Carl Richter (theater manager)

Carl Richter (born August 30, 1870 in Vienna , † June 28, 1943 in Hamburg ) was an Austrian theater director .

Life

After completing his training, the trained saddler Carl Richter completed the Princely Sulkowskische exercise stage in his hometown. From 1888 he appeared as an actor and from 1902 also worked as a theater director. Engagements took him to theaters in Klagenfurt , Laibach , Teplitz , Schönau and Bielitz . In 1917 he took over the Hamburg Volksoper am Millerntor as a tenant . The building, originally used as a concert hall, has served as the German Operetta Theater since 1910 . Since there was initially no success, the artistic directors had changed the name several times in a short time. The opera house had been called “Hamburger Volksbühne” since September 1914. From 1920 to 1922 Richter also directed the Carl-Schultze-Theater for the first time .

Richter had a feeling for the expectations of the audience, which arose from the increasing democratization and wider audience circles. He led the Volksoper to the second opera house in Hamburg. He took reasonable admission prices and offered an appealing artistic level. The demanding repertoire encompassed all areas of musical theater. The distinguished guests included Heinrich Schlusnus , who sang operas by Giuseppe Verdi , and Vera Schwarz with Richard Wagner's musical dramas and classical operettas. Richard Tauber has had regular appearances here since 1922 .

As artistic director, Richter ran his business together with his son Alexander (* 1897 in Mödling ; † 1970 in Hamburg), who took over commercial management. Since the Stadttheatergesellschaft wanted to use the Hamburg Volksoper in 1925 as an alternative stage for the Stadttheater under renovation , Carl and Alexander Richter moved to the Operettenhaus . For the 1925/26 season they also took over the Theater des Westens in Berlin . They moved into the Volksoper again in December 1926 after Jean Gilbert's failures at five different Hamburg theaters. In 1927/28 they took over as the third stage from Theater A.-G., of which father and son had owned shares since 1925, the small comedy theater on the Große Bleichen .

At the theaters the Richters offered all branches of music theater. In addition to classical and contemporary operettas, singing games and operas, the repertoire included performances by well-known dance ensembles. In addition to the Ballets Russes and the Ballets suèdois , the guests included Mary Wigman and the dancers around Rudolf von Laban , as well as foreign actor ensembles .

Grave of Carl Richter , AH11

Grave “Alexander Richter”, L15

New pieces from Berlin and especially Viennese artists earned the Operettenhaus a special reputation. The artists of the world premieres often appeared, for whose guest performances Richter charged high admission fees. These included Paganini and Der Zarewitsch with Richard Tauber and The Queen with Fritzi Massary in 1926 and 1927 . Singers such as Eric Enderlein and Hans Heinz Bollmann took on later performances . Games were run en-suite for up to three months. Successful pieces have been seen more than a hundred times. The most successful piece of Countess Mariza was performed over 350 times by singers.

Due to the global economic crisis , Carl and Alexander Richter left the Operettenhaus in 1930 and leased the Carl-Schultze-Theater again. Since their successor at the Volksoper was unsuccessful, they took over the stage again after eight months in 1931. So they had a monopoly in this area in Hamburg with almost 4,000 seats. Although father and son saved more and used unfair business practices, their economic situation deteriorated. In an increasingly hectic manner, with numerous guest appearances by actor ensembles, they ultimately tried unsuccessfully to counter the decline. This included a guest appearance by Gustaf Gründgens in Liselott in 1932 . The lease at the Carl-Schultze-Theater ended in 1931, in autumn 1932 the operetta house and on January 1, 1933 the Volksoper ended.

During the time of National Socialism , the judges only had the small comedy theater. Since the composers and actors they had previously engaged were no longer allowed to perform in the German Reich , their previous contacts were no longer of any use. The family emigrated to Czechoslovakia , where Carl Richter ran the city theater in 1934/35. In 1938 the family moved back to Hamburg, where Carl Richter died at the end of June 1943.

Alexander Richter maintained guest performance management in Hamburg and in 1946 founded a “Volkstheater” with Franz Felix . The operation initially took place in the Schauburg Uhlenhorst and later in a bunker on Heiligengeistfeld , but remained unsuccessful.

The graves of Carl and Alexander Richter are in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .

literature

• Michaela Giesing: Judge, Carl . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 267-268 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Celebrity Graves