Die Orestie des Aischylos auf der Bühne der Neuzeit

Abstract

The scope of the following analysis (originally a presentation delivered at the University of Trier) is to investigate the reception of The Oresteia of Aeschylus on the modern stage, in Germany and beyond, starting from the first attempts in the 19th century up to the contemporary theatrical versions. The study based on archive documents, media reports, eye-witness accounts and personal spectator experience reveals the unique applicability of the Aeschylus plays to various ideological climates: capable of being differently, even contrarily interpreted, The Oresteia was equally welcomed on the 1936 Berlin stage and in post-soviet Moscow. Often enough the new interpretations proved to be just the opposite of what was intended by Aeschylus. However, the purpose of staging ancient plays in modern theater cannot be their historical or philological reconstruction; hence we only can hope that the new versions would not violate the original, but we can hardly give prescriptions either to the theater or to its public.