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Shakespeare Performances by Ernesto Rossi and Tommaso Salvini in Flanders in 1876–1877 and 1891

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Jozef De Vos
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Extract

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, but especially from the late seventies onwards, several internationally renowned actors or companies presented their Shakespeare productions in the main cities of Flanders. Undoubtedly, they provided an important impetus to the creation of a Shakespeare tradition in Flemish cultural life. In the present article I wish to draw attention to the successful performances which the greatest Italian interpreters of Shakespeare, Ernesto Rossi and Tommaso Salvini, gave in Flanders and which hitherto have been left unnoticed.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , May 1979 , pp. 184 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1979

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References

Notes

1. Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, VIII (Rome, 1961), columm 2225.

2. The following is a list of Rossi's performances, mentioning the exact dates:

BRUSSELS

ALHAMBRA THEATRE: 8 March 1876: Othello; 10 03 1876: Hamlet; 1 04 1876: Hamlet; 7 04 1876: Othello.

(Cf. announcements and/or reviews in Journal de Bruxelles, L'Etoile Beige, La Gazette, l'Echo du Parlement and L'Indépendance Beige).

ANTWERP

THEATRE ROYAL: 11 March 1876: Othello; 13 03 1876: Hamlet.

(Cf. announcements and/or reviews in L'Escaut and Le Précurseur).

GHENT

GRAND THEATRE: 3 April 1876: Othello. (Cf. announcements and/or reviews in Gentsche Mercurius, Le Nouvelliste de Gand, La Flandre Liberate and Journal de Gand).

3. The following is a list of Rossi's performances given on his second visit:

BRUSSELS

ALHAMBRA THEATRE: 8 December 1876: Othello; 9 12 1876: Hamlet; 12 12 1876: King Lear; 15 12 1876: Romeo and Juliet; 19 12 1876: Romeo and Juliet; 20 12 1876: Macbeth; 23 12 1876: Farewell performance consisting of extracts from Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Shylock.

THEATRE DE LA MONNAIE: 26 December 1876: Hamlet; 28 12 1876: Macbeth. (Cf. announcements and reviews in Journal de Bruxelles, la Gazette, L'Indépendance Belge and L'Echo du Parlement).

ANTWERP

SCHOUWBURG VAN ANTWERPEN (Flemish Theatre): 2 January 1877: Othello; 1 02 1877: King Lear; 2 February. 1877: Macbeth; 10 February 1877: Hamlet; 14 February 1877: Romeo and Juliet.

(Cf. programmes preserved in the Antwerp Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven; announcements and reviews in Het Handelsblad, L'Escaut, Le Précurseur and De Kleine Gazet).

GHENT

GRAND THEATRE: 8 February 1877: Hamlet; 9 February 1877: Macbeth.

(Cf. announcements and reviews in Le Nouvelliste de Gand, Journal de Gand, Gentsche Mercurius and La Flandre Libérale).

4. The following is a list of Salvini's performances:

ANTWERP

THEATRE ROYAL: 19 November 1877: Othello; 21 February 1877: Othello; 23 November 1877: Hamlet.

(Cf. announcements and reviews in Le Précurseur and L'Escaut)

BRUSSELS

THEATRE DE LA MONNAIE: 18 December 1877: Othello; 20 December 1877: Hamlet; 27 December 1877: Macbeth; 29 December 1877: Othello.

(Cf. announcements and reviews in Journal de Bruxelles, L'Indépendance Belge, La Gazette and L'Echo du Parlement).

5. Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, VIII (Rome, 1961), column 1442.

6. Lagye, Gustave in La Gazette, 10 03 1876.Google Scholar

7. Castille, Emile in L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 12 1876.Google Scholar

8. Cf. L'Escaut, 25 November 1877: ‘Les représentations de M. Salvini ont été mal suivies, et nous le regrettons; cette célébrité italienne est un véritable artiste …;’ Journal de Bruxelles, 29 December 1877;‘Il y avait un peu de monde, jeudi, pour entendre Salvini dans Macbeth … Le grand artiste a obtenu beaucoup de succès….’

9. Le Précurseur, 15 November 1877; 21 November 1877; La Gazette, 20 December 1877; L'Echo du Parlement, 20 December 1877; 22 December 1877; 25 December 1877.

10. See e.g. Lagye, Gustave in La Gazette, 12 03 1876Google Scholar: [In Hamlet all the characters] ‘sont concus et typés avec une profondeur de vues, une vérité et une puissance créatrices’; Frédérix, Gustave in L'Indépendance Belge, 5 04 1876Google Scholar: ‘Shakespeare a, plus qu'aucun poète d'aucun temps, créé, tout un monde de personnages, tous vivants el indwiduels.’… [Shakespeare is] ‘celui qui a pénétré le plus avant dans le dessous de l'humanité, celui qui a rassemblé dans sa prodigieuse galerie le plus de types définitifs, le plus de personnages variés et reconnaissables.’

11. See e.g. L'Indépendance Belge, 5 March 1876; Le Précurseur, 10 March 1876; La Flandre Libérale, 18 February 1876.

12. L'Indépendance Belge, 5 April 1876.

13. L'Indépendance Belge, 10 March 1876; Le Précurseur, 10 March 1876.

14. L'Etoile Belge, 8 March 1876.

15. Le Précurseur, 4 February 1877.

16. La Flandre Libérale, 18 February 1876.

17. La Gazette, 10 March 1876.

18. L'Echo du Parlement, 14 March 1876.

19. Cf. Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Othello (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961) p. 118Google Scholar; cf. also the account of Rossi's Othello given by James, Henry, The Scenic Art (London, 1949), p. 55; p. 175.Google Scholar

20. L'Indépendance Belge, 10 March 1876; also in Le Précurseur, 10 March 1876.

21. ibid., 5 April 1876.

22. L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 April 1876.

23. La Gazette, 20 December 1877; unidentified cutting from an Antwerp newspaper preserved in the files about the ‘Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg’ in the Antwerp Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven.

24. James, Henry, op.cit., p. 175Google Scholar; Cf. also William Winter who found in Rossi only ‘gloating, uxorious animalism … sneaking suspicion … hysterical garrulity’: quoted from Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Othello (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 118.Google Scholar

25. La Gazette, 10 March 1876; Journal de Gand, 8 April 1876.

26. L'Echo du Parlement, 14 March 1876.

27. La Gazette, 10 March 1876.

28. L'Echo du Parlement, 14 March 1876. In later performances, Rossi is known to have strangled Desdemona with his hands. Cf. Sprague, Arthur Colby, Shakespeare and the Actors (New York, 1963), p. 212.Google Scholar

29. L'Echo du Parlement, 14 March 1876.

30. ibid., 14 March 1876.

31. La Gazette, 12 March 1876.

32. L'Indépendance Belge, 5 April 1876.

33. La Flandre Libérale, 18 February 1876.

34. Le Précurseur, 13 1876.

35. La Gazette, 12 March 1876.

36. L'Echo du Parlement, 14 March 1876.

37. Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of King Lear (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), pp. 25–26.Google Scholar

38. L'Echo du Parlement, 19 December 1876: ‘Là est l'erreur de M. Rossi, qui fait sa première entrée en échappé de Bedlam’; L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 December 1876.

39. La Gazette, 14 December 1876.

40. Le Précurseur, 30 January 1877.

41. Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of King Lear (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), p. 120.Google Scholar

42. L'Echo du Parlement, 19 December 1876. The reviewer obviously refers to Ingres's ‘Homer guided by a boy’ which is to be seen in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.

43. ibid., 26 and 27 December 1876.

44. L'Independance Belge, 14 December 1876.

45. La Gazette, 18 December 1876. Cf. also L'Echo du Parlement, 19 December 1876.

46. L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 December 1876.

47. ibid., 19 December 1876; La Gazette, 18 December 1876.

48. James, Henry, op.cit., p. 54.Google Scholar

49. La Gazette, 18 December 1876.

50. ibid., 23 December 1876.

51. Cf. Journal de Gand, 27 February 1876.

52. L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 December 1876.

53. La Flandre Libérale, 18 February 1876.

54. ibid.

55. James, Henry, op.cit., p. 47Google Scholar. Cf. also Bartholomeusz, Dennis, Macbeth and the Players (Cambridge, 1969), p. 209Google Scholar; Speaight, Robert, Shakespeare on the Stage (London, 1973), p. 99.Google Scholar

56. L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 December 1876.

57. Le Précurseur, 12 March 1876, Le Précurseur, 11 February 1877; Le Précurseur, 16 February 1877; Le Nouvellisle de Gand, 8 April 1876; Le Nouvelliste de Gand, 10 February 1877.

58. La Flandre Libérale, 18 February 1876; Le Nouvelliste de Gand, 10 February 1877.

59. L'Echo du Parlement, 26 and 27 December 1876.

60. Cf. Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Othello (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961). pp. 102–111.Google Scholar

61. James, Henry, op.cit., p. 171.Google Scholar

62. Le Précurseur, 17 November 1877.

63. Le Précurseur, 21 November 1877.

64. L'Independance Bele, 20 December 1877.

65. James, Henry, op.cit., p. 173.Google Scholar

66. Le Précurseur, 21 November 1877.

67. Unidentified cutting from an Antwerp newspaper in Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven; La Gazette, 20 December 1877.

68. La Gazette, 20 December 1877.

69. L'Echo du Parlement, 25 December 1877.

70. Mason, E. Tuckerman, The Othello of Tommaso Salvini (New York, 1890)Google Scholar. A synopsis of Mason's account is to be found in Speaight, Robert, Shakespeare on the Stage (London, 1973), pp. 100–2.Google Scholar

71. Le Précurseur, 21 November 1877.

72. James, Henry, op.cit., pp. 174–5.Google Scholar

73. Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Othello (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 116.Google Scholar

74. L'Echo du Parlement, 25 December 1877.

75. Unidentified cutting from an Antwerp newspaper in Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven.

76. idem, and L'Echo du Parlement, 25 December 1877.

77. L'Echo du Parlement, 25 December 1877.

78. La Gazette, 29 December 1877. R. L. Stevenson, who saw Salvini as Macbeth in April, 1876 in Edinburgh. He saw ‘nothing great in Macbeth’ beyond ‘the royalty of muscle’ and the courage ‘which comes from strong and copious circulation’, Bartholomeusz, Dennis, Macbeth and the Players (Cambride, 1969), p. 210.Google Scholar

79. De Bom, E. K., ‘Een nagalm der Rossi-voorstellingen’, De Vlaamsche School IV (1891), New Series, p. 113.Google Scholar

80. idem.

81. L'Escaut, 20 May 1891.

82. de Mont, Pol, ‘Ernesto Rossi's Shakespeare-voorstellingen te Antwerpen’, De Vlaamsche School IV (1891), New Series, 107–12.Google Scholar

83. This is the complete list of Rossi's performances in Brussels and Antwerp in 1891:

BRUSSELS

FLEMISH THEATRE: 18 April 1891: Othello; 23 April 1891: King Lear; 27 April 1891: King Lear.

BRUSSELS

ALHAMBRA THEATRE: 28 April 1891: Othello; 30 April 1891: Macbeth; 2 May 1891: King Lear; 4 May 1891: Hamlet; 6 May 1891: Macbeth; 11 May 1891: King Lear; 12 May 1891: Hamlet; 13 May 1891: Othello; 15 May 1891: Shylock; 20 May 1891: Farewell performance consisting of extracts from Lear, Hamlet and Shylock.

(Cf. announcements and reviews in Journal de Bruxelles; L'Etoile Belge and L'Indépendance Belge).

ANTWERP

THEATRE ROYAL: 23 May 1891: King Lear; 25 May 1891: Hamlet; 26 May 1891: Othello; 28 May 1891: Macbeth; 30 May 1891: Shylock; 2 June 1891: Othello; 6 June 1891: Some scenes from Shylock.

(Cf. announcements and reviews in L'Escaut and Le Précurseur).

84. Cf. L'Indépendance Belge, 20 June 1891.

85. Le Précurseur, 27 May 1891. Cf. also La Gazette, 20 May 1891, noticed ‘une certaine exubérance d'expression, … certains gestes qui rappellent un peu le dompteur parlant à ses fauves, et … ce grognement particulier …’

86. de Mont, Pol, op.cit., p. 110.Google Scholar

87. Le Précurseur, 21 May 1891. Cf. also L'Independance Belge, 25 April 1891.

88. de Mont, Pol, op. cit., p. 108.Google Scholar

89. de Mont, Pol, op.cit., 109Google Scholar. Cf. R. L., Stevenson, who spoke of the ‘moral smallness’ of Macbeth, Rossi's, Bartholomeusz, Dennis, Macbeth and the Players (Cambridge, 1964), p. 210.Google Scholar

90. Le Précurseur, 29 May 1891.

91. Journal de Bruxelles, 3 May 1891. Cf. also Le Précurseur, 29 May 1891.

92. Le Précurseur, 29 May 1891.

93. de Mont, Pol, op. cit., p. 109.Google Scholar

94. ibid., p. 111.

95. ibid., p. 109.

96. ibid. p. 112.

97. Published in De Vlaamsche School IV (1891) New Series, 125.

98. Journal de Bruxelles, 18 and 19 May 1891; L'Indépendance Belge, 19 May 1891.

99. Le Précurseur, 31 May – 1 June 1891.

100. ibid.

101. L'Indépendance Belge, 19 May 1891.

102. de Mont, Pol, op.cit., pp. 109–10.Google Scholar