2013 Topic: The Rhine and the Lorelei

The Lorelei Rock  -  William Turner

The Rhine is the storied river that flows through Germany to the sea, castles rising on its banks, and history rushing by in its currents. The Lorelei is the great rock rising over the Rhine Gorge between Switzerland and the North Sea. Strong currents make this an area of ship wrecks and undoubtedly once fueled the legends of water sprites or Rhine maidens distracting sailors with their beauty and luring then to their deaths.

The power, movement, and waters of the Rhine, and the strength and beauty of the great rock make them ideal symbols for the plays we will study in this Forum.

More than any other national theatres we have studied (those of England, France, Italy, Austria, and America) – see the Theatre Forum List – great German theatre is connected with music: the Faust of Goethe inspires the Faust of Gounod; the plays of Schiller inspire Donizetti and Verdi; Brecht finds a musical collaborator in Weill; and the greatest single creator of theatre of the 19^th century is the extraordinary Richard Wagner  in whose work theatre and music become the product of a single magnificent imagination.