“The Maid of Orleans”: Schiller and Tchaikovsky

For the first time, the article considers the artistic dialogue between Schiller’s tragedy “The Maid of Orleans” and the eponymous opera by Tchaikovsky. The selected perspective allows the author to reveal various aspects of creative individuality of the German dramatist and the Russian composer. Whereas Schiller emphasizes the sublime heroism so that the ascent of the heroine to eternal life becomes the main storyline in his drama, Tchaikovsky makes the plot take a turn towards a tragedy. This significantly changes the balance of semantic accents in the opera. In particular, a number of characters surrounding Joan receive a new interpretation. Tchaikovsky enters into a dialogue not only with Schiller’s tragedy, but also with the genre of French Grand Romantic Opera, creating an original composition with a focused and dynamic development, and major symphonic generalizations as well. The relevance of this dialogue for the development of the theme of Joan of Arc’s heroism in the twentieth-century art is underlined in the conclusion.

«Орлеанская дева», Schiller, Tchaikovsky, “The Maid of Orleans”, Joan of Arc, tragedy, opera, dramatic structure, dialogue

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