«Das Land der Griechen mit der Seele suchend»: Prometheus, Beethoven and the role of the founding myths in Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s reworking Die Ruinen von Athen

Abstract

Among the lesser results of the collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the Festspiel Die Ruinen von Athen (1924) plays a key-role, as a unique reworking of two Beethoven’s compositions – namely the incidental music written for the inauguration of the German theatre in Pest (1812) having the same title and Die Geschöpfe von Prometheus, the only ballet in the catalogue of the Meister of Bonn. The freedom in treating original materials as far as the organization and interpolation of musical numbers are concerned, actually reveals a deep carefulness on one hand in preserving the single pieces authentic, on the other in giving to the global form of Festspiel a new interpretation, possibly responding to the increased need for mythology by the modern age and the redefinition of a Kulturnation, with reference to the early 20th century German panorama.