Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse seen in the light of rivalry

Abstract

Almost a century after their departure from life, is there anything else to add to this rivalry, at the same time both legendary and pioneering, which has not already been considered in the massive bibliography and iconography concerning the two actresses? Although nothing brought these two actresses to the- atrical competition, everything was actually going to contribute to converting the comparison between their careers into a crossroads of artistic encounters, often even from afar. The history of this antagonism, be it real or pretended, is mainly the result of a “forced” media confrontation – the worship of the two divine women. Without retelling the well-known story of their professional career, the present study considers a different description of this pseudo-rivalry, where the artistic event is clarified through its inclusion in the complexity of the socio-artistic conditioning of the late nineteenth century.