crocciante (2007): Giulietta e Romeo
ballet
- Sergei Prokofiev (1935): Romeo and Juliet
Choreographies
- Ivo Vania Psota (1938): Romeo a Julie
- Leonid Michailowitsch Lavrowski (1940): Romeo i Dschuljetta
- John Cranko (1962): Romeo and Juliet
- Kenneth MacMillan (1965): Romeo and Juliet
- Maurice Béjart (1966): Roméo et Juliette
- John Neumeier (1974): Romeo and Juliet
- Marguerite Donlon (2006): Romeo and Juliet
Concert music
- Symphony by Hector Berlioz (1839): Roméo et Juliette
- Overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1870): Romeo and Juliet
- Dire Straits (1981) track and single record : Romeo And Juliet
Movie
- Clément Maurice (1900): Roméo et Juliette
- Georges Méliès (1902): Roméo et Juliette , burlesque
- Mario Caserini (1908): Giulietta e Romeo , burlesque
- J. Stuart Blackton (1908): Romeo and Juliet
- Ugo Falena (1912): Romeo and Juliet
- Ernst Lubitsch , (1920): Romeo and Juliet in the snow
- George Cukor (1936): Romeo and Juliet
- Kamal Selim (1942): Shuhaddaa el gharam , Egyptian
- Miguel M. Delgado (1943): Romeo y Julieta , Mexican
- Akhtar Hussein (1947): Anjuman , Indian
- Renato Castellani (1954): Romeo and Juliet
- Jiři Weiss (1960): Romeo, Juliet a tma
- Riccardo Freda (1964): Giulietta e Romeo
- Paul Czinner (1966): Romeo and Juliet , ballet with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nurejew
- Val Drumm, Paul Lee (1965): Romeo and Juliet , British TV film with Angela Scoular
- Franco Zeffirelli (1968): Romeo and Juliet
- Alvin Rakoff (1978): Romeo & Juliet
- William Woodman (1982): The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
- John Zaritsky (1993): Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo , documentary
- Baz Luhrmann (1996): William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
- Lloyd Kaufman (1996): Tromeo and Juliet
- John Madden (1998): Shakespeare in Love , fictional genesis of the drama
- Colin Cox (2000): Romeo and Juliet
- Andrzej Bartkowiak (2000): Romeo Must Die
- Barbara Willis Seete (2002): Roméo et Juliette , based on Gounod's opera
- N. Barry Carver (2002): Romeo & Juliet revisited
- Bruno Barreto (2005): O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta , Brazilian
- Fumitoshi Oizaki (2007): Romeo × Juliet , 24-part animation series (Japanese), free retelling
- Gnomeo and Julia (2010): Animated film with garden gnomes in the lead roles
- Carlo Carlei (2013): Romeo and Juliet
literature
- Rudolf Fischer: Sources on Romeo and Juliet, Marcus & Weber, Bonn 1922.
- Elisabeth Frenzel : The secret love affair. In: Dies .: Motives of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 301). Kröner, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-520-30101-6 , pp. 453-467.