ISBN:
9780812249583
Language:
English
Pages:
263 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Year of publication:
2018
Series Statement:
Jewish culture and contexts
DDC:
809/.933529924
Keywords:
Mosenthal, S. H
;
Mosenthal, S. H. 1821-1877
;
Jews in popular culture
;
Jewish drama History and criticism 19th century
;
Jewish women in literature
;
Jews in popular culture
;
Jewish drama History and criticism
;
19th century
;
Jewish women in literature
;
Mosenthal, Salomon Hermann von 1821-1877
;
Juden
;
Melodrama
;
Mosenthal, Salomon Hermann von 1821-1877 Deborah
;
Aufführung
;
Rezeption
;
Judenbild
;
Geschichte 1850-1900
Abstract:
Before Fiddler on the Roof, before The Jazz Singer, there was Deborah, a tear-jerking melodrama about a Jewish woman forsaken by her non-Jewish lover. Within a few years of its 1849 debut in Hamburg, the play was seen on stages across Germany and Austria, as well as throughout Europe, the British Empire, and North America. The German-Jewish elite complained that the playwright, Jewish writer S. H. Mosenthal, had written a drama bearing little authentic Jewish content, while literary critics protested that the play lacked the formal coherence of great tragedy. Yet despite its lackluster critical reception, Deborah became a blockbuster, giving millions of theatergoers the pleasures of sympathizing with an exotic Jewish woman. It spawned adaptations with titles from Leah, the Forsaken to Naomi, the Deserted, burlesques, poems, operas in Italian and Czech, musical selections for voice and piano, a British novel fraudulently marketed in the United States as the original basis for the play, three American silent films, and thousands of souvenir photographs of leading actresses from Adelaide Ristori to Sarah Bernhardt in character as Mosenthal's forsaken Jewess.
Note:
Introduction. Shylock's daughters: philosemitism, theater, and popular culture in the nineteenth century
,
1 Anatomy of a tearjerker: the melodrama of the forsaken Jewess
,
2 Sensationalism, sympathy, and laughter: Deborah and her sisters
,
3 Playing Jewish from Rachel to the divine Sarah: neutral acting and the wonders of impersonation
,
4 Shylock and the Jewish Schiller: Jews, non-Jews, and the making of philosemitism
,
Concluding remarks. Jewishness, theatricality, and the lagacy of Deborah
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