Category Archives: Literature
Modulations and caterpillars
A fragment of Pherecrates’s comedy Chiron, as quoted in Plutarch’s Peri mousikēs, provides insights into aesthetic controversies in ancient Greece. The scene depicts Dame Music as she recounts to Dame Justice the torments she has undergone at the hands of … Continue reading
Filed under Antiquity, Curiosities, Humor, Literature, Performance practice, Reception, Theory
Libretto illustrations
Illustrated libretti for eighteenth-century opera performances comprise a specific and unusual type of visual art. Since these engravings were made before the performances, they cannot be interpreted as objective documentation—indeed, clear evidence points to discrepancies between these representations and what … Continue reading
Filed under Classic era, Dramatic arts, Literature, Opera, Politics, Reception, Visual art, Women's studies
An 18th-century Hamlet parody
Der travestirte Hamlet: Eine Burleske in deutschen Knittelversen mit Arien und Chören (1794) was one of several parodies that capitalized on the Hamlet fever that swept the German-speaking lands in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Karl Ludwig Giesecke … Continue reading
Filed under Classic era, Curiosities, Dramatic arts, Humor, Literature
