¹ Nietzsche, Friedrich, The Case of Wagner: A Musician's Problem, trans. Common, Thomas, in The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, 3 vols. (London, 1899), III, 8.Google Scholar

² Freytag, Gustav, Die Technik des Dramas 8th edn (Leipzig, 1898), 18.Google Scholar

³ Istel, Edgar, Das Libretto: Wesen, Aufbau und Wirkung des Opernbuchs (Berlin, 1914), 92–3.Google Scholar

⁴ Wilde, Oscar, A Florentine TragedyGoogle Scholar, in Wilde, , Salomé, La Sainte Courtisane, A Florentine Tragedy, 2nd edn (London, 1909), 163.Google Scholar

⁵ Quotations from the Meyerfeld translation are from the piano score of Zemlinsky's opera, published by Universal Edition: Zemlinsky, Alexander, Eine florentinische Tragödie: Klavierauszug mit Text (Vienna, 1916), 50.Google Scholar

⁶ Wilde, , 173.Google Scholar

⁷ Zemlinsky, , 88.Google Scholar

⁸ Wilde, , 175.Google Scholar

⁹ Zemlinsky, , 90–1.Google Scholar

¹⁰ This type of dramatic structure has been explored by Peter Szondi. According to his analysis, the tension in the modern one-act play is not produced by any interplay of actions and decisions, as is typical in the drama, but the tension is rooted in the starting situation itself. The time before the catastrophe is not filled with the tragic struggle between man and destiny, but is essentially an empty time. See Szondi, , Theorie des modernen Dramas (Frankfurt am Main, 1967), 92.Google Scholar

¹¹ See Bird, Alan, The Plays of Oscar Wide (London, 1977), 196.Google Scholar

¹² Bird, , 192.Google Scholar

¹³ Gagnier, Regenia, Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public (Stanford, 1986), 210.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Freytag, (see n. 2), 81.Google Scholar

¹⁵ From an article by Heinrich Stümcke in Bühne und Welt, cited in Programmheft zur Premiere. Eine florentinische Tragödie. Der Geburtstag der Infantin. Am 20. September 1981, revidiert zur Wiederaufnahme am 7. Januar 1987, Hamburgische Staatsoper (Hamburg, 1987), 61.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Weininger, Otto, Geschlecht und Charakter: Eine prinzipielle Untersuchung (Vienna, 1903).Google Scholar

¹⁷ In his book on Wilde, Norbert Kohl could not resist this critical temptation in the face of such a ‘crudely sensational ending’: ‘The end of the play, with its very abrupt reversal of attitudes as Simone and Bianca come together again after the fight, is singularly lacking in finesse’. Kohl, Norbert, Oscar Wilde: The Works of a Conformist Rebel, trans. Wilson, David H. (Cambridge, 1989), 312.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Weber, Horst, ‘Alexander Zemlinsky’, Österreichische Komponisten des XX. Jahrhunderts, 23 (Vienna, 1977), 56.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Dahlhaus, Carl, Wagners Konzeption des musikalischen Dramas (Munich and Kassel, 1990), 17.Google Scholar

²⁰ In a letter from prison, Wilde referred to the Florentine Tragedy as his Love and Death; see Bird, (n. 11), 195.Google Scholar

²¹ Adler, Felix in Bohemia, 30 01 1917.Google Scholar

²² In his article on the Stuttgart performance Adler wrote: ‘Umso tiefer und wahrer ist die Wirkung, wenn nach der Fortscheuchung der tragischen Schauer die Wendung ins Lyrische erfolgt, die mildernd, ja verklärend das Furchtbare des eben Vorangegangenen fast vergessen läβt.’ ( Bohemia, 2 02 1917Google Scholar) [The effect is all the more profound and truthful when, after dispelling the tragic shudder, a turn to the lyrical ensues, mitigating – indeed transfiguring – the terror of the immediate past, almost allowing one to forget it.]

²³ Rychnovsky, Ernst, in the Prager Tageblatt, 1 03 1917.Google Scholar

²⁴ Dahlhaus, (see n. 19), 18–19.Google Scholar

²⁵ Wilde, , 180.Google Scholar

²⁶ Bird, , 195.Google Scholar