LE SORELLE OVVERO CASANOVA A SPA | 1988 | SCHNITZLER | C.MAGRIS

Le sorelle ovvero Casanova a Spa is a comedic-drama in one act (three acts in one) by Arthur Schnitzler. Set in the elegant but decaying spa culture of Europe, it weaves together themes of illusion, class, deceit, and the fading glamour of a genteel society. The plot revolves around two sisters and their interactions with a fading Casanova‐figure, who embodies seduction, social ambition, and theatrical self-presentation. Schnitzler satirizes the discrepancies between appearance and reality: people who aspire to the refined manners of aristocracy, yet engage in petty deceptions and impromptu confrontations. Claudio Magris’s translation seeks a natural spoken tone—“characters talk as people talk, not as people write”—and captures the bittersweet mood of nostalgia for the grandeur of a past age, now crumbling..