Emilia Galotti at Nationaltheater Mannheim

The Prince of Guastalla falls in love with Emilia Galotti, the daughter of a colonel and fiancee of the Count Appiani. He tasks his chamberlain Marinelli to procure the young girl for him. On the way to their wedding Marinelli arranges to have Emilia and Count Appiani get attacked by bandits. During this faked attack Appiani dies, and Emilia is supposedly rescued and brought to the pleasure palace of the prince. Marinelli’s plan appears to be working. Under the pretext that the attack needs to be investigated and legally solved first, Emilia remains in the hands of the prince. Out of fear that she may not be able to withstand the seductions of the prince, she aks her father to kill her in order to save her honor. »I have blood, my father, so youthful, warm as one. Also my senses, are senses...«

In his tragedy, Lessing changes the motive of the Roman Virginia into the simple Emilia because he is convinced »that the fate of a daughter who asks her father to kill her because her virtue is more valuable than her life is already tragic enough, and capable enough to shake our very souls.«

It will be staged by Elmar Goerden, who in Mannheim has already directed Henrik Ibsen’s Die Wildente (The Wild Duck).