Over the years, The Mendelssohn Project has envisioned bringing the fascinating stories to life about Felix Mendelssohn’s turbulent journey, and have written numerous treatments for film, television, or the stage.
Four of them are included here, and each can give significant insight into Felix Mendelssohn.
Envisioned as a full-length feature film, or even as a stage play with live music and performances of music written by Mendelssohn, Bartholdy is the story of the entire life of Felix Mendelssohn. All the elements for a major production are present, including passion, intrigue, jealousy, bigotry, sex, crime, personal successes and struggles – not to mention the beauty of recreating Europe in the first half of the 19th Century. Reading it will probably give the best insight into the totality of Mendelssohn’s life than any other part of this website. Great care was taken not to stretch truths. And where a few sentences of suggested dialogue are included, at least part of that dialogue is taken directly from an existing letter.
The title Bartholdy was chosen because it was the Christian name which Mendelssohn’s father, Abraham, added to the family when Felix was a child to minimize the family’s Jewish heritage in an attempt to avoid racial persecution. Its use was a source of heated family debate until Abraham’s death in 1835. Felix tended to not want to use it, but his father passionately insisted otherwise.
For The Mendelssohn Project, the name Bartholdy has come to symbolize the religious struggles, both internal and external, which Felix endured his entire life, and the persecution which manifested itself both during his life, as well as long after his death.
Click here to read the full treatment
