Vow, that does look like worth tracking down. Mind you, googling reviews of the opera tells me Rufus Wainwright and collaborators, after centuries, or rather millennia of debate on how and hwy Antinous died came up with yet another version, and also one that simultanously somewhat lets Hadrian of the hook for his anti-Jewish policies (since he signs that decree only against the promise to see dead Antinous again), but hey, rule of drama, and it looks and sounds gorgeous.
Reminder that Manteuffel actually told Seckendorff Jr. the nephew that Fritz was "like Hadrian", presumably as a hint, though this didn't stop him from being overly optimistic about Fritz/EC a few years later. Then again, Hadrian was married, and Sabina actually went with him to Egypt. It was a completely political marriage, and in all likelihood unconsumated, but she also got more respect than poor EC did, and in 1740, after Fritz and EC had spend some years together in Rheinsberg where according to Fritz himself he had been happy, it was probably possible to believe this arrangement would continue to work for him.
Also: last year I watched the Ridley Scott movie All the Money in the World and the tv miniseries Trust, both of which deal with the (in)famous Getty kidnapping where JP Getty the first and original refused to pay ransom for his grandson until he was sent said grandson's severed ear, and even then kept haggling about the price. Now, both fictionalizations differ partly greatly from each other, but both include Getty - obsessed with collecting art as he was, especially antiquity art - saying with utter conviction that he's the reincarnation of Hadrian, so presumably he actually believed that. Now, in one case, he says it while strolling through the famous (and gigantic) Villa Hadrian built in Tivoli, and says "I remember making love to my mistresses here", at which point, of course, I had to wonder:
a) are we the audience supposed to get from this Getty doesn't actually know much about Hadrian, including the one thing everyone knows about Hadrian?
or
b) Do the scriptwriters not know that about Hadrian and just think Roman Emperor = orgies with mistresses?
Re: Iconography
Reminder that Manteuffel actually told Seckendorff Jr. the nephew that Fritz was "like Hadrian", presumably as a hint, though this didn't stop him from being overly optimistic about Fritz/EC a few years later. Then again, Hadrian was married, and Sabina actually went with him to Egypt. It was a completely political marriage, and in all likelihood unconsumated, but she also got more respect than poor EC did, and in 1740, after Fritz and EC had spend some years together in Rheinsberg where according to Fritz himself he had been happy, it was probably possible to believe this arrangement would continue to work for him.
Also: last year I watched the Ridley Scott movie All the Money in the World and the tv miniseries Trust, both of which deal with the (in)famous Getty kidnapping where JP Getty the first and original refused to pay ransom for his grandson until he was sent said grandson's severed ear, and even then kept haggling about the price. Now, both fictionalizations differ partly greatly from each other, but both include Getty - obsessed with collecting art as he was, especially antiquity art - saying with utter conviction that he's the reincarnation of Hadrian, so presumably he actually believed that. Now, in one case, he says it while strolling through the famous (and gigantic) Villa Hadrian built in Tivoli, and says "I remember making love to my mistresses here", at which point, of course, I had to wonder:
a) are we the audience supposed to get from this Getty doesn't actually know much about Hadrian, including the one thing everyone knows about Hadrian?
or
b) Do the scriptwriters not know that about Hadrian and just think Roman Emperor = orgies with mistresses?