Undine (novella)
_-_cover_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_18752.jpg) Cover of Undine | |
| Author | Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué |
|---|---|
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Genre | Novella |
Publication date | 1811 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Undine is a novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué concerning Undine, a water spirit who marries a Knight named Huldebrand in order to gain a soul. It is an early German romance, which has been translated into English and other languages. During the nineteenth century the book was very popular and was, according to The Times in 1843, "a book which, of all others, if you ask for it at a foreign library, you are sure to find engaged"[1]. The story, which has resemblances to The Little Mermaid by Andersen, is descended from Melusine, the French folk-tale of a water-sprite who marries a knight on condition that he shall never see her on Saturdays, when she resumes her mermaid shape. It was also inspired by a text of Paracelsus.[2] An unabridged English edition of the story published in 1909 was illustrated by Arthur Rackham. George Macdonald thought Undine "the most beautiful" of all fairy stories, and the references to it in such works as Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and Louisa Alcott's Little Women show that it was one of the best loved of all books for many 19th-century children.
The first adaptation of Undine was E.T.A. Hoffmann's opera in 1814. It was a collaboration between E.T.A. Hoffman, who composed the score, and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué who adapted his own work into a libretto. The opera proved highly successful and in his review of Hoffmann's opera, Carl Maria von Weber admired it as the kind of composition which the German desires - 'an art work complete in itself, in which partial contributions of the related and collaborating arts blend together, disappear, and, in disappearing, somehow form a new world'[3].[4]
Adaptations
Opera
- Undine, E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1814
- Undine, Christian Friedrich Johann Girschner, 1830
- Undine, Albert Lortzing, 1845
- Undina, Alexei Lvov, 1846
- Undina, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, 1869
- Rusalka, Antonín Dvořák, 1901
Music
- Sonata Undine, a Romantic sonata for flute and piano (in E-minor) by Carl Reinecke, 1882
- Ondine, a movement in Gaspard de la Nuit by Maurice Ravel, 1908
- Ondine, a piano prelude by Claude Debussy, 1911-1913
Ballet
- Ondine, composed by Cesare Pugni and choreographed by Jules Perrot, 1843
- Coralia, or the Inconstant Knight, choreographed by Paul Taglioni, 1847
- Undine, composed by Hans Henze and choreographed by Frederick Ashton, 1958
Film
- The Loves of Ondine, a film by Andy Warhol
Literature
- Ondine, ou la Nymphe des Eaux, a play by René-Charles Guilbert de Pixerécourt, 1830
- Ondine, a poem by Aloysius Bertrand, 1842
- Undine, an autobiographical book by Olive Schreiner, 1928
- Ondine, a play by Jean Giraudoux, 1939
Art
- Undine and Huldbrand, a painting by Henry Fuseli, 1819-1822
- Undine, a painting by Moritz Retzsch, 1830
- Undine, a painting by John William Waterhouse, 1872
- Ondine, a painting by Paul Gauguin, 1889
- Undine, a painting by Georges Fantin-Latour
- Undine, a painting by Daniel Maclise
- Undine, a painting by J.M.W. Turner
- Ondine de Spa, a sculpture by Pouhon Pierre-Le-Grand
- Undine with harp, a sculpture by Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler, 1855
External links
- ^ Au, Susan (1978). "The Shadow of Herself: Some Sources of Jules Perrot's "Ondine"". Dance Chronicle. 2 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd: 160. doi:10.1080/01472527808568730. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
- ^ Strong, George Templeton. "Ondine • Suites Nos. 1 - 3". Retrieved 2008-05-16.
- ^ Strunk, Oliver (1965). Source Readings in Music History: The Romantic Era. New York. p. 63. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Castein, Hanne (2000). "The Composer as Librettist: Judith Weir's 'Romantic' Operas Heaven Ablaze in His Breast and Blond Eckbert". Aurifex (1). Retrieved 2008-05-10.