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WoO 180 – “Hofmann, Hofmann”, Canon
Ricognizione ByGraziano Denini.
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Articles – Beethoven and Schiller’s Fiesco
Beethoven and Schiller’s “Fiesco”: A Chronicle of a Missed Encounter
Article by Armando ORLANDI Published in the A.B.F. (Association Beethoven France) magazine “Beethoven, sa vie, son oeuvre”, number 10 – 2008, pages 25 – 29.
| 13a Es soll das Buch Fiesco besteh[en], das vare ein würdiger Gegenstand Ihrer Bearbeitung. Wanda ist nichts Allein Fiesco ist schon klassisch ………………………………………… |
13a There must be a text about Fiesco, which would be a subject to be set to music by you. Wanda is nothing. Only, Fiesco is already a classic. ………………………………………… |
| 13b Sie schreiben nicht fur uns allein, sondern fur die ganze Welt Crescentini hat es gesung[en], ware nicht neu. ………………………………………… |
13b You do not write only for us, but for the whole world. Crescentini has sung it; it would not be new. ………………………………………… |
| 14a Schindler und Beethoven. Diese 2 Namen sind wûrdig bey ein ander zu stehen. Ich seibst singe einen Part im Fiesco von Ihnen geschrieben. ………………………………………… |
14a Schindler and Beethoven. Questi 2 nomi sono degni di stare al fianco. Io stesso canterei una parte nel Fiesco composto da Lei. ………………………………………… |
| 14b Schindler: vorausgesetzt, daß es gut gesetzt wird. Sie kennen meine Frau. Ich bin zur guten Stunde weg, sonst hätten sie mich eingesperrt. ………………………………………… |
14b Schindler: Provided that it is well adapted. You know my wife. I manage to leave just in time, before they lock me in. ………………………………………… |
| 15a Schindler: Der unter Theil der Federn ist gar nicht zu brauchen. geben Sie mir doch die Briefe an die Gesandten. der Brud[er] will so nicht mitgehen. Andere Schrift: Ich bin (…………….) Sie (…………..) |
15a Schindler: The lower part of the quills is completely unusable. Give me the letters for the ambassadors as well. So the broth(er) does not wish to come together. Another hand: I am (…………….) You (…………..) |
| 15b Neffe Karl: Krauge Kroi Bernard: Fiesco ist von Hofmann bearbeitet und verworfen worden, weil es nicht gut war. Forti wollte den Fiesco geben. Man hat von Lembert eine Oper fur Sie bestimt gehabt; vielleicht ist es die, welche jetzt ihr Bruder hat. |
15b Nephew Karl: Krauge Kroi Bernard: Fiesco was worked out by Hofmann and was rejected because it was unsuitable. Forti would like to sing in the Fiesco. An opera must have been given to you by Lembert; perhaps it is the one that your brother now has. |
| 16a Von wem ist sie denn ? Er ist imer in einer Art von Angst, als ob Ihre arbeiten liegen bleiben könnten. Er will ökonomisiren. Ich glaube das der Hofrath von Melnik diese Woche ankomen wird. Scbreibproben: Ich glaube Ich daß der Hof Ich ………………………………………… |
16a Whose is it? He lives constantly in a kind of anxiety, as though his works might be ignored. He wishes to economize. I believe that the Court Councillor will arrive from Melnik this week. Writing exercises: I believe that he ………………………………………… |
And now some general considerations on this discussion, which probably took place in Beethoven’s home in March 1823. This notebook comprises 26 leaves, of which, unfortunately, leaf 25 is missing, torn out and removed. Many topics are addressed in this notebook: the nephew Karl speaks to Beethoven about his mother; the matter of the sale of the Fugue for string quintet (later Opus 137); but above all Dr Bach’s proposal to have Schiller’s Fiesco adapted as an opera libretto to be set to music by the Master. For several years the Master of Bonn had been seeking, with a desperate, typically compulsive insistence, a subject capable of rekindling the flame of his operatic inspiration. In these late years of his life, dozens of projects appear in the conversation books, some barely sketched, others immediately abandoned.
The pages fill with empty titles: Bacchus, Melusine, Dragomira, Attila, Antigone… until reaching the summit of inspiration, that Faust of Goethe, the greatest of Beethoven’s passions, which interested the composer on several occasions, though he never wrote a single note of it. His relationship with Goethe, as we know, was fraught, though it nonetheless produced numerous vocal pages, such as Egmont, Opus 84; less troubled was his relationship with Friedrich Schiller, and although less fruitful, it carried that torch which would illuminate the utterance of the Ninth Symphony, Opus 125.
Only on a few other occasions did he approach his late inspirer, as with the written note referring to a possible attempt to set “An die Freude” already in Bonn, in his youth, as transmitted by the “Staatstrat” Bartolomaus Fischenisch in a letter of 23 January 1793 addressed precisely to Charlotte Schiller, the poet’s daughter: “I enclose a composition by Feuerfarb, and I would like to know your opinion of it. It is by a young man from here, whose musical talents are widely praised, and whom the Elector has now sent to Vienna to study with Haydn. He will also set Schiller’s Joy, stanza by stanza. I expect something perfect, for, as far as I know, he is wholly inclined toward what is great and noble… Besides, he does not concern himself with trifles, like the one I enclose, composed only to satisfy the wish of a lady.”
Later came a small sketch on the lied “In Einem Thal bei Armen Hirten”, Biamonti 523, up to the astonishing “Gesang der Mönche” from William Tell, WoO 104, in which the lay religion reflects itself as the primordial mirror of the yet‑to‑come Missa solemnis.
Beethoven’s tormented search seems a counterpoint to the creation of Fiesco or The Conspiracy of Fiesco at Genoa (Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua), a five‑act prose tragedy that Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) began to draft in 1782 in Mannheim, immediately after the creation of The Robbers. The choice of the city is not accidental, since Schiller was there after deserting from the army of the Duke of Württemberg. After being appointed theatre poet (Theaterdichter) of the same city, and after reworking the tragedy a couple more times, Schiller succeeded in staging it there in 1784; but the success achieved by The Robbers did not smile upon Fiesco, which, though becoming a classic of German prose, never attained the popularity of the first tragedy written by the prodigy of Marbach.
Just as in Goethe’s Egmont, what attracted Beethoven was the spirit of Sturm und Drang, that is, Plutarchian heroes who stoically fight and die for their ideals. Historical background, freedom, courage recall Egmont, but also Leonore in Fidelio, as well as the little‑known heroine of Dunker’s Leonore Proaska. Obeying the strict rules of historical truth, Schiller takes his cue from an event that actually occurred in Genoa in the year 1547.
Since Genoa was governed by the elderly Andrea Doria, pro‑Spanish, Gian Luigi Fieschi “the Younger”, Count of Lavagna, of the noble Fieschi family and leader of the pro‑French party, plotted a conspiracy to restore the liberties of the Republic of Genoa, which the conspirators believed had been stifled by the dictatorial power of Andrea Doria.
The insurrection advances swiftly, and the pro‑French faction seems to seize the city’s defenses with ease, so much so that on the night preceding 3 January 1547 the conspirators manage to take possession of the dockyard. On this occasion Andrea Doria’s nephew, Giannettino, is slaughtered, perhaps by Vincenzo Calcagno, who would pay for his deed a few days later with beheading at Montoggio.
And it is only at this point that fate turns its back on the conspirators. While the galleys loyal to the Dorias are being stormed, Gian Luigi Fieschi, perhaps weighed down by his heavy cuirass, slips from a gangplank and falls into the sea.
Dragged to the bottom by the weight of his own armor, he drowns within a short time. Only with the death of the twenty‑five‑year‑old commander do the conspirators falter and flee. The retaliation of the Dorias, as handed down to us by the young Cardinal de Retz and by the Scottish historian William Robertson, was terrible.
From 12 January 1547 the hunt for the Fieschi began. Gerolamo, Cybo, and other conspirators were beheaded; all descendants residing in Genoa were killed. Their palaces were burned and razed to the ground, including the famous and magnificent Palazzo Fieschi in Via Lata; their marbles and furnishings were sold. Their possessions in Genoa and Liguria were eliminated and absorbed into the territory of the Republic; their goods were confiscated. The few survivors—who had made Genoa great, giving it two popes, Pope Adrian V (Ottobono Fieschi) and Pope Innocent IV (Sinibaldo de Fieschi), as well as Saint Catherine Fieschi Adorno (1447–1510)—found refuge at the court of Versailles.
The harshness of the repression, which can be understood only by reflecting on how deeply the Ligurian people were devoted to the good of liberty and of the Republic, caused the survivors even to change their surname, beginning the rapid decline that would lead to the extinction of the family at the end of the eighteenth century.
Exactly in accordance with the rule I have already mentioned, Schiller observes the unity of place and time: the action takes place in the palace of Count Fiesco in Genoa and does not extend beyond three days, precisely from midnight on 31 December 1547 to the night between 2 and 3 January 1547.
In the Preface to the book, the poet cites the sources from which he drew part of the protagonists of the tragedy, namely the aforementioned works of Retz and Robertson. Moreover, from the unfolding of the plot, the freedom with which Schiller succeeds in recreating a structure functional to his work becomes evident.
Here are the protagonists, with their physical and moral description, as it is presented to us in the tragedy:
| ANDREA DORIA | Doge of Genoa, a venerable old man of eighty, with evident signs of an elevated spirit; the principal traits of this character are dignity, concision, and a natural aptitude for command. |
| GIANNETTINO DORIA | nephew of the former and claimant to ducal power, twenty‑six years of age; coarse and foul‑mouthed in speech, behaviour, and manners, with a vulgar pride and repellent characteristics. Both Dorias dress in purple. |
| FIESCO | Count of Lavagna, leader of the conspiracy, a tall and handsome young man of twenty‑three; his character is one of dignified pride and majestic affability; courteous, elegant, and mischievous. The nobles dress in black. |
| VERRINA | a resolute republican, sixty years of age; grave, austere, and inflexible. |
| BURGOGNINO | a conspirator, a young man of twenty; frank and likeable, proud, quick, and spontaneous. |
| CALCAGNO | a conspirator, a thin libertine of thirty; hypocritical and enterprising. |
| SACCO | a conspirator, forty‑five years of age, without distinctive traits in appearance. |
| LOMELLINO | Giannettino’s trusted man, a courtier. |
| LEONORA | iesco’s wife, eighteen years of age, of great sensitivity; slender and pale, delicate and refined, with a melancholy face. She dresses in black. |
| GIULIA | idowed countess of the noble Imperiali family, sister of the younger Doria, twenty‑five years of age; a proud coquette, tall and shapely, her beauty marred by affectation, with a malicious character and a sarcastic expression. She dresses in black. |
| BERTA | Verrina’s daughter, an innocent girl. |
| ROMANO | a painter, frank and simple, with the pride of genius. |
| MULEY HASSAN | Ua Moor from Tunis, a soft character, an original mixture of roguishness and humour. |
| ROSA, ARABELLA | Leonora’s maids. |
| UN TEDESCO | of the ducal guard, of honest simplicity and proven valour. |
| CENTURIONE, CYBO, ASSERATO | three seditious citizens. |
The plot, written at the time with two different endings in order to meet the demands of the censors, is fairly close to the reality of events. The tyrant of Genoa is not Andrea Doria, but his nephew Giannettino (and this may be considered truthful: Andrea Doria, already afflicted by gout, was for the most part confined to his sumptuous palace). For Schiller, the great admiral Andrea Doria had made the Republic of Genoa stronger and more prosperous and, although he had then transformed the dogate into a signoria, he had preserved the republican liberties of Genoa. His successor, his nephew Giannettino Doria, is instead an irascible and vulgar despot whose regime soon provokes in Genoa a conspiracy against the Dorias, plotted by Verrina, a fervent republican whose daughter Berta had been violated by Giannettino.
For Schiller, as for Cardinal de Retz, Fiesco, Count of Lavagna, is apparently one of the many Plutarchian heroes who, in the name of the fatherland and of liberty, rebel against oppression, and is therefore easily persuaded by Verrina to join the conspiracy. The conspiracy is crowned with success: the Dorias are overthrown, Giannettino is killed, and the republicans delude themselves that they have regained their freedom. Yet Fiesco too, who has himself proclaimed doge, aspires to the signoria: his boundless ambition is deaf even to the love of his wife Leonora and to the protests of the honest Verrina. The latter realizes that Fiesco is not a new Brutus, an avenger of republican liberties, but a new Caesar, an aspiring tyrant, and as such must be stopped: not with dagger blows, but by being pushed into the sea. The true Brutus, the austere republican Verrina, will turn to the old Andrea Doria, asking him to govern the city once more and guarantee its peace.
