''A Florentine Tragedy'' is a fragment of a never-completed play by
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
. The subject concerns Simone, a wealthy 16th-century
Florentine merchant who finds his wife Bianca in the arms of a local prince, Guido Bardi. After feigning hospitality, Simone challenges the interloper to a duel, disarms him, and strangles him. This awakens the affection of his wife; and the two are reconciled.
The original manuscript for the play is held at the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...
at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
as part of their larger holdings by and about Oscar Wilde.
History
In 1914 the young Italian composer Carlo Ravasegna (Turin 1891-Rome 1964) wrote a short opera titled ''Una tragedia fiorentina'' to a translation/libretto by Ettore Moschino. The libretto was published with Wilde's name by the Tipografia Subalpina, Turin, 1914.
Giacomo Puccini considered Wilde's play as a potential source material for a new opera before discarding it.
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky (14 October 1871 – 15 March 1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.
Biography
Early life
Zemlinsky was born in Vienna to a highly diverse family. Zemlinsky's grandfather, Anton ...
wrote an opera based on a German translation of the play, entitled ''
Eine florentinische Tragödie'', which premiered in 1917.
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...
wrote his opera ''
Maddalena'' to his own libretto based on a play by Magda Gustavovna Lieven-Orlova written under the pen name Baron Lieven. That play was in turn based on Oscar Wilde's play. The opera had its premiere in a BBC studio recording in London in 1979; and its first live staging was in
Graz
Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...
(Austria) in 1981.
T. Sturge Moore wrote an opening scene for this play for "presentation" purposes.
[; Luce/Methuen premiere of the Moore edition, 1908]
In 1989,
Caspar René Hirschfeld
Caspar René Hirschfeld (born 21 May 1965) is a German composer and violinist.
Life
Born 1965 in Wernigerode, Hirschfeld received his first violin lessons at the music school from the age of 5. At the age of 9 he began composing. From 1982 to 1 ...
wrote a chamber opera titled ''Bianca'' based on the ''Florentine Tragedy''. He used the German translation by Max Meyerfeld. Filling in for the absent first scene, a love scene between Bianca and the prince, Hirschfeld used love poetry from Oscar Wilde himself. The opera was first performed at the
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
in 1991.
See also
*
Manuscripts of Oscar Wilde
*
Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde
This is an incomplete list of music based on the works of Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, novelist, short story writer and wit, whose works have been the basis of a considerable number of musical works by noted composers. ...
References
External links
Digitized copy of the original manuscript for ''A Florentine Tragedy'' Harry Ransom Center
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Florentine Tragedy
Plays adapted into operas
Plays by Oscar Wilde
Unfinished plays