Concerts

2^nd Andermatt Goethe Days

26 TO 27 AUGUST 2023: “GOETHE’S TELL AND OTHER HEROES”

The 2nd edition of the Andermatt Goethe Days will take place from 26 to 27 August 2023. Organised jointly by ANDERMATT MUSIC and the Sasso San Gottardo, this two-day event will offer exceptional insights into Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s relationship with Switzerland and his impact on this country’s history and self-perception.

“Feeling great; projects” wrote Goethe in his diary during a stop at Andermatt. He went on to praise both the inspiring surroundings and the “excellent” cheese from Ursern. He was full of enthusiasm for this valley, which he claimed was the loveliest and most interesting of all the regions he knew. Oddly, he came down from the north three times to the Gotthard Pass, and each time travelled back to the north again. Goethe was a universal genius who yearned for Italy and was possessed of an urge to explore – but he never traversed the Pass itself on his way south. The “Andermatt Goethe Days” take place every year, offering audiences a unique mix of music, literature, theatre, history and stories with a connection to Goethe’s travels to the Gotthard – and all at the original locations.

FROM THEATRICAL SUCCESS TO NATIONAL SPRITUAL DEFENCE

The thematic focus of the 2nd edition of the Andermatt Goethe Days is “Goethe’s Tell and other heroes”. When Goethe discovered the myth of William Tell, he wrote as follows from Stäfa by the Lake of Zurich to his friend Friedrich Schiller: “I am firmly convinced that the fable of Tell could be treated in epic fashion. If I succeed in what I intend, it would bring about a strange instance in which a fairytale only attains its perfect truth through poetry, instead of one having to turn the story into a fable in order to make something of it”. Goethe’s plan for an artistic adaptation of the saga led him to engage intensively with its material, visiting the original sites, studying the local people, plus the customs and traditions of the region around the Gotthard. But reasons of time compelled Goethe to abandon his plans, and motivated his friend Schiller to take up the topic. The result was Schiller’s famous drama Wilhelm Tell, which Goethe directed at its first performance in Weimar.

After that first production, Wilhelm Tell went on to conquer the great stages of the world. Gioachino Rossini followed it up with his opera Guillaume Tell, which is based on Schiller’s popular play. And during the Second World War, Tell became one of the quintessential Swiss heroes: a symbol of the people’s will to self-determination and a key figure in the movement known as “national spiritual defence”, whose purpose was to combat the propaganda of Switzerland’s totalitarian neighbours by asserting its own, independent traditions.