Ugolino

work by Gerstenberg

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July 14, 2026

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Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg's tragedy, Ugolino (1768), is a powerful and gruesome work that expresses a range of emotions from the heroic to the macabre. This play is noted as a significant contribution to the Sturm und Drang literary movement in Germany, which emphasized unbridled emotion and youthful genius.1

The historical figure Ugolino della Gherardesca, a count of Donoratico, was a prominent member of a Tuscan noble family near Pisa. He is known for his tyrannical rule of Pisa and his imprisonment with his sons and grandsons, where they starved to death. This tragic event was famously commemorated by Dante in the Inferno.2

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Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg
His powerful and gruesome tragedy Ugolino (1768) ranges in its expression from the heroic to the macabre. During his Copenhagen years he also wrote the text of a cantata, Ariadne auf Naxos (1767), that was set to music by Johann Adolph Scheibe and Johann Christian Bach and later adapted for…
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His powerful and gruesome tragedy Ugolino (1768) ranges in its expression from the heroic to the macabre. During his Copenhagen years he also wrote the text of a cantata, Ariadne auf Naxos (1767), that was set to music by Johann Adolph Scheibe and Johann Christian Bach and later adapted for…
Read More