Don Carlo and War and Peace

One problem with literature is that it does not in general 'do' the direct impact of huge social events or decisions terribly well. Because art is concrete, including therefore dealing with the individual, its centre of gravity has lain more with smaller events and with the personal - and the manifestations of the social through these. Think of the way Shirley is the weakest of Charlotte Bronte's novels for example. The number of works of literature dealing with truly major events is relatively highly limited compared to those which don't. This is a weakness because although life does not not normally consist of the impact of the social or pol tical huge event it does sometimes - and to enormous effect.
There are, of course, exceptions - Shakespeare's histories being obvious ones. But a work of literature/music that successfully deals with the impact, and direct actors, of a major political or social event is relatively rare. Art, to portray the individual and the concrete, and therefore to avoid having cardboard archetypes, must see the specific and to successfully integrate that with the huge in social and political terms is extraordinarily difficult.
This is why, in the end, for me War and Peace is the greatest of all novels - greater even than Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. It deals not only with the domestic and the individual (Peace) but the realistic exploration in the lives of individuals of the huge event of Napoleon's invasion of Russia (War).
Another work of art dealing with a similar scope of the impact of large scale political and social issues is Verdi's Don Carlo. Schiller's historical plays, as frequently remarked, do not quite avoid the danger of two diminensional 'cardboard archetypes' to the degree Shakespeare does - but this of course is making a comparison at a level at which almost nothing can compete. Schiller has been under rated in Britain and the recent mini-Schiller revival in London, with both Don Carlos and two productions of Mary Stuart performing, was highly welcome.
It does not need this blog to inform anyone that Verdi's clothing of Schiller's play Don Carlos, albeit in adapted form, in his music produces one of the greatest operas. It is currently playing at Covent Garden. The story of the 1958 Visconti/Giulin production in producing not only a realistic appreciation of the greatness of Don Carlo but Verdi as a whole is well known - and for those who have not heard it the recording of a performance of this production on the Royal Opera House Heritage Series fully justifies its reputation. The only aim here is to draw attention to the specfic feature of Don Carlo that, as with War and Peace and a few other works, it does show art dealing with the biggest events successfully. The rartity of that success only underlines the magnitude of the achievement.