Liberty or libertinism? From Schiller to Andrew Tate
Don Giovanni, Glyndebourne Festival 2023 - production photo captions Photographer: Monika Rittershaus. Additional image of Andrew Tate.
Freedom, if not outright revolution, was the watchword of German dramatist, poet and philosopher, Friedrich Schiller. Schiller notably formed the elite pair of German classical writers, along with his contemporary, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was Goethe who described chess as “the touchstone of the intellect.” There is a link to a third Germanic genius, in that the opening lines of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ( Freude schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. ..) are based on Schiller’s Ode to Joy ( Freude in German). It is, however, not widely known that Schiller originally wrote the poem as an ode to Freedom, Freiheit in German, but that the dangerous word freedom was suppressed by the censors in the revolutionary days when it was written. Freude, likewise with two syllables, begins with F and was deemed more suitable. On examining the full text of the ode, it becomes glaringly obvious that the word Freedom works far better than the less energetic Joy.
My translation follows:
An die Freude / Ode to Joy
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, den Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Joy, beautiful divine spark, daughter of Elysium, Oh heavenly one, we enter, intoxicated with fire, your holy realm. Your magic makes whole, what custom had sternly rent asunder, all men become brothers, where your gentle wing protects us.
Seid umschlungen Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder – überm Sternenzelt
muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Embrace ye millions! Offer this kiss to the entire world! Brothers, above the canopy of the stars, a dear Father must reside.
Ecstasy? Yes!
Freedom? Certainly!
Joy? Absolutely not.
It is no coincidence that Beethoven not only converted Schiller’s Ode into music, but also wrote the overture and incidental music to Egmont, Goethe’s own youthful paean to freedom, along with his hymn to liberty, his only opera, Fidelio. It is lamentable that supine conductors still genuflect to custom (ironically, as in the very words of the Ode itself). They should, of course, be joyously substituting Freude with Freiheit, as did Leonard Bernstein when conducting Beethoven’s ninth on the metaphorically ruined ramparts of the German capital’s hated Communist inspired circumvallation (better known as the Berlin Wall).
Where Schiller failed, Mozart and his librettist , Lorenzo Da Ponte, brilliantly succeeded. Encouraged by Mark Ronan’s favourable review in TheArticle. I went to Glyndebourne’s production of Don Giovanni last month. During the course of the opera, the Don himself belts out Viva la Liberta, (“long live liberty”), quite evading the stifling censorship which had so oppressed Schiller in those revolutionary times. The American Revolution against the British crown was concluded in 1776, the Bastille was stormed in 1789, heralding in the French Revolution, Schiller penned his Ode in 1785, while Mozart’s masterpiece received its premiere in Prague in 1787.
Perhaps the censors took Liberta from the mouth of Don Giovanni, a notorious womaniser, to be equated with libertinism, rather than political liberty.
Don Giovanni celebrated fifty years since the foundation of Glyndebourne. Two days after attending the anniversary, I went on to another fiftieth year celebration, that of Richard O’Brien’s pastiche, The Rocky Horror Show. It struck me at once that there was a parallel between the libertine Don Giovanni and the promiscuous, Mary Shelley inspired, anti-hero Frank’nfurter, an alien from Trans-sexual Transylvania, prepared at any moment to seduce women, men and even little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri (with apologies to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.)
Don Giovanni and Frank’nfurter are libertine creatures of the imagination, but there is a genuine flesh and blood incarnation in the same mould. That is influencer extraordinaire, Andrew Tate, who has recently achieved notoriety, not least because of his celebrity status amongst massive, admiring segments of modern male youth fandom. Tate is under house arrest in Bucharest, charged with human trafficking. This week he was also served with legal documents from four women in the UK, alleging rape and sexual assault.
A much-viewed interview with Lucy Williamson, the BBC’s Bucharest correspondent, focused on Tate’s alleged philosophy of misogynistic rape culture, elevated to the level of an ultra-masculine, ultra-luxurious ideology. Tate identifies neither as a libertine, nor as a classical liberal, but as an libertarian. Nevertheless, his idea of liberty seems to have rather more in common with those of Don Giovanni and Frank’ furter than with that of Schiller. As an indication of his sensational outreach, Tate’s hashtag has been viewed over 13 billion times on social media. Apparently 45% of British males in the age group 16-24 have expressed a positive view of him. Unsurprisingly, only 1 percent of British females share this view.
And the connection with chess? Tate was pressed by his father Emory Tate into competing in chess tournaments at an early age. Andrew is not widely noted as a player, though some infatuated epigoni have described him longingly, if wrongly, a grandmaster. However, his father Emory Tate was in fact a genuinely brilliant exponent of the game, recognised by FIDÉ, the World Chess Federation, as an International Master (one level below International Grandmaster). Emory Tate was also the victor of some deeply impressive attacking masterpieces.
Here are some samples of play by the paterfamilias and progenitor of our contemporary imitator of Don Giovanni and the egregiously promiscuous Frank’nfurter:
Nick de Firmian vs. Emory Tate
Emory Tate vs. Artur Chibukhchain
Raymond Keene’s latest book, “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from Blackwell’s .
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