Carl Heinrich Butenop (actor)

Carl Heinrich Friedrich Butenop , also Karl Heinrich Butenop , ( October 21, 1752 in Hamburg - February 22, 1843 in Vienna ) was a German theater actor , director and singer ( tenor ).

Life

Butenop was first a clerk in Leipzig before he turned to the theater. The name Conrad Ekhof also attracted him, who came to Gotha to introduce himself to the great master. The same animated the art disciple and granted on May 29, 1786 a test guest performance as "Baron Birkwitz" in the comedy Der Baron Olsbach . The student lived up to his teacher and a commitment was the result of his appearance.

A few months later he left Gotha and took on engagement with Karl Theophil Döbbelin in Berlin (inaugural role: "Fabrice" in Lottchen am Hofe ), where he stayed for three years to continue his acting work with the Wäserschen Gesellschaft in Breslau. From there he came to the ducal court theater in Neustrelitz. Marriage desires caused him to demand his dismissal from the duke, which he also received with the approval of the marriage bond. He then married the actress Johanna Auguste Weil (1758–1807) on April 19, 1781 . With her he went to Hamburg and then to the electoral theater in Münster. On November 4, 1782 we find him for the first time on the margravial court stage in Schwedt (1784–1785).

But he was soon terminated through no fault of his own and went to Döbbelin in Berlin a second time (1788–1790). But also there Butenop pursued his bad luck star and he recently left his hometown to land in Riga after a dangerous sea voyage. His contract was soon dissolved here and when he returned to Germany, he had the misfortune not to get a job for a while, so that he had to leave the country again to find a bad job in Lübeck after great difficulties. Here, too, he was soon forced to quit and tired of randomly wandering around, which did not allow his decisive talent to achieve a breakthrough, he tried to meet the actor Christian Wilhelm Klos in Hamburg after several engagements presented to him had failed without his involvement to unite their own management (1790). Bad income, the great needs of his partner and the resulting quarrels led to the early separation, and Butenop now ventured alone with a small traveling company. The company dragged itself on until 1792 and finally he gave up the principal with a loss of 500 thalers. After all kinds of blows of fate, he finally managed to find accommodation in Rostock in April 1793.

Various embarrassments, new griefs and new worries, as well as general unfavorable circumstances forced him to sever the connections soon afterwards in Wismar, Schwerin and Strelitz and to give presentations in Brandenburg with his children.

From 1795 to 1797 he was in Magdeburg, after receiving a drama license for a children's society, he left there to give performances in Brandenburg with his children. The children's game was immensely popular, and he was even allowed to perform before the king in Potsdam, but he couldn't find his bill. And so, after a short standstill, the arduous travel and wandering life (1798–1807) began again, and struggling with hardship and worries, he was happy to be able to acquire at least what was absolutely necessary for life with his children. A new stroke of fate, perhaps the hardest in his life, robbed him of all composure and almost of his sanity. His youngest daughter, his talented son and his wife were all buried within three months (1807). On the verge of desperation, he looked for accommodation in Quedlinburg.

From 1808 to 1809 he worked with his children Carl Ernst Heinrich and Johanna Henriette Emilie and Luise with Ludwig Nuth in Dresden, Quedlinburg, Leipzig, Halle and Zittau etc.

In 1810 he again founded a company that, with varying degrees of luck, existed for several years. Finally, he and his daughter Emilie got an engagement in Breslau. She married Heinrich Anschütz there and followed him to Vienna when he followed the honorable call to the Hofburgtheater . Butenop accompanied his daughter to the imperial city and now had the opportunity to rest after hard battles and tough trials. He no longer accepted an engagement, but the 70-year-old old man often gave the young sex the opportunity on private stages, his splendid memory, which had remained loyal to him into old age, his clear declamation and his tireless zeal for dramatic art for which he still glowed to admire. On February 22nd, 1843 this Ahasver of art passed away in the 91st year of his long and eventful life.

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Carl Heinrich Butenop . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).

Web links

• Carl Heinrich Butenop in the Carl Maria von Weber Complete Edition
• Carl Heinrich Butenop at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon

This article is based on a public domain text from Ludwig Eisenberg's Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the 19th Century , 1903 edition.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.