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| Sunday, 20 November 2005 |
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Ode to dramatist, poet and historian - Friedrich Schiller by Aditha Dissanayake "Love is only known by him who hopelessly persists in love" wrote Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, in Don Carlos (1787). Born on November 10, 1759 in Murbach, Germany, in his short lifespan of 46 years Schiller established himself as a dramatist, poet and historian. Campaigning for physical and spiritual freedom and exploring the phycology of people in crisis through such plays as Wallenstein Cycle (1798-99), Mary Stuart (1800), The Maid of Orleans (1801) and William Tell (1804), in Don Carlos he exclaims ""Sire, give us the freedom of thought". Honoured with the title "von" by the Archduke of Weimer in 1784, he was nevertheless arrested when he wrote his first play "The Robbers" in 1781 because he had left his regiment to see it perform at Mannheim and was forbidden to write again. Through Don Carlos, his first major drama, he helped establish blank verse as the recognised medium of German Drama. The Goethe Institut, Colombo, will celebrate this renowned German playwright of the 19th Century on November 21 and 22 at the Goethe Hall at 6.00 p.m. Be there to listen to "Joy, thou goddess, fair, immortal/Off-spring of Elysium/Mad with rapture, to the portal/Of thy holy fame we come!...lines from "Ode to Joy" which was selected by Beethoven for the finale of his 9th symphony and which was performed on the evening of Nov. 6 at the Goethe Hall. On November 7, the filmic version of his drama, "Maria Stuart" directed by Heinz Schirk was screened. |
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