Amalie Schönchen

"The youngest castle actress" Miss Amalie Schönchen (Vienna 1896)

Amalie Schönchen , actually Amalie Schönige (born August 26, 1836 in Munich ; † May 24, 1905 ibid) was a German singer ( mezzo-soprano and alto ) and popular actress who enjoyed great popularity, especially as a singing soubrette in Munich and Vienna.

Life

Amalie Schönchen came from a family of artists who immigrated to Bavaria from Holland. Originally this was called Schönige , Schöniche and which was probably changed into Schönchen for the sake of euphoria .

The musically gifted girl, who was an excellent zither player, received her first vocal training from her father Karl Schönchen , who played in the orchestra of the Royal Court Theater in Munich. In 1854 she came to Berlin. There the talented young woman received singing lessons from the well-known singer and singing teacher Eduard Mantius . The Queen of Prussia recommended her to the royal. Family in Hanover. King George V of Hanover, who was active as a composer himself, "was enthusiastic about her performance of his songs" (Kutsch / Riemens 1987, Sp. 2558).

Amalie Schönchen stayed in Hanover and made her debut there as the second lady in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Magic Flute during an occasional stay for a singer who suddenly fell ill . Until 1859 she worked as a soubrette and mezzo-soprano at the Hoftheater in Hanover. Wiesbaden and Nuremberg were further stations of her singing career. In the latter city, Amalie Schönchen decided, at the age of 28, to switch to the subject of “comical old people”. In 1871 she was committed to the Theater am Gärtnerplatz (today State Theater am Gärtnerplatz ) in Munich . A special event at the time was the world premiere of the operetta Die Fornarina by Carl Zeller on October 18, 1879. Amalie Schönchen sang the role of Giacinta. Furthermore, inter alia with Franz Josef Brakl , Agnes Lang-Ratthey and Max Hofpauer .

You can read about her work at the Theater am Gärtnerplatz: “Soon she proved to be an unsurpassable character actress in the older and comic subject. The mountain and peasant pieces that were just coming into fashion opened up a wide field for their skills. One of her earliest roles was the wooden woman in 'Verschwender'. Her reputation was already consolidated with Anzengruber's early pieces and grew with her brilliant performances as Kreszenz in the 'Zwiderwurz'n', as Basl in the 'Potenzbauer' and as Waberl in the 'Austragstüberl' by Hans Neudert [...] under the leadership of Max Hofpauer she has traveled half the world with the troupe of the 'Münchner' and carried the fame of the gardening theater far beyond German borders. In her private life there was nothing theatrical about her. "

When the popularity of folk plays on the Munich stage faded, Amalie Schönchen accepted a call to the new Raimund Theater in Vienna in early 1893. When the rumor arose in Vienna in mid-1896 that Amalie Schönchen wanted to retire from the stage, she was prompted to deny it in the press. She had her last appearance in the Raimund Theater on September 21, 1896 in “Die Reise des Ministers”, where she surprised the audience with the announcement that she was going to move to the Hofburgtheater. There she had her inaugural role as Bärbel in Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer's play "Dorf und Stadt" on October 12th . The artist quickly rose to become a popular actress in Vienna. One of her many colleagues was Katharina Schratt , the friend of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary.

Amalie Schönchen, who was also a sought-after singing teacher and instrumental teacher, made a guest appearance in Munich, last in 1904. Amalie Schönchen died here, mourned by her Munich audience, who followed her coffin in an unmistakable crowd.

Amalie Schönchen's grave was in the old southern cemetery in Munich (grave field 5 - row 15 - place 53/54), but has not been preserved.

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 903, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Bayerisches Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz (Ed.): 100 Years of Theater am Gärtnerplatz Munich, Munich 1965
• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Second volume: M – Z, Stuttgart 1987

Web links

Commons : Amalie Schönchen  - Collection of Images

• Amalie Schönchen in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Playbill for the premiere
2. ↑ 100 years of theater at Gärtnerplatz in Munich. P. 100.
3. ↑ Theater and Art News. The Raimund Theater. In:  Die Presse , February 26, 1893, p. 13 (online at ANNO ).
4. ↑ Amalie Schönchen. In:  Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt , June 19, 1896, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).
5. ↑ Theater and Art. In:  Die Presse , September 4, 1896, p. 15 (online at ANNO ).
6. ↑ Theater glosses. In:  Wiener Sonntags-Zeitung / Wiener Sonn- und Mondags-Zeitung , September 21, 1896, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
7. ^ Repertoire of the Imperial and Royal Hofburgtheater. In:  Wiener Zeitung , October 11, 1896, p. 8 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ (theater program). In:  Die Presse , October 12, 1896, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).