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Notes
Оглавление1 1 Asher-Greeve 2007, p. 329, and Heller 1993, p. 98.
2 2 Dante Alighieri neither excludes Semiramis nor Sardanapalus from his masterwork, the Divine Comedy (c. 1308 to 1320). Although he places the first in Hell and the second in Paradise, the two present themselves as human beings of questionable morals (Dante 2017).
3 3 In the Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine (1342), Boccaccio evokes Sardanapalus so that he “Venne poi Sardanapalo a mostrare come le camere s’ornino” (XXVI, p. 64) (“Come Sardanapalus to show how the room should be decorated”). The legendary king of ancient Assyria is not only the one who lives in luxury, but above all the one who adorns the rooms and is in charge of the arrangement of domestic furniture, tasks of the dependence of the female sphere (Boccaccio 1999).
4 4 Couderc 2015, p. 39. During the fourteenth century, Chaucer also mentions Semiramis in his work The Legend of Good Women, although he does so briefly and pointing out her role in the construction of Babylon.
5 5 Gilbert 1647, pp. 110–111.
6 6 Terrusi 2012, p. 617.
7 7 During this period, several books appear pointing out their virtues and defects, among which are those of Boccaccio and Christine de Pizan (Le Livre de la Cité des Dames [1405]). In fact, with regard to books and compendiums about famous women and their exploits, we should say that many of them were composed as the counterpart of works such as De viris illustribus from Petrarch (1337) where the virtues of men were presented.
8 8 Asher-Greve 2007, p. 331.
9 9 Makolkin 2009, p. 175.
10 10 As Victor Hugo would say “La lumière se fit spectre dans l’Orient,/Et fut Sémiramis” (“The light became a specter in the East,/And it was Semiramis,” Hugo 1889, p. 78).
11 11 Asher-Greve 2007, p. 340; Manfredi, 1953.
12 12 Manfredi’s Semiramis are inspired by Aristotle’s poetic conception, and can be inserted in the current version of Seneca’s millenary theater (Froldi 2006b, p. 115, Braden 1984, p. 285). All the aspects with which the author composes the life of the queen and those around her are extracted from classical literature.
13 13 Blanco 2015.
14 14 About this work, vide Couderc 2015, p. 43.
15 15 French author Desfontaines wrote La véritable Sémiramis in 1647 (Desfontaines, 1647). About this work vide Neville 1995.
16 16 Calderón produced La hija del aire in 1653 (Froldi 2003, pp. 319–320; Calderon de la Barca 1999).
17 17 The first tragedies to reach European stages were imbued with a strong political nature, intending to transpose to the scene the idiosyncrasies of the ruling circle. There was an implicit criticism and a reproduction of societal behavior, especially if we consider that some French and Spanish productions coincided with the beginning of the regency of Anne of Austria (Asher-Greve 2007, p. 341) or with the regency of Mariana of Austria (Froldi 2003, p. 319), such as Desfontaines’s and Calderón’s. A somewhat different Semiramis is presented by Gabriel Gilbert in 1647 in Sémiramis (Gilbert 1647). In his opus, the queen is just and courageous and is acclaimed by the people. The work is dedicated to the Duchess of Rohan. Thus, the Assyrian queen could only be presented as a woman of arms and courage (Conroy 2016, p. 84).
18 18 Although in the plays by Manfredi and Desfontaines incest is a consummate act, in Crébillon and Voltaire the same does not happen. The queen’s lusting for her son is introduced as a device to exploit her blindness. She does not recognize her son whom she thought was dead.
19 19 Ramsey 1969, p. 23.
20 20 In Voltaire, the central theme is the return of the son Arzace, the Ninias (using the nomenclature of the tragedy) who was thought missing, and the collusion between Semiramis and Assur, which had led to the death of King Ninus and the rise of the queen. Assur intended to impose himself on the throne by marrying the sovereign, although the latter, unaware of Arzace’s true identity, intended to marry him instead. In the end, the shadow of Ninus intervenes, claiming revenge and precipitating the events that lead to the fall and death of the queen and the rise to the throne of Arzace/Ninias.
21 21 It is possible that in addition to resorting to classical texts, the French author relied on the Armenian tradition about the queen based on the account of the eighth century by Moses Khorenati (Seymour 2014, p. 109 and 166).
22 22 Ramsey 1969, p. 32.
23 23 In the film’s screenplay, the queen is Tamaris (Semiramis), Sennacherib is her husband (Ninus), and the son, who for 15 years remained hidden, is Assur (Ninyas). The lover of Semiramis, who in Voltaire corresponds to Assur is, in this case, Canach.
24 24 Metastasio’s work does not include the late husband or their son as characters of the plot. The queen appears as the greatest authority of the kingdom, ruler of an extensive domain, capable of arbitrating the conflicts of her neighbors. She is presented as a true heroine. The author concludes the story with the verse: “Viva lieta, e sia Reina,/chi sin’ or su nostro Re” (“Let it be queen who has been as our king,” Metastasio 1737, p. 114). Thus, the implicit moral is that despite being disguised in masculine habits, the exercise of power could fit both a man or a woman.
25 25 Neville 1995, p. 117.
26 26 The spread of Metastasio’s work confirms its importance as a remarkable work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Italy.
27 27 Asher-Greve 2007, p. 345.
28 28 Produced in 1801 under the title La morte di Semiramide (Portugal 1801). Other known operas based on Voltaire include La morte di Semiramide by Nasolini (1790), La morte di Semiramide by Bianchi (1790), La vendetta di Nino by Prati (1786), and La vendetta di Nino by Borghi (1791).
29 29 Neville 1995, p. 120.
30 30 Metastasio 1737, p. 112.
31 31 Rossi [n.d.], p. 24.
32 32 “May secret crimes have the Gods has witnesses;/The greater the culprit, the greater the torment;/Kings tremble on the throne & fear their justice” (1749, p. 74). The French author had in mind a veiled criticism to the powers and the society of his time, whose vices he had surreptitiously exposed. Although he conferred a strong authority on the queen of the Assyrians and praised her good governmental performance, these aspects appeared to be intimately associated with her moral degeneration and the subtraction of power from his right owners.
33 33 Voltaire 1749, pp. 73–74 (“this death is due to me. (…) I forgive you everything”).
34 34 “Remember Adath, try to be worthy of her”.
35 35 Diod. Sic., 2.21. The historian contrasts his inept government with that of his mother who was a fighter by nature.
36 36 1737, p. 62.
37 37 Sardanapalien, Sardanapaliste (and other words) became adjectives for “depravity” or “transgression of gender boundaries” (Dictionnaire de la langue française du dix-seizième siècle apud. Fraser 2003, p. 315 and 329).
38 38 “Sardanapalus, last king of the Assyrians, was the most lascivious monster with an uncontrollable lust that lived in his time” (Maderni 1681, p. 5).
39 39 About this drama, vide Piffaut 2015.
40 40 An example of this are the parodies produced in the United States of America inspired by Byron’s play: Sir Dan O’Pallas, Chief of the Assyrian Jim Jams and Sardine-Apples!, King of Ninnyvah & Astoria, L.I., by Charles Calvert, performed in 1876 (Stauffer 2011, pp. 42–43).
41 41 For instance, Christian Ludwig Boxberg’s (1698) or David Lingelach’s (1699).
42 42 Such as La Mort de Sardanapale by Hector Belioz (1830), Sardanapalo by Rotondi, Sardanapalo by Franz Liszt, an opera composed in 1849, or the ballet composed by Hertel.
43 43 Letter from Byron to his editor John Murray with comments on the character (LJ VIII, 126–27 apud Pomarè 2014, pp. 264–265).
44 44 Byron 1823, p. 6.
45 45 Idem, ibidem.
46 46 Idem, p. 7.
47 47 Carman 2016, p. 234.
48 48 Byron 1823, Act III.
49 49 The Sardanapalo of Amadio’s movie is not effeminate and may even be considered a kind and thoughtful king. Vide Part II, Chapter 7.
50 50 About this aspect, vide Poole 1999.
51 51 Byron was an active voice (Carman 2016, p. 237, Poole 1999, p. 167) in the war for Greek independence from Ottoman-Turkish rule and inclusively took up arms and joined the Greek soldiers.
52 52 Byron 1823, Act III.
53 53 Poole 1999, p. 150.
54 54 Even more elaborate with regard to this aspect was the German opera of the early twentieth century entitled Sardanapal, Historische Pantomine, which featured sets designed by Walter Andrae himself, the German archaeologist responsible for the first archaeological campaigns in Assur (1902–1914). Vide Nadali 2013a, p. 402.
55 55 Charles Kean staged Sardanapalus, or, The Fall of Nineveh for the first time in 1853.
56 56 Charles Alexander Calvert showcased a production in Manchester dated from 1875.
57 57 Pomarè 2014, p. 277.
58 58 Description of Nimrod’s court in Calvert’s Byronic version (Calvert, Lord Byron’s Historical Tragedy of Sardanapalus, p. 24 apud, 2014, p. 275).
59 59 Besides Slaves of Babylon (1953), Les sept péchés capitaux - I - L’orgueil (1910), a short film by Louis Feuillade (Dumont 2009, p. 114), the relatively unknown Jeremias (1922) or The Fall of Babylon, a German movie by Hungarian Eugen Illés (Horak 2005), and Nabokodnassar (1960) by Iraqi Kamel Al-Azzawi (Dumont 2009, p. 119), should be mentioned.
60 60 According to the author “Il mio Nabucco pèro non è quello della Scrittura, ma bensì il padre di questo, che fu conquistore e fondatore dell’impero degli Assiri” (“My Nabucco is not that of the Scripture, but rather his father, who was the conqueror and founder of the Assyrian empire,” Ricordi della vita e delle opera di G. B. Niccolini 1886, p. 428).
61 61 “May my corpse be retained by the waves,/And every king always wait for me, and tremble” (Niccolini 1819, p. 71).
62 62 Seymour 2013, p. 10.
63 63 Pistone 2009, p. 19, Anicet-Bourgeoie and Cornu (n.d.).
64 64 Makolkin 2013, p. 176.
65 65 In some operas, as Niccolini’s, the relationship between the events of the present time and those of the past became more obvious with the insertion in the librettos of a “key” which attributed to each character of the composition an identification with a figure within society (Vide Kimbell 1981, p. 448, Garofalo 2011). Antiquity was not merely being staged, but was being fully experienced – Nebuchadnezzar became Napoleon, Mitrane Pope Pius VII, and so on.
66 66 Heller 1993, p. 95 and Asher-Greve 2007.
67 67 In sum, Nabucco reflects on the stage the Italian nationalist movement spirit (Mi Ma 2018).
68 68 Adopting the nomenclature of Solera’s libretto which differs from the one of his French counterparts.
70 70 Vide Part II, Chapter 8.
71 71 Through him, the growing religious fanaticism of the beginning of the nineteenth century was criticized and the tensions between secular and religious power were highlighted (Makolkin 2013, p. 175).
