Mike Gardiner’s Reviews > Don Carlos / Mary Stuart > Status Update
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Mike Gardiner
is 43% done
Starting the much tighter and compelling Mary Stuart
— Jan 21, 2025 06:45AM
Mike Gardiner
is on page 203 of 400
DON CARLOS ⭐️⭐️⭐️
More thoughts later.
The First and Fifth Acts are outstanding. The somewhat plodding middle acts have some high points but feel overlong in the reading of it.
This probably could be really fun to do and see/hear on stage with judicious cuts.
— Jan 20, 2025 10:30AM
More thoughts later.
The First and Fifth Acts are outstanding. The somewhat plodding middle acts have some high points but feel overlong in the reading of it.
This probably could be really fun to do and see/hear on stage with judicious cuts.
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Adam
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Jan 20, 2025 05:56AM
Ah, another Wiemar playwright! I admit I’ve only braved Goethe, and even then only his poetry and philosophy. Any noteworthy impressions of this era so far?
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Goethe, I think is the master. (FAUST is staggering). I’m in the midst of the very long DON CARLOS by Schiller and although it has some great scenes, it doesn’t quite have the “punch” that Goethe normally brings. In other words, a lot of these Weimar works are often trying to express an individual’s fight for sexual, religious, and governmental autonomy. Carlos is generally considered a weaker Schiller, but I wanted to read it since Dostoyevsky took much from it for The Grand Inquisitor Chapter in KARAMAZOV lol.
All this to say— these are all pretty compelling. Schiller in particular is doing a sort of “remix” of Shakespearean forms and characters. (This, I think was common for a lot of these Sturm und Drang guys) Carlos has a lot of echoes of Hamlet, Othello, and Jacobean revenge tragedies. Thus ends my dissertation for the time being LOL. (I gotta finish some more Schiller hahaha)
