Bartolomeo Verona

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Bartolomeo Verona (* 1740 in Andorno; † August 16, 1813 in Berlin ) was an Italian decorative painter at the Royal Court Opera and at the Berlin National Theater .

life and work

Verona was a student of the Turin painter Bernardino Gaglari , who was brought to Berlin by Frederick II in 1771 . Verona, who previously worked in Vienna , came to Berlin with Gaglari. After Gaglari's departure in 1773, Verona was permanently engaged. For the time being he only made decorations for the opera. In 1781 Verona married the soprano Juliane Caroline Koch (* 1758 Hamburg, † Berlin 1783), who was engaged at the Berlin Court Opera. At the Berlin "Royal National Theater" (from 1811 "Royal Drama") under the direction of August Wilhelm Iffland , he was responsible for all decorations made there. According to his contract of February 8, 1800 with Iffland, he received the high sum of 1,600 Reichstalers annually. The materials were provided to him free of charge. In the new National Theater on Gendarmenmarkt , built by Carl Gotthard Langhans and opened in 1802 , he had a comfortably equipped workshop at his disposal, which had been set up under the large plank roof specially designed for this purpose. In the Vossische Zeitung of March 10, 1803, No. 127, published in Berlin , there is one of the rare descriptions of several sets of a performance. It is the performance Die Geisterinsel , a Singspiel by Johann Friedrich Reichardt based on Shakespeare's Der Sturm :

“The decorations were received with a rich, blooming imagination, and were wonderfully and effectively executed by Mr. Verona. The grotto, the storm, the gentle area in which the rose bushes rise so magically from the ground, the star-bright blue of the night sky, the ghost dance in the background, and the paradise that rises from the dark night in a flash and suddenly bright daylight, you does not see how? - All these masterpieces bear the name of the inexhaustible, tireless artist Verona with honor and splendor. The audience also expressed their joy aloud when the last decoration set all the senses in joyous movement. - Only Ariel's clouds are heavy, and the raging sea is too bright in color. Here and there the mechanics of the machinery also left the magician. It is true that one must be amazed how a stage, which has to perform daily performances, can give a performance with such richness and in such a degree of perfection that no German stage can match it; but if there is a little lack of complete perfection, one must wish that little has been changed. "

A few drafts for stage sets have survived and are kept in the Stadtmuseum Berlin (theater history collection).

Verona was a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1790 to 1813.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Luis Schneider: History of the Opera and the Royal Opera House in Berlin, Berlin 1852
  2. ^ Klaus Gerlach: Ifflands Berlin stage. Theatrical Art Leadership and Economics, Berlin 2015
  3. ^ An experimental poetics. Texts on the Berlin National Theater, Hanover 2007, p. 404
  4. ↑ http://www.adk.de/de/akademie/lösungen/lösungen-datenbank.htm?we_objectID=29671
personal data
SURNAME Verona, Bartolomeo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian decorative painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Andorno
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1813
Place of death Berlin