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Adelaide Ristori's Tour of the East Mediterranean (1864–1865) and the Discourse on the Formation of Modern Greek Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

IOANNA PAPAGEORGIOU
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Abstract

The new aesthetic experience offered by the Italian diva to the Hellenic upper classes of the Orient was filtered through their broader concerns related to social and national visions. Adelaide Ristori was received as a representative of Western culture, which at that time bore the double significance of social progress and economic exploitation in the Near East. For a minority of commentators, she was one more European speculator who was taking advantage of the supposed treasures of the East. For the supporters of westernization, however, the performances and her personality raised issues which had been discussed in Western Europe a long time previously, regarding the power of the theatre to shape national and social conscience and the relationship between art and material culture.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 161 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2008

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References

NOTES

1 Ristori, Adelaide, Memoirs and Artistic Studies of Adelaide Ristori, trans. Mantellini, G., with Biographical Appendix by L. D. Ventura (New York and London: Benjamin Blom, 1969), p. 19Google Scholar. See also Carlson, Marvin, The Italian Stage: From Goldoni to D'Annunzio (Jefferson, N.C. and London: MacFarland and Company, 1981), p. 130–1Google Scholar.

2 The information about Ristori's tour to the East Mediterranean in the years 1864–5 is mostly derived from Greek newspapers and magazines published in Alexandria, Constantinople and Athens during that period. The writer of this essay was unable to trace any non-Greek papers of the same period, though it is known that there were some published in English and French. Almost all the data have been recorded and listed in the archives of the Theatre Research Project in the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymno, Greece.

3 Avgi (newspaper, Athens), 6 November 1864; Paliggenesia (newspaper, Athens), 15 January 1865. This essay uses new-calendar (Gregorian) dating when referring to events. In order to avoid confusion, however, the essay has kept the original dates of magazines and newspapers, almost all of which are dated according to the Julian calendar. The latter run thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar. So the reader must add thirteen days to the cited date in order to calculate the publication date according to the modern dating system.

4 Stamatopoulou-Vassilakou, Chrysothemis, The Hellenic Theatre in Constantinople in the Nineteenth Century (Athens: Contantinoupolitans' New Circle, 1994), Vol. I, pp. 86–7Google Scholar.

5 Aion (newspaper, Athens), 2 July 1862; Avgi, 27 February 1865. See also Hadjipantazis, Theodoros, From Nile to Danube. The Cronicle of the Greek Professional Theatre in the Broader Region of the East (Herakleion, Greece: Crete University Press, 2002), Vol. A2, p. 557Google Scholar.

6 As indicated by the newspaper Armonia (Constantinople), 13 January 1865, the exchange rate for 7,200 piastres was 1,600 franks. Another newspaper, Telegraphos kai Byzantis, 5 September 1864, wrote that 21.30 piastres were exchanged for five francs. In accordance with this information, the amount of forty-five thousand piastres is estimated to be equivalent to ten thousand francs. Concerning Ristori's agreement and the theatre she appeared at, see the correspondence from Alexandria, 13/25 October 1864 in the newspaper Mellon (Athens), 23 October 1864.

7 Mellon, 23 October 1864.

8 Anatolikos Astir (Constantinople), 28 November/10 December 1864, article reprinted from Ægyptos.

9 Ibid.; Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, p. 66.

10 Ibid. Ristori gives 2 December as the date of her departure from Alexandria. However, this seems to be the date of her departure from Smyrna. The adventures that the passengers of the ship experienced during that journey are described by the newspaper Telegraphos kai Byzantis, 28 November 1864. The maritime services are listed in Levernay's ‘Guide and Yearbook of Egypt’, in Ilbert, Robert and Yannakakis, Ilios, eds., Alexandria 1860–1960: The Brief Life of a Cosmopolitan Community, trans. from the French by Clement, Colin (Alexandria: Harpocrates Publishing, 1997), pp. 204–12, here pp. 211–12Google Scholar.

11 Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, p. 67; Avgi, 1 December 1864.

12 Anatolikos Astir, 18 November/10 December 1864.

13 Stamatopoulou-Vassilakou, The Hellenic Theatre, pp. 364–74.

14 ‘Giacometti, Paolo’, Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo (Roma: La Maschere, 1958), Vol. V, column 1211.

15 Armonia, 1 January 1865; Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865.

16 Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865.

17 Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, p. 68.

18 Hadjipantazis, From Nile to Danube, pp. 57–8; Laskaris, Nikolaos, History of Modern Hellenic Theatre (Athens: n.p., 1939), Vol. II, pp. 244–5Google Scholar; Sideris, Giannis, History of Modern Hellenic Theatre: 1794–1944 (Athens: Museum and Centre for Hellenic-Theatre Research – Kastaniotis Publications 1990), Vol. I (1794–1908), p. 194Google Scholar.

19 Laskaris, Nikolaos, ‘Theatre in Athens, 1862–1875’, To Hellinikon Theatron (newspaper, Athens), 174 (1 October 1933)Google Scholar.

20 Ethnofylax, 15 January 1865; Paliggenesia, 14 January 1865.

21 Katerina Trimi and Ilios Yannakakis, ‘The Greeks: The “Parikia” of Alexandria’, in Ilbert and Yannakakis, Alexandria 1860–1960, pp. 65–71, here pp. 66–8; Karpat, Kemal H., ‘The Social and Economic Transformation of Istanbul in the Nineteenth Century’ in Istanbul à jonction des cultures balkaniques, mediterraneennes, slaves et orientales, aux XVIe – XIXe siècles. Actes du Colloque international organisé par l'AIESEE, Istanbul 15–10 octobre 1973 (Bucarest: n.p., 1977), p. 426Google Scholar. See also Çelik, Zeynep, The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1986), pp. 31–2Google Scholar.

22 Robert Ilbert, ‘International Waters’, and idem, ‘A Certain Sense of Citizenship’, in Ilbert and Yannakakis, Alexandria 1860–1960, pp. 10–15, and 18–34, here pp. 11, 15 and 22–4 respectively. Egypt was a semi-independent region of the Ottoman Empire. It was obliged to pay a heavy tax to the empire, but it was economically and militarily autonomous.

23 Ilbert, ‘International Waters’, p.15.

24 Ilbert, ‘A Certain Sense of Citizenship’, p. 26.

25 Trimi and Yannakakis, ‘The Greeks’, p. 69; Levernay, ‘Guide and Yearbook’, 205–6; Soulogiannis, Efthimios, The Hellenic Community of Alexandria 1843–1993 (Athens: Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, 1994), p. 131Google Scholar.

26 There was no official census before 1885. As indicated by an unofficial census carried out by the Greek societies of Constantinople in 1878, out of a total of 695,000 inhabitants, 287,000 were Greeks and 205,000 Muslims. This census, of course, is biased and Muslims were probably far more numerous. Their proportion increased rapidly in the following decades. See History of the Hellenic Nation (Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon, n.d.), Vol. I, p. 372.

27 Karpat, ‘The Social and Economic Transformation of Istanbul’, p. 426; Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul, pp. 31–2.

28 Nogues, Georges, ‘Constantinople en 1864’, Revue Contemporaine Mensuelle, 1, 1 (25 January 1865), p. 99Google Scholar. About the Western character of Galata see Karpat, ‘The Social and Economic Transformation of Istanbul’, p. 421. This and the Greek texts cited elsewhere were translated, unless otherwise noted, by the present author.

29 Trimi and Yannakakis, ‘The Greeks’, p. 69; History of the Hellenic Nation, p. 370.

30 History of the Hellenic Nation, pp. 417, 421–2; Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul, pp. 35 and 38.

31 Anatolikos Astir, 28 November/10 December 1864.

32 Trimi and Yannakakis, ‘The Greeks’, pp. 66, 89.

33 Kanner, Efi, ‘Poverty and Philanthropy in the Orthodox Community of Constantinople’ in Constantinople City of Cities (Athens: Ephesus Publishing, 2002) pp. 160–82Google Scholar, here pp. 173 and 178–9.

34 Dimaras, K. Th., Hellenic Romanticism (Athens: Hermes, 1982), pp. 349–52Google Scholar.

35 Constantinos Tsoukalas, Dependency and Reproduction: The Social Role of Educational Mechanisms in Greece (1830–1922) (Athens: Themelio, 1987), p. 29.

36 Ibid, pp. 22–4, 210–25 and 239–42.

37 Ibid, p. 242; Politis, Alexis, Romantic Years: Ideologies and Mentalities in the Hellas of 1830–1880 (Athens: E.M.N.E.–Mnimon, 2003), pp. 78–9, 90–4 and 118–34Google Scholar.

38 Hadjipantazis, From Nile to Danube, pp. 57–8.

39 Mavromatis, G., ‘Mrs Ristori and Mr Legouve's Medea’, Chrysalis (Athens), 3, 50, (30 Januray 1865), pp. 52–3Google Scholar.

40 Telegraphos kai Byzantis, 5 December 1864.

41 Stamatopoulou-Vassilakou, The Hellenic Theatre, p. 102–5; Georgakaki, Kostantza, ‘Theatre of Athens: Performances during the Period of King Otto’, in Paravasis, Scientific Bulletin of the Department of Theatre Studies, University of Athens (Athens: Kastaniotis Editions, 1998), Vol. II, pp. 143–80Google Scholar.

42 Paliggenesia, 9 and 12 January 1865; Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865.

43 Avgi, 6 November 1864.

44 Mavromatis, ‘Mrs Ristori and Mr Legouve's Medea’, p. 52–3.

45 Emmanouil Roidis, ‘Ristori’, in idem, Complete Works (Athens: Hermes, 1978), Vol. IV, p. 379 (the article was originally published in 1893).

46 Bassnett, Susan, ‘Adelaide Ristori’, in Booth, M. R., ed., Three Tragic Actresses: Siddons, Rachel, Ristori (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 117–69, p. 146Google Scholar.

47 Chrysalis, 30 January 1865. See also Paliggenesia, 12 January 1865.

48 Ethnofylax, 15 November 1865 and 14 January 1865.

49 Franklinos, 18 November 1865.

50 Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, p. 68.

51 Hadjipantazis, From Nile to Danube, p. 133–4.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid, pp. 17–35 and 59–69.

54 Ethnofylax, 14 January 1865; Nomimofron, 21 January 1865.

55 Ethnofylax, 15 January 1865

56 Hadjipantazis, From Nile to Danube, pp. 134–6.

57 The article in Ægyptos was reprinted in Anatolikos Astir, 28 November/14 October 1864.

58 Telegraphos kai Byzantis, 5 December 1864.

59 Armonia, 1 January 1865; Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865.

60 Paliggenesia, 14 January 1865.

61 The names of the performers are rarely mentioned in the newspapers. The only troupe member who appears by name in a critique is the actress Anna Michelli in the role of the servant Abrahamie in Paolo Giacometti's Giuditta. See ‘Mrs Ristori’, Paliggenesia, 12 January 1855.

62 N[ikolaos] D[ragoumis], ‘Miscellaneous’, Pandora (Athens), 15, 358 (15 February 1865), p. 558. The Greek writer was annoyed by Ristori's arrival because he was asked to give up his room at the hotel where he was staying as it had been reserved for the company. Besides, as an intellectual, he envied the financial achievements of an actress.

63 Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, p. 66. In her journey to the eastern Mediterranean, as with the other tours, Ristori was escorted by her husband, the Marchese Capranica del Grillo, and by their daughter. See the anonymous article ‘Mrs Ristori’, Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865; Roidis, ‘Ristori’, p. 378.

64 Armonia, 13 January 1865.

65 Armonia, 13 January 1865. See also Telegraphos kai Byzantis, 5 December 1864. About the average wages of workers see the newspaper Smyrna, 11 December 1873.

66 Avgi, 9 January 1865; Paliggenesia, 11 January 1865. About the exchange rates of the period see Kokkinakis, Ioannis, Currency and Politics in Greece, 1830–1910 (Athens: Alexandria Publications, 1999), pp. 79 and 123Google Scholar.

67 Dimaras, Hellenic Romanticism, pp. 358. See also a series of related articles in the newspaper Smyrna, 20 March 1871, 10 September 1871, 23 and 27 June 1872, 30 May 1872, and 31 October 1872.

68 Hadjipantazis, From Nile to Danube, pp. 266 and 274–9.

69 Anatolikos Astir, 28 November/10 December 1864 (the article was reprinted from Ægyptos).

70 Pandora, 15, 357 (2 February 1865), p. 537; Ristori, Memoirs and Artistic Studies, pp. 47–52.

71 Evnomia, 19 January 1865; Paratiritis (Athens), 9 February 1865; Armonia, 27 January 1865.

72 Armonia, 1 January 1865.

73 Gotsi, Veta, ‘The “Mysteries'” Novel. A Contribution to the Description of the Genre’, in Vagenas, Nasos, ed., From Leandros to Loukis Laras: Studies on the Prose Fiction of the Period 1830–1880 (Herakleion, Greece: Crete University Press, 1997), pp. 149–68Google Scholar.

74 Ibid.

75 Korassidou, Maria, Athens' Miserable People and Their Therapists: Poverty and Philanthropy in the Hellenic Capital in the Nineteenth Century (Athens: Typothito, 2000), pp. 58–62Google Scholar.

76 Kanner, ‘Poverty and Philanthropy’, pp. 161–72.

77 Ibid.; Korassidou, Athens' Miserable People, p. 13.

78 See Ilbert, ‘A Certain Sense of Citizenship’, p. 24. It may not be irrelevant that Alexandria's Greek community founded the first orphanage only as late as 1909. See Soulogiannis, The Hellenic Community of Alexandria, pp. 240–1.

79 Kanner, ‘Poverty and Philanthropy’, pp. 173 and 178–9.

80 Ethnofylax, 12 January 1865. The newspaper derived the information from Constantinople's English newspaper, the Eastern Herald. Most probably the lodge mentioned was part of the Italian Freemason society called the ‘Grand Orient of Italy’. See Liakopoulos, Efstathios, Freemasonry in Greece: Another Identity Crisis (Athens: Aretha Publishers, 1989), p. 186Google Scholar. About N. Psicharis's Masonic identity see [Yiannis] Psicharis. ‘The Psicharides (My Genealogy)’, in G. Zolotas and Em. Saros, eds., History of Chios (Athens: P. D. Sakellarios, 1928), Vol. 3b, p. 836.

81 Korassidou, Athens' Miserable People, pp. 13–14 and 62.

82 Ibid, pp. 93–6.

83 Evnomia, 23 March 1865.