La recepción de la Celestina en Alemania: su primera adaptación teatral (Richard Zoozmann, 1905)

Abstract

This paper deals with Die Celestine, a play written by Richard Zoozmann in 1905. To study this adaptation I provide some biographical aspects and recapitulate the most important celestinesque statements of the German literary criticism of the 19th century. This may help to understand the changes and additions in Zoozmann’s version. For this reason the plot of Die Celestine is summarized. This first German adaptation of Celestina for the stage results in a neo-romantic play which leaves out any daring or provocative element so as not to offend the moral and customs of the society at the time. Therefore Zoozmann adulterates the Castilian original by re-writing a new text according to Shakespeare’s canon. In this case, the influence of Romeo and Juliet is obvious. To end with, this paper gives an account of how this play could be the source for an unfinished opera by Richard Strauss.