Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller was born on Nov. 10, 1759, in Marbach, Germany. His father was an army doctor. Growing up in a very poor environment, Schiller eventually managed to get the support of a wealthy duke that enabled him to study medicine. He served as a military doctor first, but through the efforts of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe he finally went to Jena and Weimar, where he died on the May 9, 1805. Schiller is an important German author of his time, most famous for his stage plays. They were highly acclaimed--and mostly forbidden, because of their contents. His first big work, "Die Räuber", dealt with the revolt of sons against their parents and environment, a very modern topic for the time and one that was not accepted in many regions of Germany. Overall, though, he is underrated as an author due to the fact that he lived and wrote in the same time as Goethe: Schiller is considered to be a good writer, but not as brilliant as Goethe. IMDb Mini Biography By: Benjamin Stello (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Works

William Tell

The narrative unfolds in the 14th Century, when the European nations vie for supremacy within the Holy Roman Empire. The ambitious Austrian Empire, desiring more land, invades neighbouring Switzerland, a serene and pastoral nation. Protagonist William Tell, a formerly peaceful hunter, finds himself forced to take action as his family and homeland come under threat from the oppressive Austrian King and his ruthless warlords.

Release Date:2025-01-17

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Vote Count:2

William Tell

Opera in four acts Libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte-Louis-Florent Bis

Release Date:2024-10-06

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Die Jungfrau von Orleans

Release Date:2022-05-14

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

The Metropolitan Opera: Don Carlos

For the first time in company history, the Met presents the original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. Patrick Furrer leads a world-beating cast of opera’s leading lights in this March 26 performance, including tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role, soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Élisabeth de Valois, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Eboli. Bass Günther Groissböck and bass-baritone John Relyea are Philippe II and the Grand Inquisitor, and baritone Étienne Dupuis rounds out the all-star principal cast as Rodrigue. Verdi’s masterpiece receives a monumental new staging by David McVicar that marks his 11th Met production, placing him among the most prolific and popular directors in recent Met memory. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.

Release Date:2022-03-26

Department:Writing

Job:Author

Vote Count:1

Maria Stuart

Release Date:2021-05-15

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Die Räuber

Release Date:2017-11-11

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Die Räuber

Release Date:2016-09-04

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Giovanna D'Arco

With more than 50 years of experience as film director, Peter Greenaway (Nightwatching, Eisenstein in Guanajuato) combines the worlds of film and opera at the Verdi Festival in Parma, demonstrating what magic those two can do together with an all new approach to Giuseppe Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco, staged and edited by himself and his wife, Saskia Boddeke. The opera's libretto is based on Friedrich Schiller's 'The Maid of Orleans'. It tells the story of the French national hero Jeanne d'Arc, who defends her country against the English troops during the Hundred Years' War. Constantly torn between her humble roots, her love for King Charles VII and her heavenly task to fight for France, she gains eternal glory by giving her life in the final, victorious battle against England.

Release Date:2016-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Guillaume Tell

Live from Munich June 2014. Guillaume Tell , in a new production by 30-year-old Wunderkind stage director Antú Romero Nunes, opens this year’s Munich Opera Festival with an orgy of fabulous singing.

Release Date:2014-06-28

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Verdi: Don Carlo

Verdi wrote this five act opera with a French Libretto for the Paris opera. Premiere 1867. Then there are three versions of this opera, the French 1867 version, the revised Italian four Act Don Carlo 1884, plus the Modena version 1886. This version is the 1884 version with Act One reinstated, as well as the original beginning of Act 2. To complicate matters the French opera was simply translated into Italian, and then the changes were made. There is an even newer edition completed in 1980 by Ricordi, and others floating around as well.

Release Date:2013-08-31

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

The Metropolitan Opera: Maria Stuarda

Joyce DiDonato gives a sensational performance as Mary, Queen of Scots, in Donizetti’s bel canto drama, opposite Elza van den Heever as Queen Elizabeth. This Live in HD presentation of David McVicar’s acclaimed 2012 production also stars Matthew Polenzani as Leicester, the man caught between the rival queens. Maurizio Benini conducts.

Release Date:2013-01-19

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Don Carlo

C Majors Tutto Verdi project comes to one of Verdis most popular operas: Don Carlo. Based on Schiller's play of the same name, Don Carlos was written for the Paris Opéra in 1865-66 in the tradition of a French grand opera. Repeatedly revised and performed in Italian as Don Carlo, the opera is seen here in the version that Verdi prepared for Modena in 1886. In many respects, this is Verdi's most ambitious and most forward-looking work.

Release Date:2012-10-21

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

I Masnadieri

Part of Tutto Verdi series - I masnadieri (2012) Naples. 'I masnadieri' ('The Bandits' or 'The Robbers') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on 'Die Räuber' by Friedrich von Schiller. As Verdi became more successful in Italy, he began to receive offers from other opera houses outside the country. The London impresario Benjamin Lumley had presented Ernani in 1845 and, as a result of its success, commissioned an opera from the composer which became 'I masnadieri'. It was given its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 July 1847 with Verdi conducting the first two performances.

Release Date:2012-03-21

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

The Metropolitan Opera: Don Carlo

Family jealousy, threat of rebellion, political back-stabbing and the Inquisition weigh heavy on the court of King Phillip II. The tension finally ignites at the King's coronation, where a number of heretics are to be burnt at the stake.

Release Date:2010-12-11

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Giovanna d'Arco

This work predates Thchaikowsly’s for almost 4 years, and it is base don the Schiller play I have previously criticized for its lack of historical accuracy. It is essentially focused on three major voices, soprano, tenor and baritone, with a basso to spice it up. New Yorker Evan Bowers may not be a matinee idol, but he sails into the role with a bright, focused lyrico spinto tenor voice. Renato Bruson was 72 years old in 2008, when he took this role (first sung by him in1989) and it shows, with quite a wobble on many passages; yet his voice commands the stage and rises majestically in the ensembles. And then, Bulgarian Svetla Vassileva, who is not burned at the stake, as in “Maid”, but dies heroically in battle.

Release Date:2008-10-07

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Luisa Miller

As the release of the ‘Tutto Verdi’ series from the Teatro Regio progresses, one has begun to have fears that the later Verdi operas will fail to measure up to the standards that have been set on DVD by productions from international houses across the globe. The issues of the early and middle period Verdi works have been welcome, because these pieces are so rarely encountered in the opera house; but with Macbeth and Luisa Miller we are coming to operas that have been performed by major artists in major productions with superb orchestras and conductors.

Release Date:2007-10-22

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Vote Count:1

Kabale und Liebe

Ferdinand's father, the president of the residence, can not tolerate a serious relationship between his son and a commoner, and moreover intends to marry him to Lady Milford, the prince's mistress, to increase his own influence at court.

Release Date:2005-10-03

Department:Writing

Job:Book

Vote Count:2

Verdi: Don Carlos

Luc Bondy's 1996 production of Don Carlos was staged, recorded and filmed at the Chatelet in Paris. These seven performances were blessed with an all-star cast, loaded with important singers either starting their careers (Roberto Alagna) or at the height of their dramatic powers (Karita Mattila, Jose Van Dam.)

Release Date:1996-03-01

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Vote Count:2

Don Carlo

This opera was filmed live at La Scala in 1992. The all-star cast includes Luciano Pavarotti, Samuel Ramey, aolo Coni, Daniela Dessi, Luciana d'Intio, and Alexander Anismov. Riccardo Muti conducts.

Release Date:1992-12-01

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Wilhelm Tell

Release Date:1990-01-01

Department:Crew

Job:Script

Giovanna d'Arco

Director Werner Herzog, one of the most highly acclaimed German film makers, joins forces with the great Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly to effect a masterful rendition of this rarely-performed opera involving spectacular scenes of alternating light and dark, pageantry and intimacy. Staged and recorded at Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Bologna, Italy.

Release Date:1989-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Guglielmo Tell

Live from La Scala Wednesday 14 December 1988.

Release Date:1988-12-14

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

William Tell

“Let us assume that Switzerland is truly a paradise. The music hereto was written long ago. We have merely forgotten it.” (Daniel Schmid) This is the material from which the most Swiss of all operas is made: the legendary Wilhelm Tell – a Swiss hero: straightforward, a primus inter pares of the indomitable freedom fighters, a good shot, surefire. A myth that becomes a poetic playground: nature in turmoil, the struggle for freedom and forbidden love. A legendary overture at a gallop with an iconic post horn motif – all this and much more in the thirty-seventh and last opera by Rossini.

Release Date:1987-09-06

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Crossbow

Crossbow follows the adventures of William Tell and takes place in the 14th-century in Switzerland. William Tell and his son are imprisoned by the tyrannical Gessler. As Governor of Austria, Gessler plans to stop the Swiss uprising. Having split the apple on his son's head with his crossbow, much to Gessler's chagrin, there is no stopping William Tell's legendary strength and skill.

Release Date:1987-08-30

Department:Creator

Job:Creator

Vote Count:6

Maria Stuart

Release Date:1986-03-28

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Don Carlos

Release Date:1986-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Episode Count:2

Don Carlo

Ghiaurov, Freni, and Bumbry were great voices in their time, and they are still effective here -- good enough musicians to put over the quite heavy vocal and expressive demands of their roles. Louis Quilico was never quite in that league, and he sounds a bit spread and woofy in places here, but he works hard and effectively to bring Rodrigo to life. Placido Domingo recorded his first Don Carlo, for EMI with Giulini, about 15 years before this production, but he looks and sounds fine here -- in the early 1980's he was doing very good Otellos and Lohengrins too, and Furlanetto, still in his 30's, brings a rich, young voice to an old part and succeeds in making the Grand Inquisitor vocally as well as expressively formidable. Levine brings both weight and energy to the score, and that reading fits well with the overall "traditional" design and production -- the Met's wardrobe budget must have been severely taxed, but everybody looks splendid.

Release Date:1983-07-28

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Vote Count:1

Don Carlo

Don Carlo (1980) Metropolitan Opera. Verdi / italian. King Philip's court is plagued by rebels, family squabbles and intrigue. The Spanish Inquisition tries to exert its influence. The tension finally ignites at the King's coronation, where heretics are to be burned at the stake

Release Date:1980-02-21

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Kabale und Liebe

Release Date:1980-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Zbojníci

Release Date:1978-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Karajan's very best video Beethoven 9th Symphony, recorded December 31, 1977. The Quartet of vocal soloists and Chorus in IV are superb. This is much better than Karajan's 1968 Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven 9 video (DG), filmed in the Philharmonie with no live audience present.

Release Date:1977-12-31

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Tod oder Freiheit

Release Date:1977-12-25

Department:Writing

Job:Story

Úklady a láska

Release Date:1971-12-25

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Carlos

In the Southwest of 1915 Carlos backs an intended uprising of the common countymen against his father Phillip, a despotic landowner who exploits the rural poors in his silver mines. But Carlos' indecision and his love for his young and beautiful stepmother leads into a failure.

Release Date:1971-11-20

Department:Writing

Job:Story

Marie Stuartovna

Release Date:1968-01-14

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Die Räuber

Release Date:1967-06-14

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Fünfter Akt, siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe

This documentation of a Kortner stage rehearsal shows in detail and fascinatingly how Kortner developed psychological tensions with meticulous precision in linguistic expression and gestural construction.

Release Date:1965-05-19

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

William Tell

Release Date:1960-12-16

Department:Writing

Job:Screenstory

Vote Count:1

Intrigue and Love

Ferdinand is an army major and son of President von Walter, while Luise Miller is the daughter of a middle-class musician. They fall in love with each other, but both their fathers urge them to end the affair.

Release Date:1959-11-09

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:4

Kabale und Liebe

Release Date:1959-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

The Story of William Tell

A short that follows the legend of Wilhelm Gorkeit of Tellikon (William Tell), the legendary archer and hero from Switzerland.

Release Date:1953-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Turandot, princesse de Chine

Release Date:1935-02-14

Department:Writing

Job:Novel

Wilhelm Tell

Release Date:1934-01-12

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Vote Count:3

Don Carlos und Elisabeth

Don Carlos, heir to the Spanish throne, and Princess Elisabeth of Valois are deeply in love but King Philip, Carlos's father, wants Elisabeth for himself.

Release Date:1924-02-24

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Vote Count:1

Luise Millerin

Release Date:1922-08-21

Department:Writing

Job:Story

Die Verschwörung zu Genua

Release Date:1921-02-25

Department:Writing

Job:Story

Joan the Woman

A WWI English officer is inspired the night before a dangerous mission by a vision of Joan of Arc, whose story he relives.

Release Date:1916-12-25

Department:Writing

Job:Theatre Play

Vote Count:24

The Glove

A cruel game between the disdainful Kunigund and the passionate Delorges.

Release Date:1910-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

The Hostage

A young man sentenced to death manages to postpone his execution because of the impending wedding of his poor sister, who is to be married off. His best friend vouches for his return. After taking care of his sister, the young man hurries back, but is delayed by numerous unexpected obstacles. Nevertheless, he continues the journey, determined to join his now-presumably dead friend.

Release Date:1909-06-01

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

William Tell

Historical legend composed of five Scenes. 1. William Tell's heroism. 2. The Plot. 3. The Apple. 4. Death of Gessler. 5. The Swiss cheer their Liberator. This popular and interesting legend takes place amidst the country life of the mountain populations. The beautiful and picturesque sites which exist in Switzerland have given us an opportunity of utilising the resources our theatre affords, and our scene-painters have been able to have a free run on their imaginations, and have completed the work by a series of magnificent scenes in the most artistic character.

Release Date:1903-10-14

Department:Writing

Job:Original Story

Vote Count:6

Adventures of William Tell

The scene opens in an artist's studio where the unfinished statue of William Tell stands upon a pedestal. A clown appears and sticks a clay arm and clay head on the statue, thus completing it. He places a large brick on top of the head to make it stick. When he turns his back the statue turns into a living representation of William Tell. (Edison Catalog)

Release Date:1898-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:37