Carmen Sylva and “The Venetian Drama”
Carmen Sylva and “The Venetian Drama”

Author(s): Razvan Staicu
Subject(s): Cultural history, Diplomatic history, Political history, Social history, 19th Century
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Carmen Sylva; Queen Elisabeth of Romania; Văcărescu Affair; Italian exile; Venetian Drama; female emancipation; Romanian history; political and cultural life; nineteenth-century monarchy; Duiliu Zamfirescu;
Summary/Abstract: Romanian history remembers the German-born Princess Elisabeth Pauline Ottilie Luise zu Wied (1843–1916) as the first Queen of Romania following her marriage, in 1869, to Prince Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who on 10 May 1881 became King Carol I of Romania. Her devotion to her adoptive country, manifested through her active participation in its political, economic, social, and especially cultural life, uplifted her to the status of a representative and much respected figure. In this article I have considered, firstly, one particular episode in the Queen’s biography, later to be known as the “Văcărescu Affair”, and secondly Elisabeth’s “Italian exile”, or “The Venetian Drama”, as it featured in the news headlines. An interesting perspective on this exile is offered by the memoirs and correspondence of the writer Duiliu Zamfirescu, who at that time served as legation secretary of the Romanian Embassy in Rome, and was charged with the diplomatic mission of meeting the Queen upon her arrival in Venice. This was the starting point of the writer’s involvement in “The Venetian Drama”. Queen Carmen Sylva’s dignified and courageous attitude, as it transpires from this episode, represents a model of female emancipation in a century (the nineteenth) in which this issue was only very timidly surfacing in Romanian society.

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