Yuletide tags are out: Frederician version

[cahn]

Come join us in this crazy Frederick the Great fandom and learn more about all these crazy associated people, like the star-crossed and heartbreaking romance between Maria Theresia's daughter Maria Christina and her daughter-in-law Isabella, wow.

OK, so, there are FOURTEEN characters nominated:
Anna Karolina Orzelska (Frederician RPF)
Elisabeth Christine von Preußen | Elisabeth Christine Queen of Prussia (Frederician RPF)
Francesco Algarotti (Frederician RPF)
François-Marie Arouet | Voltaire (Frederician RPF)
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great (Frederician RPF)
Hans Hermann Von Katte (Frederician RPF)
Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor (Frederician RPF)
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria (Frederician RPF)
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf (Frederician RPF)
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith (Frederician RPF)
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (Frederician RPF)
Stanisław August Poniatowski (Frederician RPF)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) (Frederician RPF)
Yekatarina II Alekseyevna | Catherine the Great of Russia (Frederician RPF)

This means some fourth person kindly nominated Algarotti and -- I think? -- Stanislaw August Poniatowski! YAY! Thank you fourth person! Come be our friend! :D Yuletide is so great!

I am definitely requesting Maria Theresia, Wilhelmine, and Fritz (Put them in a room together. Shake. How big is the explosion?), and thinking about Elisabeth Christine, but maybe not this year.

I am also declaring this post another Frederician post, as the last one was getting out of hand. I think I'll still use that one as the overall index to these, though, to keep all the links in one place.

(seriously, every time I think the wild stories are done there is ANOTHER one)

Comments

Re: Fritz's death

[mildred_of_midgard]

? I know there's a Superbe buried next to Fritz, but he also reused names, so idk if it's the one who was there when he died, or an earlier one.

After giving it a moment's sensible thought, it must be an earlier one. I can't *believe* anyone, Heinrich or EC or anyone else, still cared enough to bury one of Fritz's dogs at Sanssouci years after he was gone. And even if they wanted to, I imagine it would feel like a slap in the face of FW 2, who decided not to bury Fritz next to his dogs.

Any dog that's currently buried there I have to assume, until I have evidence otherwise, predeceased Fritz and is there because he made the decision.

Death is also here but much more life

[selenak]

I got the "Fritz and Musik" book back from the library for two days since I wanted to transcribe some stuff for you. One particular beef of the author's is that she argues against the claim Fritz stopped going into the opera in his old age, lost interest in same or never liked opera buffa (as opposed to the tragic variation) to begin with, and she backs up her oounterarguments with letter quotes and notes from Berlin newspapers about the King being sighted in the opera; the very last opera he attended is documented by such a newspaper note and it was an opera buffa, on January 28th 1786, apropos the visit of none other than great nephew Carl August from Weimar. (No mention as to whether he brought Goethe along this time, too, which makes me assume he didn't.)

(That book has other musical factoids like Fritz telling EC to arrange Heinrich's birthday party, birthday meal and birthday opera for him on January 18th 1784. Fritz did attend, though.)

Oh, and remember that Elisabeth Mara/Gertrud Schmeling had after she left Fritz a glorious Paris season complete with rivalry with local soprano La Todi, with people declaring themselves Maraists or Todists? Well, guess whom Fritz hired to make up for the lack of a heroic female soprano in Berlin once that season was over? (Though she didn't stay for longer than one season. She had an offer from St. Petersburg, and Catherine paid better than Fritz.)

Also of possible interest to you - a list of musicians who did stay with Fritz either until his death or theirs, meaning that micromanaging boss or not, Fritz must have won their enduring loyalty:

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704 - 1759), from 1735 till his death (first as a singer, then since 1740 as Kapellmeister)

Violinists: Gohann Gottlieb Graun (1703 to 1771) from 1733 till his death, Franz Benda (1709 - 1786) till his death, Georg Czarth (1708 - 1780) from 1734 to 1758, Ems (or Ehmes, ? - 1764), Joseph Blume (1708 - 1782) from 1734 till his death and JOhann Caspar Grundcke (? - 1787) from 1734 to 1786.
Viola: JOhann Georg Benda (1713 - 1752) from 1734 till his death.
Violincello: Antonius Hock (no known life dates) between 1734 to 1758
Contraviolone: JOhann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708 - 1762) between 1734 and his death.
Cembalo: Christoph Schaffrath 81709 to 1763) from 1734 till 1744
Theorbe: Ernst Gottlieb Baron (1696 - 1760) from 1735 till his death
Harp: Petrini (? - 1751) from 1735 till his death
Horn: Joseph Ignaz Horzizki (? - 1757) from 1735 till 1755

Most of these musicians were hired in Rheinsberg, i.e. during the "happiest time".

When Fritz and Joseph met at Neisse and Mährisch-Neustadt, there was ,of course, music, too. ("la ritornata di Londra" by Domenico Fischietti.) (They got the theatre decorations from Breslau.) A countess from Joseph's entourage kept notes: "The opera, which bears the name Il Ritorne de Londres, was better performed than yesterday. The two monarchs were listening very attentively, and the Emperor once laughed heartily. The opera took really long, though."

Opera content: Petronilla, a female singer, returns home to Bologna after having been a great success in London. On her way, she stops in Milan.She gets received by the noble house of Ridolfino. But she's greedy and not content with the cash she's made in London, so she cons her accidental fellow travellers, an Italian and a French noblemen, out of their fortune while pretending to love them. After a while, they smell a rat, one of the suitors pretends to be a castrato, and the lot uncover her duplicity. In the end, though, everyone reconciles and Petronilla continues her journey with the Marquis and the Baron in tow.

(Does "playing hard to get to two suitors" have symbolism for one of the two monarchs, enquiring minds want to know?)

And btw, the book's author quotes the letter to Joseph from Fritz afterwards. As opposed to Peter, Joseph is "Monsieur Mon Frere", and the letter in full goes, in my own translation into English, because I think cahn deserves the full flavour of rococo state correspondance and over the top ness:

"Dear Sir and Brother,

after I enjoyed the unestimable pleasure of receiving your imperial majesty , nothing can be more precious to me than the letter you've kindly written to me. I can see the assured testimonies to your friendship and in general - which is most longed for by me - the complete reconciliation between two houses which have been torn apart for such a long time. Yes, my dear Sir, I repeat it in writing, that I find it impossible in my heart to be the enemy of such a man, and may heaven grant us that other steps should follow this first one, which will bring us closer to each other. I promise you with the word of a King and the promise of a gentleman that even in the case of a war breaking out between England and the House of Bourbon, I shall faithfully keep the peace so happily arranged now between us, and that I even in the case of another war, the cause of which is not yet forseeable, should remain neutral towards your current possessions, as long as you promise to similarly remain neutral towards mine. I shall say nothing more about the impression your majesty's presence has left on my soul and shall limit myself to the assurance of the great respect and admiration with which I shall remain

dear Sir, the good and faithful brother of your imperial highness
Federic

(Joseph: Mom! Mom! Just look at that. See how I kept my cool? I got a neutrality assurance and a peace promise out of him, even if we invade someone else!

MT: Oh for God's sake. *goes back to writing to Marie Antoinette about saying hello to Dubarry.)

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[mildred_of_midgard]

This is all extremely wonderful, thank you so much. I love the callback to Marie Antoinette! (MT "I NEED this alliance, child of mine! Your brother thinks a promise from that awful man in Potsdam is worth the paper it's written on.")

I also love how you were like, "I know, I'll put in gobs and gobs of dates, that'll make Mildred happy." Mildred is happy. ;)

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[cahn]

"Your brother thinks a promise from that awful man in Potsdam is worth the paper it's written on."

AHAHAHAHA

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[selenak]

Ha, I’ve found the other bit I wanted to transcribe for you before returning this book. To wit, the theatre and opera programm on those days Fritz was receiving his sisters, nephews, great nephews and nieces in his last decade:

July 14: Oedipe by Voltaire.
July 15: Great concert.
July 16: Mahomet by Voltaire.
July 17: Partenope (opera by Hasse)
July 18: Zaire by Voltaire
July 19: another performance of Partenope
July 20: another performance of Oedipe

(Carl August: Mom, is it me or is Uncle Fritz really into Voltaire?
Anna Amalia: Shhsh. At least there was an opera by Hasse included, too.
Carl August: Do you think he knows Hasse composed that opera for the. wedding between the daughter of the Empress, err, Queen of Hungary and that Naples guy?)

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[mildred_of_midgard]

Lol, Fritz. But apparently he was a little bit more flexible on the subject of what he would listen to than one might think; on another occasion, he and Anna Amalia heard an oratorio--music by Hasse, words by Maria Antonia--on the conversion of Saint Augustine. Fritz wrote to Heinrich that he wasn't too thrilled with the whole Saint Augustine thing, but he said the music was beautiful and that that was enough for him.

Fritz: will listen to a telephone book sung by a WOMAN if he finds it beautiful.

Fritz: so totally into Voltaire, though

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[cahn]

hee, yes, at least Hasse made it in!

Re: Death is also here but much more life

[cahn]

(okay, finally able to respond to comments -- I just had to respond to the crackfic yesterday, though!)

Well, guess whom Fritz hired to make up for the lack of a heroic female soprano in Berlin once that season was over?

LOL oh Fritz :D

This is all really cool! I could totally imagine that for musicians who could deal with Fritz' personality and/or who cared about music enough that his personality was of secondary importance (and weren't chomping at the bit to play/sing Gluck), his court could be a really awesome place to be a musician. I had a conductor a little like that in college -- not Fritzian, but with some personality issues that made it difficult for a lot of people -- but the quality of the music that happened with him was so great that he had almost a cult-like following. You either hated working with him and dropped out as soon as possible, or would sign on to sing with him no matter what he was doing. (Hmm, he also generally preferred older music -- we sang a lot of Renaissance, not much 20thC.)

The opera took really long, though.

AHAHAHA Countess, you are a woman after my own heart :D

I promise you with the word of a King and the promise of a gentleman that even in the case of a war breaking out between England and the House of Bourbon, I shall faithfully keep the peace so happily arranged now between us

I love the over-the-topness of this letter, thank you for translating :D And awwww, that's touching! Or, well, might be if he hadn't cheerfully broken all kinds of things with respect to Silesia.