Eleonora Duse was born Oct. 3, 1858, near Vigevano, Lombardy, in then the Austrian Empire — now Italy. She died April 21, 1924 in Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. Marc Jones gives her birth time as 2:00 am but we find that a bit fast, and rectified her to 1:30 am with an ascendant of 18 LEO 20. This symbol is {SS} a “houseboat party, ” apropos, because she worked with the theatrical ensemble to entertain the paying guests (audience).
An Italian actress, her great interpretive roles in the heroines of the Italian playwright Gabriele D’Annunzio, and considered a great Italian poet of the 20th in his home country, and Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. She came from a family of actors, who toured often in the same troup, and so it is no surprise that she made her stage debut in 1862 at age 4 in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables as the young orphan Fantine.
Everything changed with Sarah
But in 1882, Miss Eleanora, saw the great French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt #93 perform. This inspired her to tackle contemporary French dramatists like the younger Alexandre Dumas. The first of these performances was Lionette in La Princesse de Bagdad, where she scored a triumph. She followed that with Cesarine in La Femme de Claude, and in 1884 she created the title role of Dumas’s latest play, Denise, and the part of Santuzza in Giovanni Verga’s Cavalleria rusticana.
With Cesare Rossi, a prominent actor-manager, she toured South America in 1885, but after her return to Italy she formed her own company, the Drama Company of the City of Rome, and with it toured throughout Europe as well as the United States.
In 1894 she met and fell in love with a rising young poet, Gabriele D’Annunzio (March 12, 1863 to March 11, 1938) ; she financed his career, and he wrote for her a number of plays. He eventually broke off the relationship and exposed their intimacy in the erotic novel Il fuoco (1900; The Flame of Life), much to her horror. His greatest play was La figlia di Iorio (performed 1904; The Daughter of Jorio), a poetic drama of the fears and superstitions of Abruzzi peasants, probably insulting her religious views — he eventually became a fascist with Il Duce.
Duse, Nora and Hedda
Miss Eleanora though found her muse in the dramas of Henrik Ibsen. She never tired of playing Nora in A Doll’s House, and Hedda Gabler was a close second. Both heroines probably sparked within her something she personally longed for — walking out of a relationship and asserting herself ; Ibsen himself did not like her performance because it was too emotional and seeing both women as more cerebral.
But, the playwright George Bernard Shaw was totally entranced. He confessed that “she had an apparent million of changes and inflexions” & he had never seen her at an “awkward angle” (Dramatic Opinions and Essays, 1907). Plus, she had a thousand faces; her physical command, range, and choice of gesture were superb; and she had a different way of walking for each part and so the total effect was of more than “naturalistic” acting.
What really struck the playwright Shaw was that Duse acted not only the reality of the play, but also understood the subtext of the character and so “knew” more about Nora the character than author Ibsen or the heroine herself could possibly have known about her own self. One of her critics wrote that Duse played what was between the lines; and to watch her was to read a psychological novel.
In 1909 Duse quit the stage, because of her health. However, she incurred heavy financial losses during World War I and reemerged in 1921. Her acting powers were undiminished, but her voice did not carry and taxed her health further. In 1923 she appeared in London and Vienna before embarking upon her last US tour. After the curtain call, in Pittsburgh, the city Andrew Carnegie built, she collapsed; she was 65.
In compliance with her wishes, she was buried in Asolo Cemetery in Veneto, outside of Venezia (Venice) Italy, but a memorial stands in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn as well. the University of Glasgow, Scotland has many original playbills and photographs of the actress, available alas only there.
Question to the Times
In a recent visit to Green-Wood Cemetery, I noticed a memorial to Eleanora Duse, the great Italian actress. Since she is buried in Italy, why is there a memorial in Brooklyn?
A. It is a tribute by starstruck fan who saw her as a little boy.
Eleanora Duse (1858-1924), was the leading interpreter of Ibsen and an important figure in the development of modern acting style. There was such grief on the two continents when Duse (the name was pronounced DOO-zeh) died on tour in Pittsburgh that long lines attended her funeral in New York, and tearful admirers watched the liner Duilio depart for Naples carrying her body.
One little boy, Martin Waldron in particular , who had been adopted by an Italian-American family that loved theater. On Duse’s final tour in New York, his grandmother, Rosa Catania, following Italian tradition, took the child, then about 18 months old, to meet her. The grandmother asked the actress if she would be Martin’s godmother. It would be an honor, Duse replied.
the Waldron Connection
You can listen to the interview with Mr. Waldron about his grandmother and godmother, at WQXR, then the New York Times classical radio station, here.
Mr. Waldron, who is now 83 and lives in Park Slope, went on to a long career in what he called “a profession of tears and rejection” onstage (including “King Lear” and “Saint Joan” on Broadway) and as a voice teacher. Around 1961 he bought a family plot on a hill in Green-Wood Cemetery.
On one side of the memorial stone is the name of his family members. On the other side are the words “Eleanora Duse” and an inscription about dedication and perseverance. “It was just an impulse,” Waldron said, ” the link being my grandmother and the presentation.”
Eleanora’s Horoscope
Miss Duse’s ascendant is 18 Leo. Its lord is in the third house of Libra, a superb spot for actors and performers because of their ability to transmit ideas & feelings and create pathways of new correlations. Her Mercury far ahead of her Sun, in the 2nd house, suggesting t she will indeed make a small fortune through her talents, creating her Mental Chemistry of eager for new ideas and trends.
Marriage not in the stars
The Moon is conjunct her ascendant, just minutes off, it making the two almost co-rulers to her chart, giving her a sangfroid elan as well as a verve and emotional liveliness that made her roles come alive on stage. Indeed, the Moon is square her Venus in the fourth house highlighting her ability to “interpret” female roles in ways unforeseen by their author. Alas the square also highlights the obstacles she suffered in marrying the man she loved, probably of their difference in religious belief (mars to the 9th house opposite Mercury).
Saturn is right on the cusp of her first house and Capricorn, its essential sign, giving her extra sensitivity to all she experienced. Capricorn the sign, makes an appearance in the sixth house of work & service, but inconjunct, warning overwork and physical exhaustion could take a heavy toll as Mars, who is exalted in Saturn, is square the god of Commerce Mercury, and forcing a complete nervous collapse.
Neptune opposite Mercury (8 to 2), shows her native time and almost selfless devotion to her performance. Neptune sextile Pluto hints she may have deluded herself to the extent of her exhaustion and rallied herself so that the “show can go on.” This sextile working into the opposition, also hints that War will deplete her resources, and so it did.
- Miss Duse’s Line of Vitality is absent.
- Her line of efficiency is absent
- Her line of Motivation is semi-square suggesting that she had a restless nature and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.
- Her line of Culture is is absent.
- Her Dynamic Aptitude is mercury square Jupiter highlighting her lack of judgement and poor education.
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