CODEX Historiae - themanummer Show - winter 2018

Historiae

codex

Jaargang 39 | Nummer 4 | 2019

Show

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Redactioneel Historici zijn verhalenvertellers. Het is dus niet zo gek dat we als redactie enthousiast waren over ‘show’ als thema. Want wat is er mooier dan de geschiedenis vertellen als een spannend, ontroerend of menselijk verhaal, een vervreemdend of juist bevestigend verhaal. We vertellen die verhalen in boeken, maar ook steeds vaker in beelden en online. De films, games en websites over historische gebeurtenissen liegen er niet om, hoewel de juistheid van die verhalen nog wel eens te wensen overlaat.

We doen ons best om er een showtje van te maken, van die geschiedenis. En in dit geval spreek ik niet alleen van ‘wij, historici’. De noodzaak om het verleden aantrekkelijk te maken voor een groot publiek reikt verder dan alleen de docenten; in zowel binnen- als buitenland nemen ook verschillende media daar een rol in. Ook de overheid doet hier een duit in het zakje als het gaat om ons nationale erfgoed. Meer daarover lees je in ons volgende nummer.

Ook in dat verleden zelf dienen zich tal van voorbeelden aan waarin een show werd opgevoerd. In dit nummer schrijven we onder andere over triomftochten, opera en traditioneel poppentheater.Ter vermaak, maar ook om als historici een plek op het podium van de wetenschappen te veroveren.

Historians are storytellers. So naturally we, the editors, were enthusiastic about the theme ‘Show’. There is nothing more wonderful than writing history as an exciting, moving, alienating or confirming story.

We have always told these stories in books, but more and more often (visually and in online media as well). The plethora of films, games and websites on historical events exemplify this, although the ‘facts’ presented in those stories occasionally leave much to be desired.

We try our best to make history into a bit of a show, and in this case I do not only mean ‘we, historians’.

Not only teachers and professors have a role in making history available to a wider audience; various media, too, play a role, and so does the government when it comes to national heritage.You can read more about the latter in our next volume.

There are ample and various examples of shows throughout the past. In this volume you can read stories about the Roman triumph, opera and traditional puppet shows. For entertainment, but also to conquer our place as historians on the scientific stage.

Colofon Hoofdredactie Berith van Pelt Chief editor

Met dank aan Inger Leemans With thanks to

Redactie Daan Jansen Editors Emilia Salerno Jasmijn Groot Jedidja Stikkelorum Tijs Hopman

Eindredactie Emma Kemp Copy editors Julia Steiner

Vormgeving Graphic design

Daan Jansen

Cover Mosaic with scenic masks Onbekend

Palazzo Nuovo, Rome

Mail voor meer informatie over abonneren, publiceren of adverteren naar info@codexhistoriae.nl.

Financieel mogelijk gemaakt door de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, februari 2019.

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In dit nummer Actualiteiten Berith van Pelt

pagina 4

Pomp and power Power theatre of the Roman triumph Tijs Hopman

pagina 6

Een vossenverhaal Boekrecensie Over strategisch denken Berith van Pelt

pagina 10

L’Opera dei pupi The puppet show from Sicily Emilia Salerno

pagina 12

Translatio Imperii The presentation of empire and Rome Daan Jansen

pagina 17

Een eeuw geschiedenis Boekrecensie Geschiedenis aan de zuidas Tijs Hopman

pagina 22

Alex Turner 21st century showman Jasmijn Groot

pagina 24

De (on)zichtbaarheid van vrouwlijke dirigenten Filmrecensie: De Dirigent Emma Kemp

pagina 30

Wagners eigen Isolde Het ontstaan van Wagners opera Tristan en Isolde Jedidja Stikkelorum

pagina 31

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Actualiteiten

Berith van Pelt

Embodied Emotions In het theater werden en worden personages ten tonele gevoerd die echte mensen zouden kunnen zijn. Met een karakter en met herkenbare emoties. En natuurlijk worden die emoties op het podium niet alleen gevoeld, maar ook uitgebeeld en uitgesproken om ze op het publiek te kunnen overbrengen. Historica Inger Leemans werkte met verschillende collega’s aan het project Embodied Emotions. Het project is erop gericht de relatie tussen emoties en het menselijk lichaam te onderzoeken. Hiertoe werden vroegmoderne Nederlandse theaterteksten geanalyseerd. Door de focus op de verandering in de verwijzingen naar het lichaam in emotionele uitdrukkingen, brachten de onderzoekers verrassende resultaten aan het licht. Zo hebben we niet altijd gevoeld met ons hart, maar konden we dat aan het begin van de achttiende eeuw ook met onze nagels, darmen en tong.

Fashion Statements Kleding is van oudsher onderdeel van de identiteit van de drager.

Mode uit vervlogen tijden leert ons dan ook niet alleen iets over het straatbeeld van toen, maar ook over de statements die gemaakt werden en de boodschap die werd overgedragen.

Vanaf 18 april wordt een verzameling van deze Fashion Statements getoond in het Amsterdam Museum. Er wordt bovendien aandacht besteed aan creaties van hedendaagse Nederlandse ontwerpers, die hun eigentijdse blik over de historische kostuums hebben laten gaan.

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Op de VU Het onderzoek aan de Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen staat niet stil. In elk nieuw nummer van CODEX vind je een overzicht van recent gepromoveerden aan deze faculteit van de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

November 2018 Palaeogeographic analysis of the Dutch part of the Roman limes and its hinterland.

M.R. Groenhuijzen

December 2018 Het landschap bewaard.

D.M. Purmer

Februari 2019 Spindoctors van de Gouden Eeuw.

J.M.M. Haverkate

Meer informatie over de actualiteiten?

Kijk op codexhistoriae.nl/themas/show

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Pomp and power

Power theatre of the Roman triumph

Tijs Hopman

824 years after the founding of Rome, in the year 71 AD, a man originating from an equestrian family rode in triumph through the festive streets of Rome. The last legitimate emperor, final member of the Julio-Claudian family, Nero, lay dead, his throat slit by his own hands. Three pretenders had made their bid for the imperial throne; Galba, Otho,Vitellius.

They too had perished. Now, Titus Flavius Vespasianus started on his formal entry through Rome as her emperor, sovereign of the civilized world. Standing in the triumphal chariot, he was drawn through the streets by four white horses. Behind him was shown the loot from the fallen city of Jerusalem, carts loaded with silver and gold, the sacred seven-armed candle, a caravan of captives, pictures imaging the battles fought against the vanquished Jews, his loyal soldiers marching in full regalia, and statues of the Roman gods. Around him, elated crowds cried ‘io triumpe!’, cheering their new emperor, hopeful for a peaceful future. In front lay the gate of the Porta Triumphalis, the sprawling streets of Rome, the Circus Maximus, the Forum Romanum and finally, the Capitoline Hill, upon which stood the magnificent temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme god for whom the triumphator would sacrifice in thanksgiving.

Roman triumphs were a pompous display of power, and Vespasian (9-79 AD) was not the first to hold a triumph, nor would he be the last—although his triumph marked the beginning of a steep decline in the amount of triumphs held during the subsequent years. The celebrating of a triumph by a victorious general even dates back to the legendary founder of Rome, Romulus, whom the Romans—most notably the historian Livy (59 BC-17 AD)—accredited with the first triumph ever held. During Republican times many victorious generals were awarded by the Senate with the opportunity to celebrate their conquest and contribution to the wellbeing and welfare of the Roman res publica. Some of these generals, like Pompey (106-48 BC), celebrated three triumphs; and Caesar (100-44 BC) himself is even reported to be awarded with a total of five triumphs. Most of these triumphs are recorded on the so-called fasti triumphales, the last entry dating to 19 BC. But during the reign of Augustus (63 BC-14 AD, reign: 27 BC-14 AD) the triumph started to become the sole privilege of the emperor; ovations being the awards to an ‘ordinary’ general. And the last triumph

celebrated at Rome, before the fall of the Western Empire, was to be held in the year 403 by emperor Honorius.

The Triumph and triumphator A victorious general would first have to achieve a victory of distinction to be awarded a triumphal entry back into Rome by the Senate. Victories which were less impressive could make that the general be awarded with an ovation— Crassus, for example, who vanquished Spartacus, was awarded with an ovation, because his victory over a mere rabble of slaves was not the stuff of legends. The ovation was basically the second rate version of a triumph—with different ceremonies and symbols; but that is a story for another day. After permission for a triumph was granted, the general was allowed to enter the pomerium, the border of the City. His face would be painted with red lead and his body garbed in a purple toga and tunica adorned with palm motives, the symbol of victory. Holding a golden sceptre topped with an eagle, a wreath of laurel held over the crown of his head, he would be standing in a quadriga, a chariot drawn by four white horses; whilst standing behind him on the chariot, a slave would continually remind him that he was a mortal, not a god, by repeated whisperings in his ears. (Livy, 45,39,10, transl. Schlesinger, 1951 and Tac., Hist. 4.58.6. transl. Moore, 1931).

Adorned as such, he would start the procession, arriving in Rome through the Porta Triumphalis; behind him followed spoils of war: booty and captives, floats and images portraying the hardships endured, and his military staff on horseback, followed by the marching soldiers, chanting ribald songs about their commander, much to his amusement and chagrin, in full military regalia. From the gate they would traverse the City through the Circus Maximus, around the Palatine Hill, through the Forum Romanum and up the Capitoline Hill, where a sacrifice would be made to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, in front of his splendid temple. (Beard, ch.2, 2007) As noted from above, the subject of the whole celebration was the victorious general. Many have tried to interpret the meaning of the pompous appearance of the triumphator.

What is the significance of his face being painted red?

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The triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus showing the spoils of war taken from the temple of Jerusalem as depicted on the triumphal arch of Titus in Rome.

Was he seen as the Roman rex (king)? Or was he the personification of a god, perhaps Jupiter himself? The most likely answer is that he personified the image of Jupiter. It is possible to deduce this from the fact that both the face of the statue of Jupiter as well as that of the triumphator being painted red. His clothes were called ornatus Jovi (clothes of Jove/Jupiter) and he wore a sceptre topped by the eagle; the animal and symbol ascribed to the god. And our ‘primary’ sources like Livy and Juvenal (1st-2nd century AD) mention the triumphator in connotation with Jupiter. As well as the fact that the celebrations were in honour of the god, whose temple was the final destination of the triumphal procession, the climbing of the Capitoline Hill symbolizing the ascendency to godhood. (Versnel, ch.2, the triumphator, 1970) Still, one might argue the evidence being unsubstantial or impossible to interpret. It is possible to argue that the triumphator might appear in the image of the Roman kings, but it would be nearly impossible to resolve that argument. Yet, it remains possible for us to distil some useful information from this state of confusion; namely that the religious and the profane might have gone hand in hand in Roman times. The fact that we are having difficulties understanding Roman religious ceremonies from our

Triumphal route through Rome

paradigm of understanding, as well as the fact that ancient sources seem to sometimes be at odd or accept certain symbolism without a clear explanation of meaning, shows us that Roman religious thinking was something completely different than our own means of understanding.The profane theatre of power thus goes hand in hand with religious ceremonies in the conceptualization of the world in the mind of a Roman citizen.

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Triumph and artistic expression We should not worry about the difficulties and problems concerned with interpreting the meaning of the Roman triumph too much; even Romans themselves struggled to understand its meaning (e.g. Varro, De Lingua Latina, 6,68) and even attempted to completely recreate it, for example in poetry.

The triumphal procession was a phenomenon engrained in Roman culture, and traces of it could be found even in daily life, mainly through monuments. Especially the triumphal arch comes to mind, which are still standing to this day.

The Arch of Septimius Severus, in the Forum Romanum, for example. The Arch of Titus, erected in 80 AD, pictures the triumph described at the beginning of this article, the seven-branched candelabra, the sacred ‘menorah’ of the Jews, which is rumoured to have inhabited the Temple of Solomon itself, being a prominent feature of the triumph presented. And the Arch of Constantine, close to the Flavian Amphitheatre—otherwise known as the Colosseum— celebrating a divinity with one of the earliest politically—or religiously—correct inscriptions: ‘instinctu divinitatis mentis’ (through encouragement of a divine mind)—showing that Constantine (c.280-337 AD) had not really made up his mind which divinity to support in his earlier years of his reign. The Arches celebrating the victorious general kept the memory of his triumph alive through imagery.

The triumph often makes its appearance in literature as well; mainly in the poems of my good friend Ovid (43BC-17AD), who, in his Ars Amatoria (Art of Love), tries to instruct the reader (both male as female) on how to become proficient in the art of love. Our good mentor instructs us that the occasion of a triumph is a good opportunity to pursue the ladies, see below (left).

The idea of triumph was also used by poets to celebrate triumphs of their patrons. Horace uses the theme of triumph to celebrate the legacy of writing itself, more specifically the Greek poetic tradition making its appearance in Latin verse.

(Horace, Carm. 3.30, transl. Rudd, 2004) Ovid images the triumph of love over warfare in his second poem of the Amores see below (right) The natural use of the metaphor of the triumph by Ovid shows how ingrained the event was in Roman society—a 217. ‘… Cheering youths will look on, and girls beside them, A day to make every heart run wild for joy;

And when some girl inquires the names of the monarchs, 220. Or the towns, rivers, hills portrayed On the floats, answer all her questions (and don’t draw the line at questions only): pretend 223.

You know even when you don’t. …’

(Ovid, Ars Amatoria, I,217-223, transl. Peter Green, 1982)

Later depiction of a Roman triumph

by Rubens (1577-1640) from circa 1630, National Gallery, London.

lot of other poets use it as well; Ovid, being a personal favourite, possessing the most eloquent examples. And through the texts, the imagery of the triumphs inspired men in future times, like Petrarch.

Petrarch, the man to whom many attribute the start of the Italian Renaissance, was one of the first humanists inspired by the classical Latin texts and the event of the triumph.

Flavio Biondo, another humanist, claimed that the Christian Church was the inheritor of Roman triumphal tradition.

And indeed, this can in a way be said about the fact that the papacy hosted many religious processions through the City. But claims such that this would symbolize the 23. ‘Put on a wreath of myrtle, yoke up your mother’s pigeons Your stepfather himself will lend you a fine 25. Chariot: mount it, drive in triumph through the cheering Rabble, skilfully whipping your birds ahead,

With your train of prisoners behind you, besotted youths and maidens, Such pomp, such magnificence, your very own

Triumph: and I’ll be there too, fresh-wounded, your latest 30. Prisoner - displaying my captive mind With Conscience, hands bound behind her, and Modesty, and all Love’s 32. Other enemies, whipped into line.’

(Ovid, Amores, I,2,23-32, transl. Peter Green, 1982)

9 Tijs Hopman

Bibliography Classical Sources: • Horace, Carmen Saeculare, in ‘Odes and Epodes’, Loeb Classical Library, transl. N. Rudd, (Cambridge Massachusetts, 2004).

• Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, in ‘History of Rome,Volume XIII’, Loeb Classical Library, Translated by A. C. Schlesinger, (Cambridge Massachusetts, 1951).

• Ovid, The Erotic Poems, (P. Green, transl. 1982). Penguin Books Ltd. London.

• Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars (R. Graves Trans. 1957).

Penguin Books Ltd. Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

• Tacitus, Historiae, Liber IV, in ‘Histories Books 4-5.

Annals: Books 1-3’, in Loeb Classical Library, transl.

C.H. Moore, (Cambridge Massachusetts, 1931).

• Varro, De Lingua Latina, in ‘On the Latin Language, Volume I, books 5-7’, Loeb Classical Library, transl.

R.G. Kent, (Cambridge Massachusetts, 1938).

• Virgil, Georgica, in ‘Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1-6’, Loeb Classical Library, transl. H.R. Fairclough, (Cambridge Massachusetts, 1999).

triumph of Christianity—in a way similar as Ovid’s triumph of Love—might be too good to be true. Also because the route of religious processions was different than those of the Roman triumphs, and its geographical objects were not the Forum Romanum and the Capitoline Hill, but the Lateran and Basilica of St. Peter. Another humanist, Panvinio, was convinced that not the papacy, but the Holy Roman Empire was the heir to Roman triumphal tradition. And specifically the triumphal entry of Charles V into Rome, in 1536, after his African victories. A triumph which Pope Paul III meticulously tried to proceed among the ancient route.

(Beard, 2007, p.53-61) Legacy of the triumph The Roman triumph became a more widely studied phenomenon in the 20th century, and has been the subject of interest for both the scholar as the layman. One could only imagine how much militarized, authoritarian rulers— like Mussolini or Hitler—were inspired by the military pomp and power being promulgated in the triumphs.

Nevertheless, it has also become a subject used in art, both through image and literature, to celebrate the abstract or the material. And the theatre of triumph, so common to the minds of the Romans, has become common with our reflection of that proud and stubborn people.

Contemporary Sources: • Beacham, R.C., (1999) Spectacle Entertainment of Early Imperial Rome, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

• Beard, M., (2007) The Roman Triumph, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

• Geertz, C., (1980) Negara, The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali, Princeton, N.J. • Miller. A,. (2001) Roman Triumphs and Early Modern English Literature, New York: Palgrave.

• Partner, P., (1972) The Lands of St. Peter,The Papal States in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, London: Eyre Methuen.

• Versnel, H.S., (1970) Triumphus, Leiden, Brill.

Digital Sources: • Ramsay, W.M.A. (1875). Triumphus. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 1163-1167. Retrieved from: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/ Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Triumphus.html • Monumental Inscriptions from Lacus Curtius, retrieved from: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/ Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/ Rome/Arch_of_Constantine/inscriptions.html

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Een vossenverhaal Boekrecensie: Over strategisch denken

Berith van Pelt

“De vos weet vele zaken, maar de egel weet één grote zaak.”

Deze dichtregel van de Griekse dichter Archilochus van Paros (ca. 680-645 v.Chr.) wordt al op de eerste pagina’s van het boek Over strategisch denken geïntroduceerd. Hoewel al lang niet meer bekend is in welke context de dichter deze regel schreef, is wel bekend dat Erasmus ermee aan de haal ging, waarna het door toedoen van verschillende denkers uitgroeide tot een maatstaf waarlangs men het strategisch vermogen van een leider kon meten. De vos staat daarin symbool voor een leider die veel verschillende doelen nastreeft, terwijl de egel alles in verband brengt met zijn hoofddoel en daarmee een centrale visie nastreeft. Deze maatstaf vormt een rode draad in het boek van John Lewis Gaddis.

Gaddis beschouwt verschillende leiders uit de wereldgeschiedenis, van Julius Caesar, die al op jonge leeftijd een hoge functie bekleedde in het Romeinse Rijk, tot de Amerikaanse president Woodrow Wilson. Daarbij bespreekt hij theorieën van schrijvers, denkers en politici die hem voorgingen in de analyse van strategie: onder meer Herodotus (ca. 485-425 v.Chr.), Sun Tzu (ca. 544-496 v.Chr.) en Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). Hij beslaat in zijn boek een periode van duizenden jaren door te beginnen bij de Perzische Oorlogen en te eindigen met de val van de Berlijnse Muur.

Het werk vormt een indrukwekkend overzicht van een groot deel van de geschiedenis. Wie zich een weg door het archaïsche taalgebruik geworsteld heeft, vindt dan ook een schat aan analytische historische kennis. Gaddis laat grote en kleinere leiders aan het woord, probeert in hun hoofden te kruipen en de kronkels in hun denken te begrijpen. Doordat hij de geschiedenis van de oudheid tot de vorige eeuw beschrijft, levert dat interessante inzichten en ongewone parallellen op.

In de karakterisering van de dierenparabel is het boek zelf duidelijk een vos: de schrijver weet vele zaken en probeert die allemaal in het boek aan bod te laten komen. Gezien de achtergrond van de auteur is dit niet verwonderlijk: Gaddis is gespecialiseerd in Grand Strategy. Wat echter vaak gebeurt als mensen de ruimte krijgen om over hun

eigen interesse en specialisme te schrijven, is ook dit boek overkomen: voor ingewijden is het een waardevolle samenvatting van Gaddis’ kennis over het onderwerp, maar voor leken is het lastig te vatten.

De positionering van het boek als goed leesbaar populair-wetenschappelijk werk, geschreven door een gerenommeerd historicus, schept verwachtingen die niet geheel verwezenlijkt worden. De amateur-historicus heeft moeite zich een weg te banen door het oerwoud aan namen, personages en gebeurtenissen. Maar kun je de auteur de complexiteit kwalijk nemen? Strategieën zijn immers gecompliceerd en de opkomst en val van steeds weer nieuwe (wereld)leiders laten zien dat strategisch denken geen sinecure is. Op de lovende woorden over de leesbaarheid van het boek is ook wat af te dingen, maar dat is wellicht mede te wijten aan de vertaling vanuit het Engels.

Zoals Gaddis in zijn voorwoord al aangeeft, doet hij informeel en op een persoonlijke manier verslag van zijn kennis. En hoewel een historicus zich best wat vrijheid kan veroorloven, is een vergelijking tussen de oud-Griekse Perikles en de Amerikaanse president Abraham Lincoln, die ruim twee millennia later pas geboren werd, discutabel.

Tenminste, als het gaat om de vraag waarom Perikles niet handelde als Lincoln; andersom kan Lincoln uiteraard wel geleerd hebben van Perikles.

Deze brede verbanden die Gaddis door eeuwen heen trekt, vallen niet uit de toon in zijn analyse van de strategen, maar doen afbreuk aan de rol van de historische context en ook aan de leesbaarheid van het boek. De plotselinge verschijning van Lincoln in de bespreking van de manier waarop Perikles Athene bestuurde, roept meer vragen op over zowel Lincoln als Perikles dan dat het duidelijkheid verschaft. De strategische lessen die uit het werk van Gaddis getrokken kunnen worden, zijn blijkbaar niet goed toepasbaar op het schrijven van een boek.

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Titel: Over strategisch denken. Een masterclass over Herodotus,

Sun Tzu,Von Clausewitz, Machiavelli en andere grote strategen.

Auteur: John Lewis Gaddis ISBN: 9789048843954 Hardcover Vertaald uit het Amerikaans door: Willem van Paassen Uitgever: Hollands Diep, Amsterdam Jaar: 2018 Aantal pagina’s: 312

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L’Opera dei Pupi The puppet show from Sicily

Emilia Salerno

If we could go back in time two centuries and take a walk among the streets of Palermo, Sicily’s state capital, we would find ourselves strolling around on unpaved paths, undoubtedly dustier but also greener, thanks to the many trees alongside the roads. We would be drawn to the smell of fried delicacies at the street corners, deafened by yelling peddlers and, once arrived at one of the numerous piazzas, suddenly scared by the clash of wood and metal. It would take us a couple of seconds to realize that the duellers are just 90 centimetres tall knights, made of wooden limbs and covered in shining, chiselled armour.

The people call them pupi (fig. 1), the Sicilian word for puppets, although they are much more than simple marionettes to entertain children. Through the voices of the pupari (puppet masters), who control them from behind the colourful scenes of a small theatre, the

pupi re-enact the epic tales of Roland, Renaud, Ruggiero, Bradamante: heroes of the Matter of France (also known as Carolingian Cycle). The works that belong to this 11th12th century saga narrate the adventures of Charlemagne and his paladins, and their battles against the Saracens or Moors. But what do Charlemagne and his paladins have to do with Sicily?

The epic tradition and the pupi The Carolingian saga became particularly appreciated in medieval Sicily as a literary reflection of that time’s sociopolitical context. After more than two centuries of Arabic domination (ca. 827-1061), the Normans came from

The paladins and Charlemagne. Courtesy of Nicola Argento

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Fig. 2: Salvo Piparo with the pupi.

Courtesy of Salvo Piparo Let us start with Roland or, as he is called in Sicily, Orlando.

He is the most important of the paladins, the first paladin of France. He represents the deeds of the Frankish military leader who served under Charlemagne and, according to Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni, he was killed at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Roland’s story was repeatedly recounted in the Old French epic Chanson de Roland and in the aforementioned works of Italian literature by Boiardo and Ariosto.

northern France to conquer Sicily, or, as it is popularly recounted, to free it from the Saracens, heathen enemies of Christianity. As a matter of fact, history is more complicated than this: not only was the Norman conquest not that sudden, but an economically and artistically productive collaboration also started between Normans and Arabs (Metcalfe, 2002). In popular recounts, the epic stories of the paladins’ victory over the Saracens easily lent themselves to the transmission of a historical turning-point for the Sicilian people. For this reason, one of the most important Sicilian folklorists, Giuseppe Pitrè, particularly stresses the profound connection between this kind of theatre and the southern Italian people, specifically the Sicilian people.

A connection ‘that is kept alive by both psychological and ethnical reasons, which are in all related to our people’s nature’ (Pitrè, 1889-1978: 275-276).

Scholars have long debated about the birth date of the Opera dei pupi. Some, such as the philologist Ettore Li Gotti (1957), think that this show originated around 1850 at the time of independence revolts, under the spur of the romantic ideals of a rediscovered patriotism. Others, such as the aforementioned Giuseppe Pitrè (1889) and Sebastiano Lo Nigro (1976), believe that the roots of this popular show are much deeper in the past, dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when Renaissance elite literary productions, such as the Italian epics by Matteo Boiardo (Orlando Innamorato, 1483-1495) and Ludovico Ariosto (Orlando Furioso, 1532), started blending with popular reproductions of these traditional tales.

Since they are the result of a combination of many different literary sources, it is difficult to give a detailed portrait of the characters of the Opera. Moreover, every puparo gives different nuances to his characters, depending on the taste of the public, family traditions and the theatre schools the puppet master belongs to. However, every paladin does have certain characteristics that distinguish it from the others. To describe them as vividly as possible, I have asked the help of the Sicilian actor and cantastorie (storyteller) Salvo Piparo (fig. 2).

Roland represents virtues such as honesty, courage and, most importantly, loyalty to the emperor. As Salvo Piparo recounts, he embodies the State, as symbolised by the mayoral sash he wears (see fig. 1).When he wields his sword Durendal, he is unbeatable. As such, Roland is powerful and authoritative. Yet, he turns out to be shy and clumsy when he falls in love with Angelica, princess of Cathay.

On the contrary, Roland’s cousin, Renaud (or Rinaldo) is arrogant, dauntless and rebellious. He appears often intolerant to the imperial authority and is therefore always in conflict with his cousin. The rivalry between these two paladins is one of the recurring features in the Opera. The two cross their swords quite often, Roland with his sword Durendal and Renaud with Fusberta, for instance, when they both try to conquer the love of the beautiful Angelica. The

Fig. 3: Nicola Argento on stage.

Courtesy of Nicola Argento

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Fig. 4: Giuseppe “Don Pinuzzo” Argento.

Courtesy of Nicola Argento competition between the two cousins was so intense that at every performance the public was divided into factions: the ones who cheered for the clumsy, sometimes ugly, but loyal Roland, and the ones who supported the handsome, rebellious Renaud.

However, all spectators were joined by the common hatred for some villains. One of the most despised was Ganelon (or Gano di Magonza), Roland’s stepfather. When Roland selects him for a potentially suicidal mission, Ganelon is filled with rage and swears vengeance. Just before the ominous Battle of Roncevaux Pass, he betrays the Christian army, plotting an ambush with the Saracen forces. As a despicable character, Ganelon is represented as the ugliest of the paladins.

Moreover, various female characters are represented in the Opera. There is Angelica, the beautiful princess of Cathay with whom all the knights are smitten. She is often represented fleeing and chased by the paladins, both Christians and Saracens, all over the world. She is the typical damsel in distress, apparently weak but well aware of the power of her charm. However, there are also warrior women in the Opera. The most famous one is Bradamante, the female Christian knight who falls in love with the Saracen Ruggiero and, thanks to her love and nobility, convinces him to convert to Christianity.

The characters repertoire could go on and on, just like their stories.To make things more complicated, each school in Sicily represents the pupi differently, as Piparo explains to me. For example, whereas in Catania Roland’s colour is red and Renaud’s green, in Palermo it is the other way around. The Saracens, on the other hand, are always easily recognizable thanks to the crescent on their helmet.

What most of the experts agree upon is that at the brink of the 20th century the traditional puppet show in Sicily started to decay (Venturini, 2003). The public got less and less interested in the adventures of the crusaders against the Saracens and Moors. Middle-class positivistic narratives (within the literary movement of Verismo) began to spread, leaving less space to romantic, humoristic, sometimes flamboyant theatre representations (Lo Nigro, 1976: 290). However, it was in this period that journalists and folklore enthusiasts started to gather information, facts and anecdotes about a show that was dying out but nevertheless managed to survive the following two centuries. In these pages, insofar as I can in my small way, I would like to contribute to the survival of the Opera dei Pupi by reporting the testimony of one of the last professional pupari still active in Sicily, Nicola “Nicolò” Argento (fig. 3).

Fig. 5: Maestro Vincenzo Argento. Courtesy of Nicola Argento

15 Emilia Salerno

The interview with the puparo The Argento family has been working with the pupi since 1893, when the Opera’s decay had already began. The first one to start the family tradition was Vincenzo “Don Cecè” Argento who, after studying with the puparo called “Pernice”, opened up his own theatre in a district of the old city in Palermo. Before electric lights existed, the pupi shows were played by lantern light, accompanied by a pianino (a smaller piano). The epic adventures of the paladins were told in episodes, evening by evening, attended by people of all ages.

Antonella Cappello, Nicolò’s wife, tells me that, almost as a sign of destiny, Don Cecè’s son Giuseppe was born in 1912 right on stage, after the pupi’s performance. He alone of six siblings continued his father’s craft, bringing on new shows under the nickname Don Pinuzzo (fig. 4). Not even the Second World War could stop his creativity and, during his imprisonment, he kept telling the stories of the paladins and the Moors to entertain his fellow prisoners.

Once back home in 1945, Don Pinuzzo resumed his work as puparo, teaching the art to his son Vincenzo, named after his father. Times were hard, and the family had to move its theatre over and over again, until eventually in 1990 the last theatre near Palermo’s arbour had to shut down because of environmental degradation. Finally, when Don Pinuzzo passed away in 1993, the Argento family tradition seemed to be close to the end. But in 1999 the Argento family managed to open up the new Teatro Argento, just in front of Palermo’s Cathedral. There, Maestro Vincenzo (fig.

5) not only continued to stage shows in the traditional way, but with the help of his children Nicolò, Anna and Dario, his grandchild Benedetto and of his wife Teresa Lo Bello, he kept producing his own pupi, completely handmade like those of his grandfather. As for the rest of the story, it is better to give the word to Nicolò.

Q: Do you remember the moment when you decided to become a puparo? What drove you to this art?

A: I grew up in my father’s workshop. I used to play there with my brother and sister.The pupi were our first toys and with them we tried to imitate our grandpa Giuseppe, whom we followed during the shows. I loved to make voices and dub the characters, even on TV. I set it on mute and made up the lines for every character I saw. After my grandpa’s death, my father decided to open his own theatre, and I decided to help him. I started painting the sceneries and arranging all the necessary equipment. This craft is handed down generation by generation, it would be very difficult to learn for those who have other working and cultural backgrounds.

Q: How is a show organized? Do you follow specific texts?

A: Behind every show there is the work of four or five people, but the voices of the pupi are made by only two,

sometimes three people. As for the lines, traditional texts are usually taken from Ariosto’s literary work and we have some canovacci (plot outlines – fig. 6) written down by our ancestors. But the lines and the stories are mostly orally transmitted from father to son.

Q: The Argento family produces its own pupi, right? What is the most difficult aspect of such a production?

A: Yes, my grand-grandfather came up with a new structure for our own pupi and they are different from the others.

Normally, the other pupari make their puppets move and “walk” via a string connecting the left leg to the main manoeuvring stick on the pupo’s head. We eliminated this string, personalizing the construction of the skeleton, so that we are able to make our puppets move with a simple turn of the head. This makes our pupi unique.

Q: How do you see the future of the Opera dei Pupi?

A: We try really hard to keep our art alive, also on an international level. In 2005 we performed in fifteen schools in France for an artistic lab project. In 2006 we even performed at the Metropolitan Museum of New York on behalf of the Regione Siciliana. However, the Opera will really have a future if we will be able to involve the schools in Sicily and give young students the chance to get passionate about this form of art. Institutions are not helping, the craft is dying out and without new professionals our tradition is doomed to disappear.

Q: One last question: what do you love most about your profession?

A: What I most love about and enjoy in my job is to prepare and test new shows, even outside the canonical types. I have had other experiences outside the traditional Opera. For example, I used the pupi to tell real life stories, or to narrate stories taken from other texts than the Carolingian Cycle, interacting with actors and dancers.

Fig. 6: Ancient canovaccio (plot outline). Courtesy of Nicola Argento

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In an attempt to preserve the art, the Opera dei Pupi was proclaimed in 2001 and inscribed in 2008 in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. However, very few professionals, such as the Argentos, are still struggling to keep it alive. Because of economic difficulties, puppeteers can no longer make a living from their art. Moreover, as reported by the UNESCO, tourism has contributed to the reducing quality of performances, distorting the original stories and characters.

However, it seems that recently the need to preserve the regional traditions and customs has become more urgent.

As an instance, in May 2018 the regional government has promoted an initiative to include the study of the Sicilian language in the school programs, from elementary to high school (Bianca, 2018). This might mean the revival of a vanishing culture. We can only hope that the Opera will be given the place it deserves in such initiatives.

References • Bianca, G. (2018, February 18). Scuola, dal prossimo anno un’ora la settimana sarà dedicata alla lingua siciliana. La Sicilia. Retrieved from https://www.lasicilia. it/news/cronaca/161630/scuola-dal-prossimo-announ-ora-la-settimana-sara-dedicata-alla-lingua-siciliana. html • Li Gotti, E. (1957). Il Teatro dei Pupi. Sansoni.

• Lo Nigro, S. (1976-1996). Favola e veritá dei Pupi Siciliani. Lares,Vol. 62 (2), 287-293.

• Metcalfe, A. (2002). The Muslims of Sicily under Christian Rule. The Society of Norman Italy, 289-317.

• Pitré, G. (1889). Usi e costumi credenze e pregiudizi del popolo siciliano,Vol 4. Pedone Lauriel.

• UNESCO Culture Sector. (n.d). Opera dei Pupi, Sicilian puppet theatre. Retrieved from https://ich.unesco.org/ en/RL/opera-dei-pupi-sicilian-puppet-theatre-00011 • Venturini, V. (2003). Dal cunto all’opera dei pupi. Il teatro di Cuticchio. Audino.

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17

Translatio Imperii

The presentation of empire and Rome

Daan Jansen

29th of May 1453: Constantinople, crossroads of worlds, lies in ashes. The grand Theodosian Walls which had protected the city for centuries have fallen before the relentless barrage of Ottoman cannons, swiftly leading to the city’s surrender and the end of the Byzantine Empire – the last remnants of the Roman Empire. One might expect this to be celebrated by the Ottoman empire as a grand moment of destroying the old and bringing in the new: a new empire built on Muslim ideals. And although the Ottoman empire was indeed founded on Muslim ideals, it did not present its conquest as the end of the Roman Empire, rather as a continuation of the Empire under new management. Instead of the Greek Palaiogolos dynasty, the Turkish Osmanoğlu dynasty would be ruling the empire and the capital, Constantinople, would remain the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was not the first empire to declare successorship of Rome, and it would not be the last. Such a direct claim of successorship lets us examine how these empires presented their conquests and compare them with how the Romans presented theirs, to put them to the test.

The city of Constantinople, now Istanbul.

Towering over the old city stands the stands the Hagia Sophia. Once the largest Christian cathedral in the world, under Ottoman rule it was converted to a mosque and minarets were erected to complement it.

Since the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, state after state has presented itself as the successor to Rome.

In 800, Charlemagne (742-814) and the Pope, refusing to acknowledge the first female Byzantine empress Irene, proclaimed the Holy Roman Empire, the ‘true’ successor to Rome which controlled large parts of France, Germany, the Low Countries and Northern Italy. This political entity, which could hardly still be called a state a few centuries later, continued to exist formally until the early nineteenth century. The Holy Roman Empire claimed the mantle of protector of the city of Rome, and the Byzantine empire and later the Ottoman Empire had its capital in the other major city of the Roman Empire, Constantinople, the ‘second Rome’. But in the sixteenth century, a monk from Pskov claimed Moscow succeeded Rome and Constantinople

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as the ‘third Rome’, the first being in Catholic hands and the second under Muslim control (Baehr, 1978). While no territory of the former Roman Empire fell under dominion of the principality of Muscovy, the ideas of this Pskovian monk were made a source of legitimacy for a unified Russian empire, as defenders of the Orthodox Christian faith.

The frequent use of the legacy of the Roman Empire as a source of legitimacy for new empires points toward some deep-seated trauma that the collapse of the Roman Empire inflicted upon the culture of the territories it left behind. This trauma lives on today, with the Roman Empire being seen as a source of inspiration for, for example, European unity through the EU (Willey, 2017). Similarities between one of the theorized causes of its downfall, the Völkerwanderung, and the modern-day migratory streams entering Europe have been used, often illegitimately, as political arguments. This misuse of the Roman Empire as an example is usually founded on some sort of idealized view of Rome as a united, peaceful and prosperous society.While these elements were all certainly present in the Roman Empire in one way or another, what tends to be forgotten in these comparisons is that the Roman Empire was built on bloody conquest and occasional genocide.

In order to compare the political and cultural legitimization by the self-proclaimed successors of the Roman Empire, we should first take a brief look at how the Romans legitimized their own. Roman writers obviously provide the best insight into their own understanding of Roman expansionism. Both the Greek historian Polybios and the Roman politician Cicero argued that the Roman empire expanded not out of greed for power or territory. Rather, the Roman Empire was always attacked by rival empires and, because the Roman people were more virtuous and inherently superior, they almost infallibly won every war and conquered their defeated foes to ensure lasting peace (Polybios, transl. 1922; Cicero, transl. 1928). The Roman Empire existed entirely out of a desire to safeguard the empire’s heartland, Italy, and her Roman defenders always won because they were simply better than their neighbours, the Roman writers argue. We can compare the imperial legitimization of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire with those of the Roman Empire, now that those are established.

Neither avarice nor lust for power motivated the [Roman] expansion, just the noble aim of defending the defenceless.

– Cicero The Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was proclaimed by the Pope in the year 800 with the king of the Franks Charlemagne as its first emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was to be the

Among Charlemagne’s reforms was the standardization of writing into the Carolingian Miniscule.This encouraged scholars to write in a legible font which any literate person could easily read. direct successor to the fallen Western Roman Empire and its capital Aachen was made a new Rome. In doing so, the Pope used the ideological reasoning of Translatio Imperii, the ‘translation of empire’ from one city to another. Using this ideology, translating the Roman Empire from Rome to Aachen, Charlemagne’s capital was considered a direct restauration of the Roman Empire: a return to form. This was necessary because the Eastern Roman Empire had appointed a female ruler, an unacceptable move according to the Pope, who responded by rejecting the Eastern Roman Empire as protector of his city. The Translatio Imperii was conducted according to Roman laws, such as the Constitutum Constantini and the Lex Regia, and as such can be considered the most official case of translation (Goez, 1960; Baar, 1957).

The separation of the city of Rome and the Roman Empire was the ideological basis for Translatio Imperii The historical basis for Translatio Imperii can be found in the partition of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, when Rome ceased to be the capital of the Empire, being replaced by Constantinople in the East and Milan in the West. Since then, the Roman empire no longer needed to be ruled from Rome itself (Hammer, 1944). After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the city of Rome was no longer under political control of the Roman Empire at all – save a brief reconquest in the sixth century under emperor Justinian (482 – 565) – yet the Eastern Roman Empire continued to call itself the Roman Empire. This separation of the city of Rome and the political entity that was the Roman Empire was the ideological basis for other states to proclaim their successorship to the Roman Empire.

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Why was the Catholic Church more interested in appointing a successor to the Roman Empire than simply naming a new Christian empire?

According to church doctrine, based on the writings of Daniel, there would be a succession of four empires before the advent of the Messianic kingdom. These four empires were, in order, the Babylonian, Achaemenid Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires (Stremooukhoff, 1953). As the first three had fallen, admitting the collapse of the Roman Empire would severely undermine one of the prophetic texts of the bible and thus church doctrine. As long as there was no Messianic kingdom, the Roman Empire had to exist in some form to affirm the doctrine. Accepting the end of the Roman Empire, according to the generally accepted interpretation of the bible, meant accepting the end of the world.

By the time Charlemagne’s Frankish Kingdom was made a successor empire to the Roman Empire, most of its conquests had already been completed. The Franks felt compelled to conquer Saxon lands in modern-day Germany to protect their economic and cultural interests along the Rhine. The Franks considered their conquests to be defensive in nature, although they were often the ones to declare wars of conquest, as opposed to the Romans, who could always find some way to be attacked or have an ally be attacked to paint themselves as peace-loving defenders.

The Franks, however, made few, if any, attempts to establish some sort of inherent superiority over the people they conquered. Cultural efforts under Charlemagne were mostly aimed at restoring and maintaining the use of Roman cultural heritage (Lozovsky, 2006).These efforts point more towards a desire to restore the ‘superior’ Roman culture and literature than establishing their own. This was perhaps, along with the ideology of restoring the Roman Empire through Translatio Imperii, a political bid to keep other ethnic groups in the Holy Roman Empire appeased. Some historians argue that the only reason Charlemagne had himself proclaimed Emperor was to appease the Saxons he ruled over, who would have rejected a foreign king, but accepted an emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was, after all, a fragile political construct held together almost entirely

by Charlemagne’s charismatic leadership. Two generations after him, the Empire was torn apart and never reunified (Mayr-Harting, 1996).

The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. - Voltaire The Ottoman Empire When the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and her Byzantine emperor Constantine XI lay dead in the ruins of his city, the sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481) claimed the Roman mantle, calling himself the Kayser-i-Rûm – Emperor of the Romans. On the face of it, the Ottoman declaration that it was the successor state to the Roman Empire was utterly bizarre. The Roman Empire had been Christian through and through for over a millennium by this point. Its doctrines and practices were heavily steeped in the state religion. Yet now a state with a rulership that soon after claimed to be the Caliph, the direct successor to the prophet Mohammed, claimed to be the successor of the Christian Roman Empire as well.

One of the actions undertaken to establish that the Ottoman Empire was a successor to Rome was installing a new (Ottoman-friendly) patriarch of Constantinople in the manner that was traditional in the Byzantine empire (Arnakis, 1952). The Sultan Mehmed II visited this patriarch often and, amongst other things, discussed theology with him. Establishing this relationship between the Sultan and the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople was a large step in demonstrating, especially to his Greek subjects, that the Ottoman Empire really was a continuation of the Roman Empire.

The pretences of continuation were solely meant for the Greek and other Christian subjects of the Empire, however.

For the rulership and their Islamic subjects, sharia law and the Ottomans’ nomadic steppe heritage was a far more important consideration. Sharia law dictated that an Islamic empire was legitimized if it was to practice Jihad: to convert non-Muslim lands to Islam. The Ottomans synthesized this with their heritage of border raids to consider virtually any war or border raid as religiously justified (Guilmartin, 1988). The Ottomans never considered their claim of

Sultan Mehmed II pronouncing Gennadios Scholarios the patriarch of Constantinople.

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succession to the Roman Empire as more than a way to legitimize themselves to a portion of their population: it hardly affected policies when compared to their Islamic state religion and their nomadic heritage.

Sultan Mehmed II visited the patriarch of Constantinople often and, amongst other topics, discussed theology with him.

The Russian Empire The Slavic peoples in Russia encountered the Eastern Roman Empire and the Christian religion through trade.

Orthodox Christianity was spread into Russia and the lands were integrated into the patriarchal system, falling under the patriarch of Constantinople (Stremooukhoff, 1953). After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, Christianity, and especially Orthodox Christians, experienced a crisis. The Orthodox church had been woven into the fabric of the Roman Empire since the time of Constantine the Great (272 AD–337 AD). Now that the Byzantine Empire was finally gone, the existence of the Orthodox church was threatened. Initially, sentiment in Russia leaned towards freeing Constantinople and reestablishing the Byzantine Empire. Later, however, as the dreams of a liberated and restored Roman Empire faded, sentiment shifted to finding a new capital of Orthodoxy. A monk from the province of Pskov in Russia first referred to Moscow as the new Constantinople (Stremooukhoff, 1953). This vision caught on, and quickly the concept of the Russian Empire as the new Roman Empire led to an explosion in the translation and printing of Latin texts, and a portrayal in history of the Russian people as direct descendants and successors to the Romans (Baehr, 1978).

This was reinforced by the thousands of Byzantine refugees who fled to Russia when Constantinople fell and who now fell under the protection of the Muscovites. Tsar Ivan III also married Constantine XI’s niece, establishing a lineage between the last Byzantine emperor and his offspring.

The settled people in Russia had always been plagued by nomadic raiders living on the steppes and demanding tribute or pillaging land. In fact, at the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Russia was a tributary vassal of one of the successor states of the Mongol Empire. The Russian Empire expanded, for a large part, to control the steppes and prevent nomadic raiders from pillaging the Roman heartland, similarly to how the Roman Empire purported to expand its borders to defend what it had already conquered.

The geography of Russia does not lend itself easily to natural borders, which tend to be excellent defences, and so the Russian Empire expanded to find some form of protection. This form of expansion is not tied ideologically to the Russian claim of successorship to the Roman Empire; it was simply out of pragmatic concerns (LeDonne, 1997).

As it turned out, the natural borders Russia ended up finding was the coast of the Pacific Ocean. As with the Romans, Russian historians considered their people to be superior to others when posed with the question of how Russia expanded so successfully, even over the Romans and Greeks which Russia claimed to succeed (Baehr, 1978).

Russians presented themselves in art and poetry as being better than the peoples over which they ruled, giving them a mandate to do so (Baehr, 1978).

St. Basil’s Cathedral is one of Moscow’s most iconic buildings.

Its architecture prominently features elements inspired by Byzantine architecture, such as its arches.

Courtesy of Vyacheslav Argenberg

21 Daan Jansen

This brief overview shows us that empires can use the same source of legitimacy for different reasons. The Holy Roman Empire claimed to succeed the Roman Empire in large part to ensure stability in the diverse and poorly administrated realm, while the Ottoman Empire did so in a bid to gain the loyalty of their Greek denizens. In Russia, the fall of the Roman Empire seems to have spurred a sense of national confidence, at least among the intelligentsia and aristocracy, and inspired them to fight against the steppe peoples that raided them for centuries until then.

States claiming successorship of Rome also raises a question we cannot properly answer, but is interesting nonetheless to consider as a final note: When did the Roman Empire end?

The Empire’s separation from the city meant that territory was no longer an identifying factor for any empire claiming to be “Roman”. Neither was culture or religion, because the empire experienced major shifts in both from the city’s founding up until its fall in 476, and especially the Eastern Roman Empire’s fall in 1453. Who had the authority to claim their empire was Roman? Why should, for example, an internal coup in the Eastern Roman Empire be considered a continuation of the Empire, while when Mehmed II took over and proclaimed himself emperor of Rome, it was not? Did the authority to identify the ‘real’ Roman Empire

then rest in the hands of the Pope, officially divorced from worldly affairs? If so, could he name a new successor? Could anyone? Essentially, the identity of any empire is all down to a vast political and cultural show, and the act of claiming succession to Rome is simply one episode in the epic play of nation-building and empire forming.

References • Arnakis, G. G. (1952). The Greek church of Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire. The journal of modern history, 24(3), 235–250. Geraadpleegd van https://www.jstor.org/stable/1875481 • Baar, P. V. (1957). Die kirchliche Lehre der Translatio Imperii Romani. Rome, Italy: Apud Aedes Universitatis Gregorianae.

• Baehr, S. I. (1978). From history to national myth.

Translatio imperii in eighteenth-century Russia. The Russian review, 37(1), 1–12. Geraadpleegd van https:// www.jstor.org/stable/128360 • Goez, W. (1958). Translatio Imperii: Ein beitrag zur Geschichte des Geschichtsdenkens und der politischen Theorien im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck.

• Guilmartin, J. (1988). deology and conflict. The wars of the Ottoman Empire 1453-1606. The journal of interdisciplinary history, 18(4), 721–747. Geraadpleegd van https://www.jstor.org/stable/204822 • Hammer, W. (1944). The concept of the new or second Rome in the middle ages. Speculum, 18(1), 50–62. Geraadpleegd van https://www.jstor.org/ stable/2856854 • Keyes, C. W., & Cicero. (1928). On the Republic. On the Laws. Geraadpleegd van http://www.hup.harvard. edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674992351 • LeDonne, J., & William, C. F. (2006). The grand strategy of the Russian empire, 1650-1831. The Journal of Modern History, 78(3), 744. Geraadpleegd van https:// www-jstor-org.vu-nl.idm.oclc.org/stable/10.1086 • Lozovsky, N. (2006). Roman geography and ethnography in the Carolingian empire. Speculum, 81(2), 325–364. Geraadpleegd van https://www-jstororg.vu-nl.idm.oclc.org/stable/20463714 • Mayr-Harting, H. (1996). Charlemagne, the Saxons, and the Imperial coronation of 800. The English historical review, 111(444), 1113–1133. Geraadpleegd van https://www-jstor-org.vu-nl.idm.oclc.org/ stable/575852 • Polybius, & Paton, W. R. (2010). The Histories.

Geraadpleegd van http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ catalog.php?isbn=9780674996373 • Stremooukhoff, M. (1953). Moscow the third Rome.

Sources of the doctrine. Speculum, 28(1), 84–101.

Geraadpleegd van https://www-jstor-org.vu-nl.idm. oclc.org/stable/2847182 • Willey, D. (2017, 25 maart). EU summit: My part in the Treaty of Rome signing [Persbericht]. Geraadpleegd op 7 december 2018, van https://www.bbc.com/news/ world-europe-39365281

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Een eeuw .

Geschiedenis

Boekrecensie Geschiedenis aan de Zuidas

Tijs Hopman

In het jaar waarin de laatste geweerschoten over de uitgestrekte velden van Noord-Frankrijk te horen waren, en de opklaring van de mist van buskruit en mosterdgas de gruwelen van wat men ‘The Great War’ zou noemen aan de wereld tentoonspreidde, werd niet alleen aan het westers front geschiedenis geschreven. Dit gebeurde ook in onze eigen hoofdstad zelf, aan de nog jonge Vrije Universiteit. Want 38 jaar na haar stichting in 1880, werden in 1918 de twee eerste twee hoogleraren Geschiedenis aan de VU beëdigd, waarbij de studie Geschiedenis aan de VU een feit was. Gedurende de eeuw die volgde groeide de studie Geschiedenis aan de VU en ontsproten diverse – en deels unieke – takken van historisch onderzoek, zoals economische geschiedenis en global history. Om de 100ste dies van de studie Geschiedenis te vieren hebben alle docenten van de staf Geschiedenis een essay geschreven over hun eigen veld om zo de diversiteit van het historisch onderzoek aan de VU te tonen en de rijkheid van de studie te prijzen in de bundel Geschiedenis aan de Zuidas.

Onder redactie van Fred van Lieburg zijn deze essays vormgegeven. Van Lieburg begint zijn korte introductie met een kleine ontstaansgeschiedenis van de studie, waarbij hij ook ingaat op de vorm van het werk en de gedachte daarachter. Hij stelt dat hij wil laten zien waar de opleiding Geschiedenis voor staat, wat naar voren zou moeten komen in de essays. Daarom is er niet gekozen voor een geschiedkundige kijk op de studie. Ook omdat dit volgens hem al naar behoren is gedaan tijdens het honderdjarig bestaan van de VU zelf in 1980, en “een vervolgstudie over de periode van 1980 tot 2018 niet […] de bedoeling [is]”(Van Lieburg, p.12). Hiermee ondermijnt hij zijn eigen opvatting over unieke specialismen als global history, die na 1980 zijn ontstaan, omdat er nu geen geschiedkundig overzicht over deze specialismen bestaat. Wat erg jammer is, ook omdat de periode na 1980 zeer invloedrijk is geweest voor nieuw geschiedkundig denken. Toch lukt het Van Lieburg wel om de status quo rond de studie Geschiedenis overzichtelijk weer te geven.

De overgangen van en tussen de essays verlopen soepel.

Beginnend met een essay over de algemene theorieën over de geschiedkunde, volgen de stukken elkaar in relatief chronologische volgorde op, waarbij eerst de oudheid aan bod komt en geëindigd wordt rond de laatste eeuwwisseling.

Door deze chronologische structuur is het makkelijk om te oriënteren waar men zich binnen het groter algeheel van essays bevindt; er ontstaat een rode draad die de unieke essays aan elkaar rijgt. Doordat de meeste essays hedendaagse fenomenen of problemen als aanknooppunt hebben, wordt de lezer wel opgeslokt in het verleden, maar raakt hij niet verstrikt in het moeras van te gedetailleerde onderzoeken die zich tot kleine onderwerpen beperken.

Dit wordt versterkt doordat de schrijfstijl van de meeste auteurs relatief luchtig is, waaruit blijkt dat de meesten zich ervan bewust zijn te schrijven voor een breder publiek dan slechts hun wetenschappelijke naasten.

Hoewel de artikelen zelf relatief goed geschreven zijn, zijn er toch enkele punten van kritiek die niet onbehandeld kunnen blijven. Men moet vooral geïnteresseerd zijn in geschiedenis (of onderzoek) aan de VU zelf, waardoor het publiek wellicht klein is. Sterker nog, het boek heeft de neiging tot tijdscapsule te vervallen door zijn specifieke tijdsgebonden thema: geschiedenisonderzoek in 2018. Wanneer docenten met pensioen gaan of de VU verlaten, verliest het werk zijn relevantie omdat het de dan contemporaine lezer niet langer weergeeft waar de onderzoekers zich over buigen.

En dit kan al over een jaar of maand het geval zijn.Vooral nu de nieuwe internationale track van de studie is gelanceerd, wat mij brengt tot een ander punt van kritiek, namelijk dat het jammer is dat alleen het onderzoek naar voren komt, niet verhalen van studenten, de studievereniging, de faculteit en alumni. Geschiedenis aan de VU is niet alleen onderzoek.

Zonder studenten zouden docenten niemand hebben om te doceren. Het is daarom spijtig dat zij de verjaardagskaart van de jarige studie niet mochten ondertekenen.

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Natuurlijk is dit laatste punt deels persoonlijk aangezien ik zelf tot de studenten behoor, maar over het algemeen sta ik achter mijn kritiek. De essays zijn wel goed geschreven en geven een goed beeld van het karakter van het huidige onderzoek aan deVU. Het boek is dan ook zeker aan te raden aan hen die willen weten waar het onderzoek – of waar geschiedkundig onderzoek zelf – staat. Een kleiner publiek zoals studenten aan de VU die geïnteresseerd zijn in waar hun docenten over schrijven, en andere geïnteresseerden in geschiedkundig onderzoek die zich afvragen wat dit heden ten dage inhoudt. Maar in de verankering aan de huidige tijd zit ook het probleem, namelijk dat het boek voor het grote gevaar staat tot tijdscapsule te vervallen. Van Lieburg schetst een overzichtelijke geschiedenis van de studie aan de VU, maar dit blijft slechts tot een inleiding. Het is jammer dat ter viering van het 100-jarige bestaan van de studie Geschiedenis slechts een deel van het geheel wordt gepresenteerd, het wetenschappelijk onderzoek. En het is jammer dat een boek dat een eeuw aan geschiedkundig onderzoek én onderwijs viert slechts een deel van het geheel weergeeft.

Titel: Geschiedenis aan de zuidas. Essays van vu-historici.

Auteur: Fred van Lieburg (eds.)

ISBN: 9789044638356 Paperback Uitgever: Prometheus, Amsterdam Jaar: 2018 Aantal pagina’s: 224

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Jasmijn Groot “If someone was to tell me 10 years ago that Alex Turner would eventually ditch his shy and recalcitrant personality, develop an Elvis-influenced gimmick, and appear dressed as a Chippendale’s employee in a music video for his baroque pop band, I would look at you as if you had just been fed LSD”. This YouTube comment pretty much sums up the discussion about the remarkable transformation that the Arctic Monkeys frontman has undergone during his twelveyear-spanning career. He went from being an ostensibly shy 19-year-old singer and songwriter who was seemingly reluctant to accept his place in the limelight, to an outgoing showman, donning sleek appearances and entertaining his audiences with over-the-top performances. This change has not gone unnoticed by the media or by his fans. Some have chastised Turner for becoming something that he has actively mocked in the past or that does not seem to fit his character, while others are simply gob-smacked (Hiat, 2013; Peters, 2017). Looking away from Turner’s notable increased confidence and his ever-growing abilities, instead focusing on his artistic drive as a musician and a lyricist, one thing becomes undeniably clear: he was never going to stay the same.

The early Arctic Monkeys Born and raised in High Green, Sheffield, Alex Turner was exposed to a wide array of different music genres throughout his childhood; his mother, Peggy, for example, would turn up the volume whenever the songs of her favourite artists would be on the radio, ranging from the Beatles and the Beach Boys to Led Zeppelin and David Bowie; his father, David, on the other hand, was a member of a big band, playing the saxophone, trumpet and piano, and listening to jazz and swing music at home. Although this early influence would have a lasting impact during Turner’s career as an adult, it was during his adolescence that he started developing his own personal taste in music, which

would become a staple for the Arctic Monkeys sound.

When he went to secondary school,Turner bonded with his friends over rap music—Roots Manuva’s 2001 album Run Come Save Me in particular has often been cited as one of the biggest inspirations for Turner and his bandmates Matt Helders, Jamie Cook and Andy Nicholson. However, their band might never have come to life if it had not been for new guitar bands that broke the scene the same year, such as the Swedish band The Hives, Jack and Meg White’s The White Stripes and above all New York City-based band The Strokes. The popularity of these bands made Turner, Cook and Nicholson want to learn how to play the guitar— with Helders volunteering to play the drums (Absolute Radio, 2011; Hilburn 2006).

The newly formed Arctic Monkeys started rehearsing in 2002 and began performing their first gigs in local bars and pubs in Sheffield in the summer of 2003. Turner had been pointed out as the band’s leading man, singer and songwriter. Although known as being quite reserved, both his band mate Jamie Cook and his former English teacher Simon Baker have later stated that they knew Turner had a profound fondness for poetry and a way with words (Rogers, 2010). The early themes of Turner’s song writing, as featured on the Arctic Monkeys demos recorded from 2003 onwards, as well as their first album, revolved around acute observations from Turner’s day to day life (Lie Likes Music, 2018): When the Sun Goes Down, for example, deals with the stark contrast between the appearance of Sheffield at daytime and the dark prostitution trade he observed at night. Another song, Fake Tales of San Francisco, is about their early days performing in pubs and bars, getting no recognition from the audience, while other performers put on their ego, claiming to be from fabulous places like New York City.

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The Arctic Monkeys rocked their way into the mainstream music scene in October 2005 when the video for their first single aired. With a crackling voice, Turner started the performance by uttering the now famous statement: “We’re Arctic Monkeys, this is I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. Don’t believe the hype.” What followed was a live performance in a studio for a small audience, filmed with television cameras from the 1980s to give the video an aged effect. The character of the video was a direct reference to the Strokes’ video for Last Nite, which was filmed in a similar fashion back in 2001.The band’s outfits—polo shirts, jeans and sneakers—also gave a sense of who their biggest inspirations were, as did their demure performance. It set the tone for people’s perception of the Arctic Monkeys for years to come.

Turner’s onstage persona in particular has been placed under a magnifying glass by fans and the media ever since.

In his first music video, Turner would keep close to the microphone, often looking down to his guitar, only letting himself go when playing his guitar solos, though even then there still seemed to be some restrictions in his movements.This has often been seen as shyness on his part.

However, it seems more likely that the Monkeys’ image was much more thought through than that. A closer inspection reveals that their performances resemble those of the bands that inspired them back then. On top of that, the Arctic Monkeys was still relatively unknown when the video was recorded. They were still playing in small venues and they were selling their demos for free, as they felt it would have been arrogant to ask money for them. Turner and the other Monkeys wanted their down-to-earth demeanour to reflect in their performances (Lie Likes Music, 2018).

The Arctic Monkeys’ first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, released on January 20th 2006, remains the best-selling British debut album of all time.

Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, followed in rapid succession in early 2007. The new songs seemed very similar to those of the first album. However, some changes were detectable in both the lyrics and the sound of the new album. Turner had moved away from his hometowninspired song writing to more general themes like fame, love and heartbreak. On top of that, the music on Favourite Worst Nightmare was in fact much rougher, faster, louder and harder, exemplified by tracks like Brianstorm. Helder’s drumming on these kinds of tracks were inspired by the DJ’ing gigs that Cook had conducted in between performances and recording sessions. Other songs, like If You Were There, Beware, give off a hint of more melodic guitar inspirations by bands like The Smiths for Cook and Turner.

There is also a profound interest for Italian composer Ennio Morricone. The final track on the album, 505, for example, opens with a tune that is very similar to that of a song on the soundtrack for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, written

by Morricone (Lie Likes Music, 2018).

Turner was presented in the media as shy and uncomfortable with fame.

When the recording of Favourite Worst Nightmare started, bass player Nicholson decided to leave the band, and was quickly replaced by Nick O’Malley, a childhood friend of the other members. Despite this change in personnel, the band’s appearance and style of performance remained much the same, with a few exceptions made during certain occasions: the band performed their new song Fluorescent Adolescent on The Jonathan Ross Show dressed up as clowns.

The band’s getup was in direct line with the style of the music video for the song, in which a group of clowns get into a fight. The band repeated this kind of gimmick during the Brit Awards ceremonies in 2007 and 2008: there they appeared dressed as characters from The Wizard of Oz, the members of the Village People and in upper class hunting attire.These appearances should be seen as the band poking fun at the institutes that focus too much on turning these kinds of awards shows into a circus. It was the band’s way of saying that they were not interested in it. Instead, they conveyed that they were focused on making music and growing as artists.

Nevertheless, Turner’s public appearances, speeches and interviews continued to generate an image of him as a quiet front man, who seemed somewhat uncomfortable with fame. In the years after the release of his first two records, though, he was very much progressing musically and by no means scared to try new things. Two friends and colleagues were of vital importance for Turner during this time to move forward and explore broader musical territories.

Miles Kane & Josh Homme From 2005 onwards, the Arctic Monkeys were supported on their tours by Merseyside native Miles Kane—first as the guitarist of the Little Flames, later as the frontman of The Rascals. Turner and Kane started playing together after performances and quickly became friends. Kane even got to play on some of the material for the Arctic Monkeys, providing guitar riffs on the closing tracks of Favourite Worst Nightmare. In April 2007, Turner and Kane started writing material for a collaborative project, which would become known as The Last Shadow Puppets. They released their first album, The Age of the Understatement on February 20th 2008.

Prior to writing together, Turner and Kane had listened to artists and composers from the 1960s, such as Scott Walker, David Axelrod, Ennio Morricone, David Bowie’s early work, and other material by progressive rock stars from the day (The Last Shadow Puppets interview with Zane Lowe, 2016).

Together they created a sound that was an accumulation of these inspirations. For both it was a style that was unlike anything they had played before: a combination of classical

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and rock music, with Turner and Kane playing the guitar and their producer James Ford providing percussion, supported by an entire classical orchestra. To complement their new musical style, the duo donned recognizable 60s haircuts and outfits for their tours and music videos, radiating the early fashion of The Beatles. Thus, like with the Arctic Monkeys, Turner’s appearance was yet again very much in tune with his inspiration. His sober performances, which were mirrored by Kane, however, were the same as during his days with the Arctic Monkeys.

During the summer of 2008, Turner started writing new material for the Arctic Monkeys. The band sent some of these new songs to American producer Josh Homme—who is also known as the guitarist and singer for the Queens of the Stone Age and as the drummer for the Eagles of Death Metal. He told the Arctic Monkeys to “come to the desert”, meaning the Rancho De La Luna recording studio in Joshua Tree, California. There, with Homme as their producer, the Arctic Monkeys began recording their third album, which turned out to be a significant turning point in the band’s repertoire (Lie Likes Music, 2018).

Humbug was released on August 19th 2009. On this album, the band went outside of their comfort zone and created a sound with which they completely defied expectations.

Instead of fashioning their songs to the lyrical themes and to the kind of music they had become known for, the band had moved even further away from their original sound than they had on Favourite Worst Nightmare.Their inspiration was drawn from an unprecedented scale of various artists, with Homme introducing them to musicians ranging from

Jimi Hendrix to Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jake Thackray, John Cale, Nick Cave and Roky Erickson.The band also used instruments that they had never used before, such as baritones and slide guitars, xylophones, glockenspiels, shakers, new percussion instruments and a variety of keyboards. Turner’s song writing abilities had notably grown too. He was eloquent as ever, but his lyrics addressed more personal stories through stronger allegories (Fluorescent Teddy, 2016; Lie Likes Music, 2018).

The first music video accompanying the album was for the song Crying Lightning. Not only did the style of the video make it clear that the band was entering new territory, the appearance of (most of) the band members had very obviously seen some transformation too. Turner, Cook and O’Malley had grown their hair and had swapped their polo shirts for blazers and turtlenecks, which were alternated on stage by crisp blouses and tight leather jackets. Thereby they further signalled that they had moved beyond their early days as musicians. Although the videos for Humbug were different in nature compared to previous ones, Turner’s personality still came across as demure. This was exemplified particularly in the video for his praised song Cornerstone, in which Turner performs the song solo in a red turtleneck in front of a bare white wall.

Although the band had already decided that they would not produce the same kind of material after their first album, Turner’s collaboration with Kane and his subsequent work with Homme widened his and the Monkeys’ horizon tremendously. Especially after Humbug, they could basically take any new musical direction they liked. But, admittedly,

27 Jasmijn Groot

whilst the band’s sound was changing quickly, Turner’s showmanship lagged behind a little. Not for much longer, though, or so it would seem.

America and the second Puppets album When the Arctic Monkeys started promotion for their fourth album Suck It and See in 2011, Turner gradually adapted a retro American rock star updo, dressing himself in leather biker jackets, bowling shirts and Ray Ban sunglasses, while combing his hair in a greased elephant trunk rockabilly quiff. He was clearly channelling the same style as the new American country influences that were at the base of the new record—such as Johnny Cash, George Jones and Patsy Cline. However, even though the album was deemed more accessible than its predecessor, Turner’s transformation was the most drastic one his fans had seen so far. His live performances changed just as much— or maybe even more: he started dancing on stage, loosening up when playing his guitar solos, even getting to his knees at times or strutting around and flirting openly with his female fans. The musical exploration on Humbug had already alienated some diehard Arctic Monkeys fans.

Now, the new Alex Turner raised even more questions: why was he trying so hard to be cool all of a sudden (Hiatt, 2013; Peters, 2017)?

Some journalists started whispering that Turner’s evolution was due to the band having to convince their new American audiences. Because, aside from tapping into increasingly more American influences, Turner and his band also wanted to break through into the contemporary American music market. By 2012, the Arctic Monkeys had even based themselves in Los Angeles, California and started touring the U.S. as a supporting act for the Black Keys. However, looking at Turner’s new getup at the time, it should have been fairly obvious to outsiders that he and his band were actively exploring a new and extensive musical territory behind—just like they had done during the recording of Humbug, when the new longer hairdos of most of the members of the band symbolized an artistic transformation as well (Absolute Radio, 2011; Goodwyn, 2012; Lies Like Music, 2018).

The first new single that the Arctic Monkeys released during their tour with the Black Keys, R U Mine?, confirmed this. They were drawing inspiration from an even wider array of genres than ever before, such as psychedelic, blues, desert and hard rock, heavy metal, R&B, soul, and hip hop and artists like Outkast, Aaliyah, Black Sabbath and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust-era. They created a new album, to which they wanted people to be able to dance to, or to blast from their speakers like a Dr. Dre record. Therefore, the new album was recorded mainly with bass guitar and drums laid down first to put emphasis on groove. With it, they created a true conceptual studio album, with a sexier rock and roll sound. Turner’s image once again fit exactly with his musical inspiration and the new musical direction he was taking with his band (Hiatt, 2013; Lie Likes Music, 2018; Stevens, 2013). The new album, AM, was released on September 9th 2013. Not only was it the Arctic Monkey’s fifth consecutive number one record in the United Kingdom, they also conquered the American market.

Turner started dancing on stage and flirting with his female fans. Was he trying to be cool?

After their tour for AM ended in late 2014, the Arctic Monkeys went on indefinite hiatus. After having released five albums and three EPs within seven years and being on tour for months on end, Turner was suffering from writer’s block and did not know which direction he wanted to take the band into (Perry, 2018). In the meantime, though, he turned to other projects. First, he was contacted to assist Alexandra Savior in writing songs for her debut album Belladonna Sadness.Turner accompanied his new protégé on her tour in 2016, during which he again showcased some of his newly acquired showmanship antics (Wilkinson, 2016). He also started writing songs again with his friend Miles Kane. After eight years of silence, they produced new material for their band. As The Last Shadow Puppets they released their second album, Everything That You’ve Come to Expect, on April 1st 2016.

The album was more experimental than the first one, as the duo had decided to entirely step away from the artists

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Alex Turner’s astounding productivity is not only evident in his work for the Arctic Monkeys, with whom he had recorded five albums and three EPs between 2005 and 2013, but also by the many collaborations he undertook when the band was on a break. Since 2007, Turner has worked together with Richard Ayoade, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, Richard Hawley, Dev Hynes, Miles Kane, Queens of the Stone Age, Dizzee Rascal, Reverend and the Makers and Alexandra Savior.

that had inspired the sound on their first record. Their new sources of inspiration instead consisted of a much wider array of international artists from different era’s, ranging from Isaac Hayes, Leonard Cohen and Todd Rundgren to the Style Council, Jacques Dutronc and Serge Gainsbourg (The Last Shadow Puppets interview with Zane Lowe, 2016). Like before, Turner’s song writing was praised for his particular use of language and melody. However, most likely because he was still working with Savior at the time, his lyrics on the new Puppets album were much more romantic and straightforward than his previous work. Some of the new songs became very open love letters to his thengirlfriend Taylor Bagley. Although Turner had previously written about the ups and downs of his relationships (with Alexa Chung and Arielle Vandenberg, e.g.) and had even written Fluorescent Adolescent together with a former partner (Johanna Bennett), these new songs were much less abstract than before. Sweet Dreams, TN for example, is a direct declaration of love to Bagley, whose appearance (“You’re the first day of spring/with a septum piercing”) and origin (“Little Miss Sweet Dreams, Tennessee”) are clearly referenced.

The pair also donned new outfits. They switched between resort-style clothing, such as brightly coloured fitted polo shirts, marine style shirts and high waist tapered or flared trousers, with which they resembled their French examples.

They alternated these with pastel suits or more rockerlike skinny jeans, wife beaters and satin morning jackets.

Eventually, they even adopted a sleezy, Italian mafia-like style, with coloured oversized suits and blouses with animal prints. The unprecedented turn that Turner had made in his stage performance reached its height during his tour with Kane: he would dance on stage, waving his arms in the air and swinging his hips. When recording of these live events occurred, he would look straight into the camera, pulling weird faces or wooing his prospected viewers. He would also run around the stage, with a microphone or a beer in one of his hands, crawling or rolling around the floor, even mimicking bike riding movements.What was also noticeable was that he and Kane showed much more overt affection for one another on stage than they had done before: they frequently hugged and embraced each other during performances or they stood eye to eye whilst playing the guitar.

Return of the Arctic Monkeys After the second Puppets album, Turner wanted to stay away from love songs for a while. When he had watched Federico Fellini’s movie 8 ½ in 2016, he became inspired by its depiction of writer’s block, childhood memories and

the science fiction genre. It encouraged him to start writing music for the Arctic Monkeys again. The new direction he was taking immediately seemed miles off from AM, though.

His bandmates were not interested in producing a record that sounded similar to the last one either, but guitarist Jamie Cook stated that he was completely taken aback when Turner showed him his first demos in early 2017— so much so, that Cook even suggested Turner should turn the material into a solo album. With Turner not wanting to pursue a project on his own, Cook and O’Malley started writing guitar and bass parts for his demos. Recording began in September of that year (Havens, 2018; Perry, 2018).

On May 11 2018 the Arctic Monkeys released their first album in five years: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Like its predecessors Humbug and AM, the new album completely subverted the audience’s expectations and again notably polarized listeners and early fans. The album is another concept album, but a tremendous departure from AM, which was riff-driven, more commercial and easier to listen to. Turner composed songs on the piano instead of the guitar and the rest of the band made a shift too, from leaning on electric and acoustic guitars to synthesizers and keyboards, reminiscent of space age pop.They incorporated new influences from jazz, soul, progressive rock and funk, as well as the French pop and 1960s film soundtracks that Turner had already explored with Miles Kane for The Last Shadow Puppets. He also did away with the traditional song structures and lengths, adding unconventional chord progressions in the mix. The result is an album that is about a luxury hotel in Tranquility Base, the site of the moon landing in 1969. Turner sings in multiple tones to embody different narrators, who are either unable to string their lines together or try to explore entertainment’s role in periods of social change, using “hyperrealist satire” and “interstellar escapism.” The music on the sixth album has already been compared by reviewers to the works of David Bowie, Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley and the Beastie Boys. Turner has acknowledged that the albums of at least some of these artists were indeed inspirations of his during the writing process (Havens, 2018; Perry, 2018).

The band performed their first single Four Out of Five on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon days before the release of the new album. Turner had quite clearly elaborated further on the sleezy Italian image he had put together with Kane: he had grown his greasy Puppets hairdo even longer, sported a beard and he wore pink sunglasses and a wide, browncoloured suit. On stage, he had taken his place behind a

29 Jasmijn Groot

keyboard, instead of standing upright with a guitar. Though in this new position his movements were limited, his facial expressions were more excessive and he still moved to the beat of the song. After uttering the last lyrics of the song, he even stood up from behind the keyboard, extending his arms to rising applause from the audience.

•

•

• Apparently Turner created such a solid image and sound for himself and his band during the first years of the Arctic Monkeys, that it has been difficult for early fans to let go of their expectations ever since. It has become almost impossible for Turner and his band to not alienate listeners, even though they already signaled between 2005 and 2009 that they wanted to continue to grow and transform as artists. It certainly must have been clear since the release of Humbug, that they can really go any way they want on a successive album. And we definitely can no longer deny since AM and Tranquility Base that those leaps in between can be really huge— and not only musically, but also imagewise. Perhaps some people are still not able to keep up.

Nonetheless, Turner’s talent, willingness to learn and transformative abilities, have made him one of the most fascinating and defining artists of the last decade. Whatever way you look at it, it will be interesting to see what he is going to do next. Let’s just hope we will not have to wait too long to find out.

•

•

•

•

• References • Absolute Radio. (2011, November 7). Arctic Monkeys interview on Absolute Radio [YouTube]. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MkG3TwRgbSM. • Fluorescent Teddy. (2016, September 19). Arctic Monkeys—Interview on The Culture Show (05-082009) [YouTube]. Retrieved November 24, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TL3k5BsdHQ. • Goodwyn, T. (2012, September 20). Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner hails John Lennon’s lyrics. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.nme.com/ news/music/arctic-monkeys-191-1260629.

• Havens, L. (2018, April 20). Inside Arctic Monkeys’ New Album: Alex Turner Discusses Why Swapping Guitar for Piano Led to the Band’s Most Ambitious Album. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from https:// www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8357304/ inside-arctic-monkeys-tranquility-base-hotel-casinoalex-turner-interview.

• Hiatt, B. (2013, October 21). How Arctic Monkeys Reinvented Their Sound. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/ music-news/how-arctic-monkeys-reinvented-theirsound-85214/.

• Hilburn, R. (2006, April 2). Welcome to the jungle.

Retrieved October 24, 2018, from http://articles. latimes.com/2006/apr/02/entertainment/ca-artic2/3.

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•

Lie Likes Music. (2018, May 8). Understanding Arctic Monkeys [YouTube]. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FPkz0m2WOs. Morton, S. (2013,April 29).Arctic Monkeys Fluorescent Adolescent Jonathan Ross show LIVE HD [YouTube].

Retrieved November 17, 2018, from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=GzCp1a5X6cU. MusicSongHDEs. (2018, May 10). Arctic Monkeys Four Out of Five Live Jimmy Fallon. [YouTube]. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=obmLqJvIFBU. Perry, K. E. G. (2018, May 11). NME Big Read: Arctic Monkeys ‘from the Ritz to the Hubble’. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://www.nme.com/bigread-arctic-monkeys-science-fiction-allows-explorereal-world.

Peters, M. (2017, July 26). When Did the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner Start Trying to Be Cool?

Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://www. theringer.com/2017/7/26/16077678/arctic-monkeyscool-recent-history-week-38033946b805 Rogers, J. (2010, April 25). Schoolteachers of rock.

Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www. theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/25/inspirationalmusic-teachers.

Stevens, J. (2013, July 30). Alex Turner on new Arctic Monkeys album: ‘It sounds like Dr Dre’. Retrieved November 24, 2018, from https://www.nme.com/ news/music/arctic-monkeys-160-1252025.

The Last Shadow Puppets interview with Zane Lowe [Video file]. (2016, May 2). Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZQUvhLnmetc.

Uncut. (2009, August 3). Arctic Monkey Alex Turner gives Uncut the lowdown on new LP! Retrieved November 18, 2018, from https://www.uncut.co.uk/ features/arctic-monkey-alex-turner-gives-uncut-thelowdown-on-new-lp-37345.

Wilkinson, M. (2016, September 20). Check Out Alexandra Savior, Alex Turner’s New Songwriting Partner. Retrieved November 20, 2018, from https:// www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/meet-alex-turnersnew-muse-alexandra-savior-8134.

This list is not complete.

A full list of references is available online.

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De (on)zichtbaarheid van vrouwelijke dirigenten Filmrecensie: De Dirigent

Titel: De Dirigent Regisseur: Maria Peters Acteurs: Christianne de Bruijn, Annet

Malherbe, Raymond Thiry en

Gijs Scholten van Aschat Jaar van uitkomst: 2018 Duur: 137 min 1926, New York. De 24-jarige Nederlandse Willy Wolters doet er alles aan om dirigent te worden. De titel zegt al genoeg: dat gaat haar lukken. Ook de openingsscène bevestigt dat: de kijker krijgt als eerst haar bos krullen te zien, gericht naar een orkest, daarna pas haar gezicht. Willy begeleidt bezoekers naar hun plaats voor het begin van een concert. Als het concert is begonnen, zet ze resoluut een stoel neer, midden in het gangpad, slaat een boek open met het muziekstuk, en begint zachtjes de dirigent in zijn bewegingen te volgen. Binnen een paar minuten wordt ze het concertgebouw uitgegooid, ontslagen.

Willy heeft al een bewogen leven achter de rug. Ze werd geadopteerd toen ze twee jaar oud was, werd meegenomen door haar adoptieouders naar New York, en had een moeilijke relatie met haar dominante adoptiemoeder. Na wat ogenschijnlijk een zeer willekeurige ruzie met haar adoptiemoeder lijkt, breekt ze met haar ouders en besluit ze resoluut als Antonia Brico, haar geboortenaam, door het leven te gaan.

De toon is gezet. De kijker leert Antonia kennen als gedreven, onbevreesde vrouw. Als ze haar droom hardop uitspreekt in een zaal vol hoogstaande muziekliefhebbers, waaronder haar favoriete dirigent Mengelberg, die 50 jaar de leiding over het Concertgebouworkest had, wordt ze uitgelachen. Dit houdt haar niet tegen, maakt haar zelfs strijdvaardiger. Ze start met pianolessen om tot het conservatorium toegelaten te worden en ondanks de grijpgrage handjes van haar pianoleraar zet ze door.

Na haar opleiding volgen we haar naar Nederland, op zoek naar haar biologische moeder. Ze hoopt daar meer succes te hebben om haar droom te bereiken, dus smeekt ze om dirigentlessen bij Mengelberg. Haar vriend in New York steekt daar een stokje voor, om er maar voor te zorgen dat ze terugkomt. In plaats daarvan stuurt Mengelberg

Emma Kemp haar naar Berlijn, waar ze, na een dramatische scène onder aan het raam van Karl Muck, streng wordt opgeleid en uiteindelijk het Berlijns Filharmonisch Orkest weet te dirigeren. Weer terug in Amerika slaagt ze er ook in het New Yorks Filharmonisch Orkest te begeleiden.

Zodra Antonia haar droom heeft verwezenlijkt en ze zichzelf dirigent mag noemen, start een bittere strijd om concerten te mogen spelen. Anders dan de titel doet vermoeden, duurt het wel even voordat we Antonia als dirigent zien.

De film kabbelt van gebeurtenis naar gebeurtenis, om aan het einde het puzzeltje van haar leven zo compleet mogelijk te krijgen. Hierdoor slaat de film zo veel zijwegen in dat het hele tafereel bijna onnatuurlijk overkomt. Het begint als romantische film, met #MeToo-taferelen en een mislukte verloving, die plotseling overslaat naar een historische strijd van een vrouw die haar plek in de mannelijke muziekwereld probeert te veroveren. Na anderhalf uur komt de titel pas tot zijn recht. Dat is de film die vanaf het begin getoond had moeten worden.

Ook al is de film gebaseerd op een waargebeurd verhaal, het lijkt of de regisseuse (!) niet de juiste gebeurtenissen heeft weten uit te lichten om het tot een samenhangend geheel te maken. Ook al werkt het meelijwekkend om haar constante strijd met haar ouders en de overheersend mannelijke muziekwereld te zien, het vasthouden aan de chronologie werkt niet mee aan de spanningsboog van het verhaal, maar zorgt eerder voor een langdradig effect.

Bij de aftiteling houdt de film nog niet op. Een laatste boodschap laat zien dat op de lijst met beste dirigenten ter wereld geen enkele vrouw staat, een lijst die in 2016 uitkwam. De oplettende kijker ziet dat het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest dat de filmmuziek speelde, werd begeleid door een man.

De film is absoluut een aanrader voor de romanticus, maar minder voor de historici. Die raad ik aan alleen het laatste half uur te kijken. De les komt overigens pas helemaal aan het einde. De Dirigent gaat niet zozeer om Antonia, maar om alle vrouwelijke dirigenten die sinds die tijd niet veel zichtbaarder zijn geworden. Wel is in mei 2018 een vrouw aangetreden als chef-dirigent van het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, een troost die iets te laat komt.

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Wagners eigen Isolde

Het ontstaan van Wagners opera Tristan en Isolde

Jedidja Stikkelorum

Het is 1858 als Christine Wilhelmine “Minna” Planer (18091866), de vrouw van de componist Richard Wagner (18131883), een liefdesbrief onderschept die door haar man is geschreven, maar niet voor haar bestemd is. Voordat ze de brief las, had ze al het vermoeden dat er iets gaande was tussen Richard en Mathilde (1828-1902), de vrouw van de Duitse zijdehandelaar Otto Wesendonck (1815-1896), die zich enkele jaren daarvoor in Zürich had gevestigd en daar de Wagners had ontmoet. Met haar “scherpe, vrouwelijke inzicht” had Minna begrepen dat er een liefde aan het opbloeien was tussen de twee vrienden, maar ze had er niets van gezegd. Richard nam aan dat zijn vrouw begreep dat een blijvende verbintenis tussen Mathilde en hem uitgesloten was. Hij verwachtte dat deze tolerante houding van zijn vrouw aan zou blijven houden, maar bleek zich ernstig te hebben vergist toen ze in plaats daarvan besloot een van zijn brieven open te scheuren. De liefkozende woorden bevestigden haar vermoedens en waren genoeg om haar “haar zinnen te doen verliezen” (Ellis, 1905), ook al beschreef de brief juist de noodzaak van de geliefden om afstand van elkaar te nemen. De opgewonden Minna besloot halsoverkop verhaal te halen bij Mathilde en een hoop stennis te schoppen. Hierna overtuigde Richard zijn vrouw ervan dat “het beter is voor ons om elkaar niet meer veel te zien”. In een brief aan zijn zus Klare doet hij verslag van het hele drama dat zijn ‘ongelukkige’ vrouw heeft veroorzaakt. Daarna verzucht hij dat hij door alle drukte nauwelijks tijd heeft gehad om te werken aan ‘mijn Tristan’ (Ellis, 1905).

Mathilde Wesendonck, Karl Ferdinand Sohn, 1850. De vrouw van Otto Wesendonck en geliefde van Richard Wagner. In bezit van: Stadt Museum in Bonn

In een staat van afzondering slaagt Richard er in 1859 in om zijn libretto Tristan te voltooien.

Het is deze Tristan die uiteindelijk uit zal bloeien tot de bekende opera Tristan en Isolde, die tot op heden te zien is in Europese operagebouwen (zo ook in het Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam). Na het fiasco van 1858 scheiden Minna’s en Richards wegen zich, hoewel ze de 10 jaar die nog resten voordat Minna overlijdt wel getrouwd blijven. Richard verbreekt bovendien definitief zijn relatie met Mathilde, waarna hij besluit zich volledig af te zonderen,

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Ludwig and Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the title roles of the original production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1865, Joseph Albert. De eerste opvoering van Wagner’s opera. In bezit van: Staatliche Verwaltung der Schlösser, München eerst in Genève en daarna in Venetië, “want”, zoals Richard aan Klare uitlegt, “het verdriet dat ik te verduren heb is groot” (Ellis, 1905). In deze staat van afzondering slaagt hij er in 1859 in om zijn libretto Tristan, dat wil zeggen de tekst die ten grondslag ligt aan zijn operabewerking, te voltooien. Zijn libretto baseert zich in sterke mate op vijf door Mathilde geschreven gedichten, die Richard in 1857 op muziek zette en bekend kwamen te staan als de Wesendonck Lieder. Hoewel Mathildes gedichten van groot belang zijn geweest bij de totstandkoming van Wagners opera, verdween haar naam al snel naar de achtergrond.

Musicoloog John Deathridge vertelt hoe Richard langzaam maar zeker Mathildes naam als auteur van de gedichten begon uit te wissen en zichzelf bij de publicatie van zijn Wesendonck Lieder op de voorgrond plaatste. De gedichten werden gedurende de 19e eeuw geheel en al gezien als het werk van Richard. Deathridge legt uit dat Frans Liszt (18111886), tijdgenoot en medecomponist, het lied beschouwde als “de artistieke uitdrukking van het (mannelijke) individu

dat compleet opgaat in zichzelf, de ultieme privékunst” (Deathridge, 2011). Zo ging ook Richard op in zichzelf door zich af te zonderen van de wereld en te werken aan zijn opera. Voor de uitwerking van dit liefdesdrama onderbreekt hij vrijwillig de compositie van zijn opera Siegfried aan het einde van de tweede akte. Volgens Robert Raphael, verbonden aan Queens College in New York, moest Richard Siegfried, waarin de liefde van Siegfried en Brünnhilde centraal staat, terzijde leggen om er in zijn Tristan en Isolde achter te komen wat zijn ideaal van ‘liefde’ nu precies inhield (Raphael, 1963).

Het verhaal van Tristan en Isolde is een der verleidelijkste en een der aandoenlijkste vormen van het liefdesideaal.

De legende van Tristan en Isolde lijkt het verhaal bij uitstek om dit liefdesideaal verder uit te werken. Het verhaal is “een der verleidelijkste en een der aandoenlijkste vormen van het [liefdes]ideaal” (Bédier, 1955, p. ix) – tenminste, als

33 Jedidja Stikkelorum

De vele gezichten van Tristan en Isolde Het verhaal van Tristan en Isolde is niet als één vaststaand verhaal overgeleverd, maar kent vele versies en vertalingen waarin bepaalde elementen missen of waaraan juist nieuwe elementen zijn toegevoegd. De twee belangrijkste overleveringen uit de 12e eeuw zijn die van de Franse schrijvers Béroul en Thomas d’Angleterre. De versie van Béroul werd door veel romantische kunstenaars ook wel de ‘version primitive’ genoemd, vanwege het bijna schunnige karakter van enkele episodes.

De versie van d’Angleterre werd door romantici onthaald als de ‘version courtoise’, vanwege het ‘hoofse’ liefdesideaal dat er volgens velen, waaronder uiteraard Paris, zo duidelijk in voorkwam. In de 13e eeuw werden de verhalen van Béroul en d’Angleterre onder handen genomen door Duitse vertalers, waarvan de belangrijkste Eilhart von Oberg en Gottfried von Strassburg zijn. Zij vertaalden echter niet alleen de 12e-eeuwse Franse versies, maar voegden ook andere onderdelen toe waar deze in de Franse overleveringen nog ontbraken. In 1900 bestudeerde Joseph Bédier (1864-1938), een Frans literatuurhistoricus, de verschillende varianten van het bekende verhaal en stelde hij, op basis van de vele fragmenten en episodes, een eigen roman samen. Hierbij hanteerde Bédier dus, net als de andere overleveraars, een eclectische manier van werken door niet de ‘oorspronkelijke’ versie van het werk te reconstrueren, maar zijn eigen ‘ideale’ weergave te creëren.

Uiteraard kon Wagner nog niet gebruik maken van Bédiers roman, omdat deze, in de tijd dat hij zijn opera aan het schrijven was, nog niet bestond. Wagner baseerde zijn opera waarschijnlijk vooral op de overlevering van Von Strassburg. De Duitse schrijver overleed echter in 1210 zonder het werk af te kunnen maken (Jaeger, Bahr & Ryan, z.d.). Voor een zo volledig mogelijke samenvatting van het verhaal van Tristan en Isolde is in dit artikel gebruik gemaakt van Bédiers versie.

we de Franse literatuurhistoricus Gaston Paris (1839-1903) moeten geloven. In het voorwoord van Joseph Bédiers versie van De Roman van Tristan en Isolde uit 1900 beschrijft hij de geschiedenis van het ongelukkige liefdeskoppel als “het paar dat van de aanvang af aaneengeschakeld was door een geheimzinnige en onverbreekbare band, dat geteisterd werd door alle stormen des levens, maar weerstand bood, dat tevergeefs trachtte zich van elkander los te rukken, en eindelijk werd meegesleept in een laatste en eeuwige omhelzing” (Bédier, 1955, p. ix). Deze onverbreekbare band ontstaat nadat Tristan, de vertrouweling van koning Mark van Cornwall, en Isolde, de toekomstige vrouw van Mark, op hun reis naar het hof van Mark per ongeluk de liefdesdrank nuttigen die voor Mark en Isolde was bedoeld. Vanaf dat moment branden de twee geliefden van verlangen voor elkaar en proberen ze, door list en bedrog, de argwanende knechten van koning Mark uit de weg te ruimen en elkaar in het geheim te blijven ontmoeten. Wanneer ze samen naar het woud van Morois vluchten om aan de toorn van koning Mark te ontkomen, komen ze tot inkeer door hun ontmoeting met kluizenaar Ogrin, die hun vertelt dat ze berouw moeten hebben en dat Isolde moet terugkeren naar Mark. Hoewel hierop nog enkele streken en listen volgen, keert Isolde inderdaad terug naar koning Mark en besluit Tristan zelfs met een naamgenoot van Isolde (Isolde met de Bleke Handen) te trouwen in de hoop zijn verdriet om de andere Isolde te kunnen stillen. In plaats daarvan wakkert Tristan alleen maar de jaloezie van beide dames aan en blijft het verlangen naar zijn Isolde onverminderd. Uit wraak belemmert Tristans vrouw een laatste ontmoeting tussen de twee geliefden, waarna Tristan en Isolde beiden uit liefdesverdriet sterven.

De tragedie van Tristan en Isolde vertoont opvallend veel gelijkenissen met het levensverhaal van Richard Wagner.

Koning Mark, de man die Tristan opnam in zijn hofhouding en hem behandelde als een zoon, neemt in Richards leven het gezicht aan van Otto Wesendonck, de rijke zijdehandelaar met een van de meest succesvolle textielimportbedrijven

in New York. Wesendonck gaf Richard geld om zijn schulden af te betalen en voorzag hem zelfs van een huis, vlakbij Otto’s imposante landgoed in Zürich (Deathridge, 2011). Net als Tristan valt Richard echter voor de vrouw van zijn beschermheer, waarna er een pijnlijk conflict ontstaat tussen zijn trouw aan zijn begunstiger enerzijds en zijn liefde voor deze onbereikbare vrouw anderzijds.

De hartstocht en tegelijkertijd de onmogelijkheid van de liefde tussen Richard en Mathilde worden duidelijk wanneer Richard zijn gevoelens aan Mathilde openbaart door haar zijn gedicht Tristan te overhandigen. “Toen verloor ze voor de eerste keer haar zelfbeheersing, en gaf ze toe dat ze moest sterven!” schrijft Richard aan zijn zus. Vervolgens probeert hij zijn zus ervan te overtuigen wat deze liefde voor hem betekende “na een leven van zwoegen en lijden, van opofferingen en oproer”. Tegelijkertijd begrijpt Richard dat “enige verbintenis tussen ons ondenkbaar was”, waarna hij en Mathilde besluiten hun liefde op te zeggen; “afstand nemen van elke egoïstische wens, leden we, doorstonden we, maar hielden van elkaar!” (Ellis, 1905). Een liefdesverhaal zo vol van tragiek, bevestigd door een dergelijke wanhopige liefdeskreet, lijkt regelrecht afkomstig te zijn uit de bekende legende. Minna, de vrouw van Richard, heeft bovendien wel wat weg van Isolde met de Bleke Handen, die het geluk van de twee geliefden definitief de grond in boorde met het drama van 1858. De heethoofdigheid van Minna staat echter in schril contrast met de vergaande toegevendheid van Otto. Chris Walton, redacteur bij The Musical Times, drukt zijn verbazing uit over Otto’s aanhoudende steun voor Richard, zelfs nadat deze hem had vernederd toen zijn geheime passie voor Mathilde openbaar werd gemaakt (Walton, 2002). Uit Richards brief aan zijn zus blijkt dat Otto allang op de hoogte was van de gevoelens tussen Richard en Mathilde. Ondertussen verweet Mathilde Richard dat hij niet ook zijn eigen vrouw in vertrouwen had genomen (Ellis, 1905). Toen de liefdesaffaire na het fiasco van 1858 algemeen bekend werd, was echter niet Otto, maar Richard de ultieme verliezer, toen deze zich met de staart tussen de benen moest terugtrekken en Zürich moest verlaten – alleen.

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De tragedie vertoont opvallend veel gelijkenissen met het levensverhaal van Richard Wagner.

Het is in deze staat van eenzaamheid dat Richard tracht uit te vinden wat de transcendente romantiek tussen Tristan en Isolde zo noodlottig maakt. Robert Raphael beschrijft hoe het hoge liefdesideaal zich in Richards opera langzaam maar zeker openbaart als een complete illusie, een vernietigende golf die hun afzonderlijke identiteit tenietdoet. Tristan en Isolde ontdekken dat het verliezen van hun eigen identiteit de enige manier is waarop ze hun liefde onsterfelijk kunnen maken. In plaats van elkaars identiteit te bevestigen, proberen ze hem juist te onderdrukken en te vernietigen om hun idee van de perfecte, transcendente liefde te laten voortleven. Het is deze illusie en de zelfgecreëerde visie van de liefde die de liefde van Tristan en Isolde tot zo’n kwelling maken, omdat ze niet echt is, maar een projectie. De enige manier om transcendente liefde te bereiken, is door weg te vluchten van de realiteit (Raphael, 1963). Wellicht weerspiegelt deze ongelukkige conclusie van Richards opera ook iets van de bittere waarheid waar Richard in zijn eigen leven tegenaan was gelopen. Het is zoals Richard het zelf uitlegt in een brief aan Liszt in 1854: “Omdat ik zelf nooit echt het geluk van liefde ervaren heb, wil ik een ander monument oprichten voor deze mooiste aller dromen” (Deathridge, 2011). Hoewel de liefde tussen Tristan en Isolde, evenals de liefde tussen Richard en Mathilde, geen oneindig leven was beschoren, blijft de opera van Wagner voortleven als een gedenkteken voor de prachtige illusie van het hoog verheven liefdesideaal.

Verantwoording • Bédier, J. (1900). De roman van Tristan en Isolde. Naar de bewerking van Joseph Bédier. Amsterdam-Antwerpen, Nederland: Wereld-Bibliotheek-Vereniging.

• Deathridge, J. (2011). Public and private life: on the genesis of Tristan und Isolde and the Wesendonck Lieder.

In A. Groos (Red.), Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde (pp. 19–35). Cambridge, Groot-Brittannië: Cambridge University Press.

• Ellis, W. A. (1905). Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck. London, Great Britain: H. Grevel & co. Geraadpleegd van https://archive.org/details/ richardwagnertom00wagnuoft/page/n7 • Raphael, R. (1963). The Redemption from Love in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”. Monatshefte, 55(3), 113-121. Geraadpleegd van http://www.jstor.org/ stable/30161854 • Ryan, J., Bahr, E., & S. Jaeger, C. (z.d.). German literature.

Geraadpleegd op 4 november 2018, van https://www. britannica.com/art/German-literature • Walton, C. (2002). Wagner, Otto and the Three Mathildes: Braut und Schwester bist du dem Bruder. The Musical Times, 143(1880), 37-47. doi:10.2307/1004549

End Tristan und Isolde Wagner Facsimile, Richard Wagner, 1857. Scan gemaakt door Tjako van Schie, 2009. Facsimile van het einde van Wagner’s opera.

In bezit van: Frankfurter Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek

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codex Historiae

Thema: Tijd Maart 2019

In maart verschijnt het nieuwe nummer van CODEX Historiae. Deze editie zal in het teken staan van het thema Tijd.

In dit themanummer kun je onder andere lezen over de Franse revolutionaire kalender, publieke opinie over de Nederlandse zeehelden door de eeuwen heen, en de strijd voor milieubehoud en klimaatverandering voor het te laat is...

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The next issue of CODEX Historiae will appear in march, and will be all about Time.

In this issue, you can read about the French revolutionary calendar, public opinion on Dutch naval heroes throughout the ages, and the battle for environmentalism before it’s too late...

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