Alexander Moissi

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Alexander Moissi, ca.1920

Alexander Moissi ( Albanian  Aleksandër Moisiu , Italian Alessandro Moisi ; born April 2, 1879 in Trieste , Austria-Hungary , † March 22, 1935 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actor of Albanian origin. Between 1910 and 1930 he was the most famous actor in German-speaking countries, and because of his many tours, he was also a world star.

Moissi was the protagonist of the modern, torn, morbid person at the beginning of the 20th century. His most famous roles were of Oswald in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts , Fyodor in The Living Corpse by Leo Tolstoy and everybody in Max Reinhardt 's production of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's eponymous piece in 1920 at the Cathedral Square .

biography

Alexander Moissi was born on April 2, 1879 (according to other sources on April 2, 1880) as the fifth child of the wealthy Albanian merchant and shipowner Konstantin Moisiu and the Arbëreshe Amalia di Rada as Alessandro Moissi in Trieste , Italy (then Austria-Hungary ) . He grew up with his father in the Albanian port city of Durrës (Durazzo) and with his mother in Trieste, attended boarding school in Graz and in 1898, at the age of 19, with little knowledge of German, moved to Vienna, where he began studying singing. After a year, his free study place was withdrawn and Moissi applied for an acting training at the Burgtheater , but was turned down and had to be content with silent roles in the extras series due to his strong Italian accent.

There Moissi was discovered by Josef Kainz in a performance of Molière's Tartuffe . The famous Kainz played the title role, Moissi a mute servant. In the common scene at the first appearance of Tartuffe, Kainz looked young Moissi in the face - and for a few moments forgot his text. The next day, Kainz spoke to the director of the theater, Paul Schlenther , saying that Moissi had seen the “actor of the future”. Schlenther conveyed the remarkable talent to the New German Theater in Prague, where Moissi stayed from 1901 to 1903.

In 1903 Moissi moved to Berlin, where Max Reinhardt discovered him and, despite the first devastating reviews , engaged him in his ensemble at the Deutsches Theater . It took a while for Moissi to prevail. In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Rudolf Schildkraut , Reinhardt's second major Shakespeare production after Midsummer Night's Dream in 1905 (where Moissi played Oberon), Moissi was ruthlessly attacked as Solanio by the critics. “But Reinhardt's belief in Moissi's abilities could not be shaken. Again and again he put him on stage in important roles, didn't let himself be deterred by the Italian accent and fought for him until he got it. ”(Gusti Adler)

Moissi became a star with Max Reinhardt in Berlin and cast a spell over many with his Italian style, in which he sang rather than spoke. The poet Franz Werfel called him a magician, for Stefan Zweig his voice was music, Gerhart Hauptmann and Klabund admired him, and Franz Kafka wrote in his diary:

“Round cheeks and yet an angular face. Soft hair, painted over and over again with soft hand movements. Even though so many melodies could be heard, the voice seemed guided like a light boat in the water, the melody of the verses could not actually be heard. Some words were dissolved by the voice, they had been touched so gently that they jumped up and had nothing to do with the human voice ... ”(Prague, February 28, 1912)

Not all of them could stand Moissi's style. The director of the Burgtheater Alfred von Berger said to Hugo Thimig about Moissi in 1910 : "I ran out of his Hamlet, the man is so repulsive to me."

Moissi soon led the life of a real superstar, he dominated the headlines in newspapers and magazines like only Enrico Caruso or Rudolph Valentino , was a heartthrob and adventurer and led a restless and ruinous life. He became the most famous and highest paid stage actor of his time.

In 1914 Moissi went into World War I as a volunteer on the German side and was taken prisoner. In 1918 he temporarily joined the rebellious Spartakists .

In 1920 Max Reinhardt Moissi was the first ever to be cast at the Salzburg Festival . He was also seen in this role in 1922 and again from 1926 to 1931. His wife Johanna Terwin gave the compassion in 1921 and 1922 . In the interwar period, Moissi became more and more a star actor who was increasingly on tour. In Berlin he only appeared as a guest. His acting style was considered antiquated and could no longer keep up with developments such as expressionism or the political theater of Brecht and Piscator . As an exotic, Moissi was loved and hated in Germany and celebrated in the metropolises of Europe and America. In 1933 Moissi left Germany.

Moissis grave in Morcote cemetery

death

Moissi died on March 22, 1935 in Vienna of complications from pneumonia, after a tour of Italy, between filming and rehearsals for a piece written for him by Pirandello and translated by his friend Stefan Zweig. On the death bed, Alexander Moissi received a telegram from Rome in which he was offered Italian citizenship. The Albanians - at that time King Zogu ruled in Tirana - promised him a passport, with the dubious honor that Moissi would become a court actor at Zogu. The question of nationality was no longer decided. Moissi died over it. Other authors, however, mention that in 1934 he was granted Albanian citizenship after all. At the funeral in the Simmering fire hall , the actor Albert Bassermann placed the Iffland ring on Moissi's coffin, as he actually wanted to give him the award later. Moissi's urn was later brought to Switzerland and buried in the Morcote cemetery.

family

His first wife Marie Urfus came from Bohemia. She founded the “Acting School Maria Moissi Berlin”, at which her husband also taught. They had a daughter, Beate Moissi. Alexander Moissi had a second daughter with Herta Hambach, Bettina Moissi , who also became a film actress and in 1959 married the art dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen . In his second marriage, Moissi was married to the actress Johanna Terwin from 1919 . His other descendants include the investor and art collector Nicolas Berggruen , a grandson, and the actor Gedeon Burkhard , a great-grandson.

repertoire

Alexander Moissi as Prince Kalaf in Carlo Gozzi's Turandot (1911)

Alexander Moissi is considered one of the heroes of acting at the beginning of the 20th century. He was Orestes and Oedipus , Danton and Torquato Tasso , Hamlet and Romeo , Faust and everyone . The brooding, torn characters, inclined to death, suited him especially. Death was his trademark. Because nobody died on stage as often and so perfectly beautiful as Moissi, he presented dying “as an individual art”.

Benno Berneis : Alexander Moissi as Oswald (1907)

His first brilliant role in 1906 was Oswald, who was terminally ill with syphilis in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts , in the legendary performance with which Max Reinhardt opened his second venue, the Kammerspiele of the German Theater. Edvard Munch designed the sets, the cast was: Agnes Sorma (Mrs. Alving), Alexander Moissi (Oswald), Friedrich Kayssler (Manders), Lucie Höflich (Regine) and Max Reinhardt (Engstrand). Moissi played Oswald for more than two decades, often in guest appearances, for example at the Münchner Kammerspiele in 1927 (with Therese Giehse as mother Alving) and even on Broadway in 1929 .

Another vital role Moissi was the suicide Fyodor in The Living Corpse by Leo Tolstoy : The piece was in 1913 in Berlin Premiere; until his death in 1935 Moissi played this role more than 1,500 times. The role was also his last appearance before his death.

Moissi's repertoire encompassed the whole spectrum of European theater literature from ancient Greek tragedy to modern times. Moissi played numerous Shakespeare roles under Reinhardt, including the fool in King Lear , Jacques in As You Like It , Prince Heinz in Heinrich IV. (With Paul Wegener ), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet , but also the prince in Lessing's Emilia Galotti , Ricault in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm , Goethe's Faust and the Clavigo (1923 in the Redoutensaal of the Vienna Hofburg ).

He also played in world premieres by Gerhart Hauptmann ( The White Savior ), Frank Wedekind ( Spring Awakening , 1906), Knut Hamsun ( Fetched by the Devil , 1914) and Hugo von Hofmannsthal .

In 1911 Moissi was celebrated for his interpretation of King Oedipus on a tour to Saint Petersburg . This success was followed by numerous other guest tours throughout Europe and North America. Tours have taken him to New York, Moscow, Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Europe - with over 1500 performances worldwide.

In 1920 he was the first to play the title role in Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival , for which he was predestined with his “lifestyle, his preference for fast cars, villas and a rich love life”. In Salzburg, the Iron Broom , the organ of the anti-Semite union , sparked a real agitation against the actor favored by Reinhardt.

In 1926 he played Pirandello Heinrich IV at the Vienna Volkstheater . There he also played in the Schnitzler premiere in 1929, Im Spiel der Sommerlüfte with Luise Ullrich and Hamlet in tails in a contemporary Shakespeare interpretation. In 1929 Moissi also offered his legendary Jedermann in the Volkstheater , which he had played at the Salzburg Festival under Max Reinhardt. In 1928 he played Orestes in Richard Beer-Hofmann's production of Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris with Helene Thimig at the Theater in der Josefstadt .

Movies

Moissi made eleven silent and two sound films, only the last one has survived. A treasure is kept in the Austrian Film Archive in Vienna: Moissi as Fedja, an excerpt from a newsreel, 55 seconds long.

theatre

Quotes

Felix Holländer : Let us remember that Reinhardt's heyday would be unthinkable without Alexander Moissi.

Richard Beer-Hofmann : This great actor is - like no other before - given power to give supernatural things with an art that is focused on the senses.

Ossip Dymow : I always remember Moissi as a wonderful embodiment of youth, strength and masculine magic, incomparable in its cruel carelessness.

Commemoration

In Berlin , Moissistraße in Treptow-Köpenick , Adlershof district (between Radicke- and Otto-Franke-Straße) commemorates Moissi, and a memorial plaque is to be attached to Moissi's house (Kantstraße 75 in Charlottenburg ).

In Vienna- Kaisermühlen there is an alley that bears the name of the actor who died in Vienna. There is also a statue of the artist there. A memorial for Moissi is located in Vienna- Donaustadt .

Moissi is revered in Albania as a major actor in the country. The University of Durrës , the Drama School in Tirana and the Theater of Durrës all bear Moissi's name. In Durrës there is an Aleksander Moisiu Foundation , which is dedicated to the care of its heritage, and an Aleksandër Moisiu Museum . The 60th anniversary of his death was celebrated in 1995 with a year of acting.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alexander Moissi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hugo Thimig tells of his life and the theater of his time. Letters and diary notes. Selected and introduced by Franz Hadamovsky. Böhlau, Graz et al. 1962, p. 193.
  2. ^ German loss lists (Pr. 411), December 22, 1915: Feldfliegertruppe. Ltn.dR Alexander Moissi - Trieste - in Gefgsch.
  3. ^ Rüdiger Schaper : The Albanian friend. Actor, pop star, national hero: Alexander Moissi in the land of the Skipetars. In: Tagesspiegel. December 21, 2002.
  4. ↑ Jörg von Uthmann: There has never been a more beautiful corpse - Alexander Moissi, the forgotten darling of German theater. In: Werner Daum (ed.): Albania between cross and half moon. Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde et al., Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7016-2461-5 , pp. 309-312.
  5. ^ Rüdiger Schaper: Moissi. Trieste, Berlin, New York. An actor legend. Argon, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87024-513-1 .
  6. ↑ Hans Böhm (Ed.): Moissi. The person and the artist in words and pictures. Berlin 1927, p. 20.
  7. ↑ Hans Böhm (Ed.): Moissi. The person and the artist in words and pictures. Berlin 1927, p. 48.
  8. ↑ Hans Böhm (Ed.): Moissi. The person and the artist in words and pictures. Berlin 1927, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Sonja Blomberg, b. Wiberg (1912-2003)
personal data
SURNAME Moissi, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moisi, Alessandro (Italian); Moisiu, Aleksandër (Albanian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1935
Place of death Vienna