Hugo von Hofmannsthal: L’opera di Florindo - Il ritorno a casa di Cristina. Commedie veneziane. Edizione di studio

This project explores the profound and privileged relationship between Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the city of Venice, which serves not merely as a background but as a symbolic literary space central to his reflections on aesthetics and ethics. Diverging from the prevailing twentieth-century literary trope of a decadent, autumnal Venice, Hofmannsthal’s poetics also taps into a lesser-known tradition connecting Viennese culture to the joyful lightness and sociabilité of 17th- and 18th-century Venice. This is evidenced by his lifelong engagement with the theater of Carlo Goldoni and Giacomo Casanova’s Memoirs. A pivotal outcome of this fascination is the comedy Cristinas Heimreise, written during a crucial turn toward the comedic genre sparked around 1907. Drawing from an episode in Casanova's memoirs, the play offers an unconventional portrayal of the famous seducer (here named Florindo). Rather than focusing on erotic escapades, the comedy addresses the fleeting nature of existence and its overcoming through meaningful social bonds, harmonizing the "sacred" and the "profane." While other Venetian-inspired works by Hofmannsthal have been translated into Italian, Florindos Werk / Cristinas Heimreise remains unknown to the Italian public. To mark the Casanova anniversary year (2025), this project aims to fill this gap by producing the first Italian critical edition of the text. Based on the German critical edition (Sämtliche Werke XI) and supported by the Hugo von Hofmannsthal-Gesellschaft, the volume will present the play's various genetic versions—offering a more nuanced portrait of Casanova—alongside a critical introduction. Ultimately, the project seeks to reconstruct the text’s long genesis (1907–1926), its collaborative networks (including Richard Strauss and Max Reinhardt), and its place within Hofmannsthal's vision of a European cultural canon during a period of radical geopolitical shifts.