page_title: Turandot (Gozzi)
section_title: Friedrich Schiller
hierarchical_section_title: Turandot (Gozzi) / Friedrich Schiller
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Johann Vesque von Püttlingen, Lithographie von Josef Kriehuber, 1838 English: Austrian composer Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (1803-1883)
context_page_description: Turandot is a commedia dell'arte play by Count Carlo Gozzi after a supposedly Persian story from the collection Les Mille et un jours by François Pétis de la Croix. Gozzi's Turandot was first performed at the Teatro San Samuele, Venice, on 22 January 1762.
  Gozzi's play has given rise to a number of subsequent artistic endeavours, including combinations of: versions/translations by Schiller, Karl Vollmoeller and Brecht; theatrical productions by Goethe, Max Reinhardt and Yevgeny Vakhtangov; incidental music by Weber, Busoni and Wilhelm Stenhammar; and operas by Busoni, Puccini and Havergal Brian.
context_section_description: In 1801 Friedrich Schiller translated Gozzi's Commedia dell'arte play, at the same time re-interpreting it in the Romantic style.
  It was first produced in 1802 by at the 'old' Weimar Hoftheater by Johann von Goethe, who had been the theatre's director since its inception in 1791. Schiller had begun a collaborative friendship with Goethe in 1794 which lasted until Schiller's death in 1805, after which Goethe forsook ballads and turned to the completion of Part one of Faust.
  Comparison of Gozzi's and Schiller's versions
  Gozzi's play has a "light, sarcastic tone" whereas Schiller transforms it into a symbolic epic with an idealised moral attitude. Gozzi, although he also uses both elements of drama and comedy, puts them side by side as independent parts; Schiller combines them and makes them the result of each other. This interaction of dramatic and comical, their interdependence and the fact of their being equally matched, embodies the Romantic principle of universalism.
  Gozzi's main character, the princess Turandot, seems to act out of a mood and cruelty whereas Schiller's Turandot is a person who resolutely follows her moral and ethical attitude. Also prince Calàf, who is a kind of lost soul and philanderer in Gozzi's version, becomes a kind lover who surrenders to his deep and true love for Turandot.
  The classical commedia dell’arte characters in the play, especially Pantalone and Brighella, whose language is rather colloquial in Gozzi's version, lose their naïve nature and even speak in well-formed verses in Schiller's work; they also contribute to the more severe and moralistic atmosphere in Schiller's adaptation.
caption: Johann Vesque von Püttlingen
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