Old Theater (Leipzig)
The Old Theater (formerly also New Theater , Comedy House , Theater of the City of Leipzig ) was the first stone theater to be built in Leipzig . It stood at today's Richard-Wagner-Platz , which was previously called Fleischerplatz / Theaterplatz and before that Rannische Bastei. In its place is now the four-track Goerdelerring tram stop.
history
Until the middle of the 18th century, theater in Leipzig, apart from a privilege granted by the Neuberin (1697–1760) from 1727 to 1733 for a stationary theater, was performed by traveling actors in various parts of the city. In 1749, the theater principal Heinrich Gottfried Koch (1703–1775) received the privilege of a permanent license to play. For his performances he used a theater hall in Quandt's courtyard with audience seats arranged in a semicircle. At first he was not allowed to build his own theater house.
The hall (around 1850)
The Oeser stage curtain
But after he had left Leipzig for a few years, he was able to use a successful initiative that the Leipzig merchant Gottlieb Benedict Zemisch (1716–1789) had undertaken with other comrades-in-arms after the Seven Years' War to build a theater. The Dresden architect Georg Rudolph Fäsch (1715–1787) planned the "Comödienhaus" building, which was completed in 1766, on the northwestern foundations of the city wall, the Rannische Bastei. With a semicircular floor plan of the auditorium on three tiers and boxes it had 1,186 seats, in the stalls and on the gallery there was only standing room. The stage curtain was painted by Adam Friedrich Oeser (1717–1799).
After a rhymed prologue by university professor Christian August Clodius (1737–1784), the Koch's troupe opened the house on October 10, 1766 with the tragedy Herrmann by Johann Elias Schlegel (1719–1749), followed by a shepherd's ballet and the comedy Die Unmuthete Return of Jean-François Regnard (1655–1709). The student Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) attended the opening as a spectator.
Singspiele by Johann Adam Hiller (1728–1804) made up a substantial part of the repertoire , mostly based on libretti by Christian Felix Weisse (1726–1804). In 1768 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) attended a performance of his comedy Minna von Barnhelm , and in 1801 Schiller's Maiden of Orleans was premiered here. Schiller himself only came to the second performance.
The house initially remained in the private ownership of Zemisch. In 1796 the town bought it from his widow, but without taking care of the performances. In summer the Dresden court sent the theater groups of Franz and Joseph Seconda to Leipzig. After minor alterations to the stage house in 1796 and 1802, the building fell into disrepair. After the Wars of Liberation , citizens of Leipzig demanded their own theater ensemble. After the approval from Dresden was available, a sixty-member theater association was founded, mainly made up of merchants. The city sold the house to him with the proviso that it would in future be called the “Theater of the City of Leipzig”. The management of the house was taken over by the lawyer Karl Theodor Küstner (1784–1864). In 1817, based on a design by the Baden architect Friedrich Weinbrenner, he initiated renovations and extensions in the classicist style, which were realized by the university master builder Carl August Benjamin Siegel (1757-1832). The five-door show facade to the west with the symbolic decorative decoration in the gable field was created.
On August 26, 1817, it reopened as the Leipzig City Theater with Schiller's Bride von Messina and a prologue by Siegfried August Mahlmann (1771–1826). During his eleven years as director, Küstner developed the theater into one of the most important in Germany. From 1829 to 1832 it functioned as the Saxon court theater, after which the management came back into private hands, and Friedrich Sebald Ringelhardt (1785–1855) took over the theater management until 1844. Whereas Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861) had previously caused a sensation with the world premiere of his operas, it was now Albert Lortzing (1801–1851) who premiered eight operas here. Ringelhardt brought the later fighter of the revolution of 1848 Robert Blum (1807-1848) with him to Leipzig from Cologne as theater secretary, librarian and cashier .
After the construction of the New Theater on Augustusplatz, the house was renamed the Old Theater in 1868 and was only used for plays and smaller operas. From 1912 it was again under the administration of the city of Leipzig.
On 7 December 1912, the first performance was the fairy tale game Peterchens Mondfahrt by Gerdt von Bassewitz instead, which then from 1915 as a book with illustrations, a classic of German children's literature was. On December 8, 1923, Bertolt Brecht's (1898–1956) drama Baal was premiered here . It sparked a scandal. At the urging of Lord Mayor Karl Rothe (1865–1953), the piece was removed from the program again.
When Leipzig was bombed on December 4, 1943, the old theater was also hit. After the end of the war the ruins were torn down.
Important world premieres
| Friedrich Schiller : | The Maid of Orleans | September 11, 1801 |
| Heinrich Marschner : | The vampire | March 29, 1828 |
| The Templar and the Jewess | December 22, 1829 | |
| Richard Wagner : | Concert overture in D minor | December 25, 1831 |
| Incidental music for King Enzio | February 17, 1832 | |
| Heinrich Marschner: | The falconer's bride | March 10, 1832 |
| The castle on Etna | January 29, 1836 | |
| Albert Lortzing : | The two shooters | February 20, 1837 |
| Tsar and carpenter | December 22, 1837 | |
| C aramo or Das Fischerstechen | September 20, 1839 | |
| Hans Sachs | June 23, 1840 | |
| Casanova | December 31, 1841 | |
| The poacher | December 31, 1842 | |
| To the Grand Admiral | December 13, 1847 | |
| Roland's squire | May 25, 1849 | |
| Robert Schumann : | Genoveva | June 25, 1850 |
| Gerdt von Bassewitz : | Peterchen's moon trip | December 7, 1912 |
| Franz Werfel : | The mirror man | October 15, 1921, also in Stuttgart |
| Ernst Toller : | The German Hinkemann | September 19, 1923 |
| Bertolt Brecht : | Baal | (December 8, 1923) |
| Kurt Weill : | The silver lake | February 18, 1933, also in Magdeburg and Erfurt |
literature
- Roland Dressler: "... inaugurated with a lot of splendor and taste" . In: Leipziger Blätter . No. 68 , 2016, p. 52-55 .
- Georg Witkowski: History of literary life in Leipzig . BG Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin 1909, p. 439-460 . (on-line)
- General theater dictionary . tape 5 . Expedition of the Theater Lexicon, Altenburg and Leipzig 1846, p. 107-116 . (on-line)
Web links
- Leipzig: Old Theater. In: Carthalia. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
- The theater on the Ranstädter Bastei. In: Richard is Leipziger ... Accessed July 21, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bertolt Brecht's “Baal” in the theater. In: Website of the city of Leipzig. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Concert Overture. In: Klassika. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
- ↑ King Enzo. In: Klassika. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 39 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 18.6 ″ E