Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell [William Tell]

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Friedrich Schiller’s play

Wilhelm Tell

, first performed in Weimar in 1804, occupies a broader cultural and political space than most literary dramas. More people living today may have made a holiday excursion across Lake Lucerne on the paddle steamer “Schiller” than have seen

Wilhelm Tell

performed, but who has not heard of the bowman who shot an apple off his son’s head, and who could not tongue the overture to Rossini’s 1829 opera

Guillaume Tell

?

Schiller, whose plays remain staples of German repertory theatre programs, was once celebrated throughout the Western world as a dramatist and thinker of world-wide importance, as statuary in public buildings and parks in the USA and Verdi’s adaptations of Kabale und Liebe (Luisa Miller) and Don Carlos may attest. William Cullen

2607 words

Citation: Dye, Ellis. "Wilhelm Tell". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11148, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11148 Wilhelm Tell 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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