The cover of Bob Dylan's forthcoming album
Tempest shows part of one of four main figures from the sculpture the Athena Fountain (or Pallas-Athene-Brunnen) in front of the Austrian Parliament building in Vienna. She represents the river Vltava (Moldau in German); the other three symbolise the rivers Danube, Inn and Elbe. The sculpture was created between 1893 and 1902 by Carl Kundmann, Josef Tautenhayn and Hugo Haerdlt, from plans by Baron von Hansen. Overall the work is intended to symbolise wisdom...
With thanks to Rainer Vesely for pointing me towards this.
The river Moldau is of course the subject of Smetana's most famous musical composition. It re-iterates an old Italian air (from sixteenth century Mantua ) which now via Smetana's opus has been incorporated into the Israeli national anthem - Hatikvah. Is the reference (with its complex chain of musical connections from Prosepro's world to ours) intended or accidental.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this extra information. These waters are getting deeper and deeper...
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether this might by Dylan's last album since The Tempest is arguably Shakespeare's last play.
ReplyDeleteThe Vltava is a bohemian river
ReplyDeletePossibly also referencing another of Shakespeare's late works -- A Winters Tale set in Boehmia and plot turning on a statue. Does "Early Roman Kings" = Coriolinus, another late work??
ReplyDelete