The exhibition has been extended until May 8, 2025.
GIVE US FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
Schiller's drama in Slovenia
From February 18 to May 8, 2025, we invite you to visit the book exhibition on the first floor of the Slovenian Theatre Museum. With the exhibition marking the 220th anniversary of Schiller's death, we want to draw attention to his presence in Slovenian culture and his influence on our literature and theatre. The first book translations date back to the 1940s, when Slovenians did not yet have the conditions for such demanding stage challenges as staging Schiller's works. The conditions for theatre art in the Slovenian language improved with the establishment of the Dramatic Society (1867). This important substantive and organisational shift was largely due to the singer, actor and director Josip Nolli, who exactly 150 years ago, in the spring of 1875, staged Bandits in his own translation. In the following decades, the first tragedy was followed by other dramas: Intrigue and love, Mary Stuart, William Tell and The Virgin of Orleans. Finally, we Slovenians staged another Don Carlos, translated by Fran Albrecht in the late 1920s. Three decades later, a book edition was published, from which the title verse of our exhibition (III, 10) is also taken.
Free entry.
Author of the exhibition and introductory text: Katarina Kocijančič
Exhibition design and layout: Andrej Ovsec
Visual material: Tea Rogelj, MA
Pedagogical programs: Sandra Jenko, MA
In the history of mankind, rarely has an incredibly intense eruption of thought and creativity occurred on a small piece of the globe and in a short period of time. This happened in Athens in the classical era, but also in the German lands in the second half of the 18th century and the first decades of the following. In the fields of philosophy, science, music and literature, a huge number of important works were created, which still represent the peaks of the intellectual and artistic creativity of all mankind today. In the field of drama, several exceptional authors appeared, whom we still read and perform today. Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), who, together with the versatile Goethe, represents the pinnacle of dramatic writing during this exceptional creative period, can be placed chronologically between the thirty-year-old Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the much younger Heinrich von Kleist (to mention only two names, and thus do injustice to many playwrights).
When Schiller was just over twenty years old, he had already become famous with his dramatic debut. Bandits (they were printed in 1781 and performed in 1782). In the first, turbulent period, the following also stands out: Intrigue and love (Kabbalah and Love, 1784), a "bourgeois tragedy", a complex dramatic analysis of good and evil and a harsh criticism of the society of the time.
Another important body of Schiller's drama is the so-called historical plays. The author chose specific historical figures and, through their dramatic and quite creatively reworked fate, expressed his thoughts on freedom and the tragic position of the individual, who is often faced with the most difficult ethical dilemmas in history.
In the theatre of his time, Schiller shone like a comet and won incredible enthusiasm from the audience. German theatres loved to stage his plays and he soon became an extremely popular author in the Austrian monarchy. Some of his tragedies were prevented from entering the Burgtheater in Vienna for a long time due to the caesura, but not long after their creation they were performed without any problems in smaller theatres. One of these was the Ljubljana theatre. While government circles opposed the revolutionary freedom-loving ideas, on the other hand they were a real magnet for most theatre-goers of the time. Thus, in the 1791/92 season, a travelling theatre group from Klagenfurt staged Schiller's early plays at the Estates Theatre in Ljubljana. Intrigue and love and BanditsBoth were frequently performed in the following seasons, and the latter in particular became synonymous with large stage spectacles featuring battles and skirmishes, with actors on horseback surrounded by hunting dogs. In 1801 and several more times thereafter, they also performed Fiesco's conspiracy, a lesser-known and less successful work from Schiller's turbulent period. In the following years, Ljubljana residents were able to see more Virgin of Orleans, The Bride from Messina, Don Carlos, Mary Stuart and William Tell, Wallenstein respectively Wallenstein However, due to the production complexity, it was only staged in the 1840s (but even in this case Ljubljana beat the Burgtheater). The tragedy was staged on a multi-story stage with more than two hundred performers.
Schiller was regularly reported in Laibacher Zeitung, in the annex Laibacher Wochenblatt (later Illyrian leaf) also published his poems. Schiller's works were a huge sales success on the book market. In 1806, the first copy of Schiller's poetry was recorded in the Licejka, the most important library in Slovenia at the time, and in the following decades his works sold extremely well in Slovenia as well. Collected worksSchiller's writings on aesthetics thus represented the first contact with the theory of art for many people in our region.
In the powerful revivalist generation at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Valentin Vodnik was already enthusiastic about Schiller, and the poet and scholar Janez Primic was the first to translate him into Slovene. Among the first translators, we should also mention Stanko Vraz and Jernej Levičnik, who, at Prešeren's initiative, Slovene-translated the prologue and the first act. The Maids of Orleans. Schiller was a role model for both those educated people of Slovenian origin who wrote in Slovenian, as well as for others who remained in the world of the German language. The professor of Koseski (then Johann Vesel) and Anton Martin Slomšek, who later both translated Schiller, was Ivan Anton Zupančič. Zupančič wrote poetry in German following Schiller's example and inspired his students with it. Jovan Vesel Koseski, who wrote poetry under Schiller's influence throughout his life (in the Bleiweis News (he once added the subtitle "according to Schiller's thoughts") to his poetry, and is also credited with the first book translations of Schiller's tragedies. In 1848, the The Maid of Orleans, and a year later The Messina Bride.
According to literary and translation critics, the better translator of Schiller was the poet and cultural figure France Cegnar, who translated and published Mary Stuart (1861), William Tell (1862, 1886) and Wallenstein's Spur (1864) and the trilogy Wallenstein (1866). During this period, Slovenian writers tried to write a historical tragedy following Schiller's example, while cultural figures and artists strove to ensure that Slovenian theatre reached an artistic and production level that would enable them to stage Schiller's works.
The conditions for theatrical art in the Slovene language improved with the establishment of the Dramatic Society (1867). This important substantive and organizational shift was largely due to the singer, actor and director Josip Nolli, among others. Exactly 150 years ago, in the spring of 1875, he staged Bandits in his own translation, which he prepared based on the translation by Ivan Rak (1862). This translation is also preserved – together with Nolli’s – in the archives of the Dramatic Society. On the anniversary of the first Bandits We also exhibit both. On Slovenian professional stages, Schiller's first tragedy was performed ten times – in the 20th century, also in two new translations: first, Bandits Slavonicized by Fran Albreht (1930), and in the 1990s by Borut Trekman.
A little over two years later, the Slovenian premiere performance followed. Intrigue/Intrigue and Love. The text in Anton Levec's translation was directed by Josip Kocelj. Levec's translation, which was published as the 27th volume in the collection Slovenska Talija, has sounded from our stages for almost half a century. Schiller's drama, which has been performed more than twenty times, has also been translated the most often in our country: in addition to Levec, it has also been translated by Fran Albreht, France Koblar, Gitica Jakopin and Mojca Kranjc.
Mary Stuart in the translation by France Cegnar, it was not performed until 1896. Cegnar's model was also taken into account by Oton Župančič, who translated the tragedy into Slovenian after World War I. In the 1980s, a third version, Trekman's, was created. Mary StuartAll three translations have also been published in book editions.
Cegnar's translation William Tell, which was printed in 1862, was staged only once, almost half a century after its publication. At the end of the 19th century, a prose translation by Dragotin Jesenko was created.
Second Slovenian translation The Maids of Orleans is the work of the writer and politician Etbin Kristan (1902). This tragedy was also performed only once. It was replaced by a more modern play with the same historical material, Shaw's Saint John.
At the latest, we Slovenians staged Don Carlos, translated by Fran Albreht (1929). It was re-performed in 1959 and 1965, and in between, a book edition was published, from which the title verse of our exhibition (III, 10) is taken.
From the media (in Slovenian)
Grant us freedom of thought, Cultural focus, First program of Radio Slovenia, 28. 3. 2025
An exhibition in Slogi as a tribute to Friedrich Schiller, STA/Sigledal, 18. 2. 2025
How Friedrich Schiller's work took over the Slovenian cultural space, MMC RTV SLO, 18. 2. 2025
