Fembio Special: Famous Italian Women
Eleonora Duse
born on October 3, 1858 in Vigevano, Italy
died on April 21, 1924 in Pittsburgh, United States
Italian actress
100th anniversary of her death on April 21, 2024
Biography
For many, she was the greatest actress of her time. Famous writers such as Pirandello, D'Annunzio and Alexandre Dumas fils wrote plays for her, and among poets, Rilke was one of her most ardent admirers. The formidable critic Alfred Kerr fell completely under her spell: “Never before and never again ... This is perfection. The miracle of the last beauty of the south…”.
Her art of transformation and the naturalness of her acting were legendary. Outwardly rather inconspicuous, she could appear beautiful and ugly, tall and short, young and old on stage; if the moment demanded it, she could even blush and turn pale. She disregarded conventions: no makeup, no crinolines, no theatrical gestures carried out in accordance with the Manual of Stage Poses in vogue at the time! Above all, no artificiality in vocal lines: “According to the rules, you have to raise your voice in certain situations, to exaggerate. But when I have to express fierce passion ... I often become mute, and on stage I speak softly, I hardly whisper…”. She never attended a drama school, and yet she revolutionized the acting style of her time. Probably few in the audience could imagine the effort it took her to transform into her roles. She was said to have the pathways from dressing room to stage hung with cloths so as to be protected from curious eyes.
Her father was head of a theatrical troupe that toured northern Italy and so she had to begin performing at the age of four. By the age of twelve, she was already playing women in passionate love, often without understanding what she was saying. She married an actor, from whom she separated after a few years for another; her daughter grew up in boarding schools and her mother wrote to her every day.
The great love of Duse's life, however, was the self-absorbed Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose plays she tried - often unsuccessfully - to popularize using all her energy and her money. In return, he left her for a younger woman. “How you loved me!” he was reported to have said when they met again. But she had too big a heart to become bitter.
Her language was Italian, but audiences in Europe, Russia, Egypt and North and South America understood her. Among her favorite roles were Ibsen's female characters, which she played delicately and as if floating on air, especially Ellida, the Lady from the Sea. Duse too was also magnetically drawn to the sea in Italy, where she recovered from her grueling life of travel and found some relief for her chronic lung disease. Her wish to die on the stage did not come true: during a tour of North America, she succumbed to pneumonia in a hotel in Pittsburgh. “Depart - create - cover me up!” are said to have been her last words.
(Text from 2007; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.)
Please consult the German version for additional information (pictures, sources, videos, bibliography).
Quotes
To save the theater, the theater must be destroyed. (Eleonora Duse)
Women are wiser than men in misfortune because they have more practice in it. (Eleonora Duse)
Duse is a great person on stage and a small woman in everyday life. (Karl Kraus, 1923)
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