Düsseldorf Marionette Theater

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  • Gate passage Palais Wittgenstein with theater sign and figure puck

  • The theater hall

The Düsseldorf Marionette Theater is located in Palais Wittgenstein , Bilker Strasse 7, in Düsseldorf . The small theater offers space for 90 visitors and aims to appeal to adults and children from the age of eight with its program of fairy tales, dramas, fables as well as classical and modern music theater. One of the focal points in the repertoire of the Düsseldorf Marionette Theater is the work of Michael Ende , whose “ satan archaeol liekohöllischer Wunschpunsch ” with over 1,000 performances has long since advanced to become a cult piece. In most of the performances, the professional ensemble of five players invisibly moves the puppets, which are tied on up to two meters long strings, from three guide bridges. In some of the pieces the puppeteers are visible on the stage with their figures guided by short strings. The ensemble does not strive for small-scale human theater, but looks for the special possibilities of puppet theater. Depending on the dramaturgical necessity, table figures, shadow figures, flat figures or stick figures, sometimes also people in masks and costumes, are used. Everything that can be seen on the stage is largely created in the theater's workshops according to designs by the artistic director Anton Bachleitner , who also does the sculpting himself. The Düsseldorf Puppet Theater is from the state capital Dusseldorf and the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia promoted and is a member of the World Organization of Puppeteers UNIMA and the Association of German Puppet Theater eV

repertoire

Figures from various productions
Excerpts from the desired punch

The repertoire of the Düsseldorf Marionette Theater currently comprises 22 full-length productions:

  • "Fantasius Pan" or the puppeteer and his fantastic fairy tale based on an idea by Anton Bachleitner (1981)
  • "Norbert Nackendick", two musical fables by Michael Ende and Wilfried Hiller (1982)
  • " Krabat " based on the novel of the same name by Otfried Preußler (1983)
  • "Stravinsky", a ballet evening with Petrushka and The Story of the Soldier by Igor Stravinsky (1984)
  • "Sternstunde" based on an idea by Anton Bachleitner with music by Christian Roderburg (1985)
  • " Little Zaches, called Zinnober " based on ETA Hoffmann by Susanne Kröber (1986)
  • "Faust - a dream", a puppet play by Susanne Kröber (1987)
  • " The Magic Flute ", opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder (1988)
  • "The Golem" by Susanne Kröber based on Gustav Meyrink (1989)
  • " The satanarchaeolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch ", a magic farce based on the book by Michael Ende (1990)
  • " The Moon ", a small world theater by Carl Orff based on a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm (1993)
  • "Metropolis-Visionen", a utopian story by Udo Sander freely based on motifs from the well-known silent film classic (1997)
  • "The juggler tale" by Michael Ende, a magic game in seven pictures with music by Wilfried Hiller (1998)
  • “ The Abduction from the Seraglio ”, comical singspiel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Elder. J. (1999)
  • "Wilhelm Busch and the Consequences of Music", three pieces by Wilhelm Busch with music by Wilfried Hiller (2000)
  • "Momo" based on the fairy tale novel by Michael Ende (2002)
  • " A Midsummer Night's Dream ", comedy by William Shakespeare with music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (2003)
  • "Beauty and the Beast", a love story based on the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (2005)
  • "The Dragon", a fairy tale comedy by Evgeny Schwarz (2007)
  • "Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver" based on the famous classic children's book by Michael Ende (2008)
  • "Jim Button and the Wild 13" based on the famous classic children's book by Michael Ende (2009)
  • "The Neverending Story" based on the famous novel by Michael Ende (2012)

history

The brothers Emanuel (* 1900; † 1967) and Franz (* 1904; † 1977) Zangerle first founded the "Theater Rheinischer Marionetten" in Cologne in 1925. The two sons of a carpenter's family were born with wood and tools, and then there was a love for the theater, which was awakened in them in the cathedral city by the Hänneschen Theater and various guest performances by other puppet stages. Emanuel Zangerle was so fascinated by this art that he studied drama and philology. It is said to have been a tour by the famous Italian Vittorio Podrecca, which is said to have prompted the two brothers to devote themselves entirely to puppetry. Supported by the friends, the stage and Emanuel's talents developed equally. First successes, at that time still in parish halls, were not long in coming. A first permanent location was found in a gate tower of Cologne's Hohenzollern Bridge for a total of two marks. At the premiere, “Dr. Faust ”, precisely elaborated by Emanuel, performed. Occasional improvisation helped the brothers' game to develop its own signature. The fact that, for example, the express train from Hamburg thundered over the bridge tracks in the middle of the performance and made the tower theater tremble, inspired the Zangerles to write the piece down to the timetable. In this way they could let their fists go to hell more impressively than ever, accompanied by the inevitable din. If the train was delayed, they sometimes improvised for a quarter of an hour.

Meanwhile married, the two families, whose passion had long since become a profession, lovingly turned the theater into a real gem in the 1930s. The Theater Rheinischer Marionetten welcomed its guests in a magnificent foyer with a cloakroom, offered space for over 100 guests, three boxes and a revolving stage were available.

When the attack on Poland began , a guard company moved into the premises. As an evasive measure, Emanuel and Franz Zangerle were ordered several times to keep the soldiers on the western front happy until they lost their home on a night of bombing and were evacuated to Frankfurt. Released from captivity, the families who had separated in the meantime found themselves together again in Steinau / Spessart . The family found a suitable location for a new beginning in the castle of Count von Hanau . After three years, a new puppet theater was also built here in the property's former horse stables. The Faust premiere was advertised in the program as “The game of artificial people on threads”.

In 1954 the whole family managed to move back to the Rhineland, this time to Düsseldorf. There the theater was initially located at Wallstrasse 33 in 1956. They were meanwhile also supported by the then 14-year-old Winfred Zangerle, son of Emanuel and Elisabeth. The new beginning turned out to be difficult. The wives Elisabeth and Louise earned a living in their professions and the financial foundation for the new venue, which the men built out of the ground at the same time. Finally ready to play, there was another innovation for the premiere of “Freischütz”. You no longer had to speak the lyrics yourself or hire speakers and singers, because technology had meanwhile found its way: “Record sings for Max” celebrated the premiere of the Neue Rhein Zeitung in 1957. Until 1964, the Düsseldorf audience enjoyed a number of high-quality new productions from Emanuel Zangerle's pen. The theater was established and became a crowd puller. With a repertoire of ten pieces by now, the existential worries of the past few years were almost forgotten when a wall of the theater was so damaged during construction work on the neighboring property that the authorities had to order it to be closed.

In 1966 the fifth and last new beginning was due. The theater moved into the rooms in the Palais Wittgenstein . "A place that I couldn't imagine more beautiful and dignified," said Emanuel Zangerle, who did not recover from this new stroke of fate and died in 1967 on his 67th birthday. From then on, Winfred Zangerle (* 1942; † 1980), meanwhile also married, continued the puppet theater together with his uncle Franz, who retired in 1973. For the city of Düsseldorf and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, this marionette stage with the committed ensemble members represented a significant and characteristic enrichment of cultural life. In recognition of this “special artistic achievement” - as the certificate says - Winfred Zangerle was awarded the Prize for Literature in 1975 by the City of Düsseldorf. Winfred Zangerle always saw himself in his productions as an equal partner for the puppets he designed and carved himself. The person and the marionette on stage at the same time, acting with one another, that had never before been shown on a marionette stage. For the first time, Winfred Zangerle performed interactively with his marionette Marcel Marceau in his self-devised scenic piece “We are made of good wood” and touched him and the entire audience with poetry made from soap bubbles.

Puck puppet designed by Anton Bachleitner

The high point of his work was the premiere of the Little Prince of Saint-Exupéry in 1977 . Winfred Zangerle played the pilot that the little prince meets. At the end of the play he stepped through the side curtain and held the final epilogue 333 times until he died on August 29, 1980 at the age of 37. The theater initially remained in family ownership under Winfred Zangerle's widow Ursula as owner and commercial director. In 1981 Anton Bachleitner (* 1956 in Bad Tölz) came to Düsseldorf as the new artistic director of the Rheinischer Marionetten Theater and soon established his personal puppet theater style. Since the interests of Anton Bachleitner and Ursula Zangerle could not be reconciled in the long run, Bachleitner left the theater at the end of 1984 to start his own business. In December 1985, the city of Düsseldorf handed over the Marionetten-Theater to Anton Bachleitner as the new artistic director and managing director, who reopened it in January 1986 - renamed the “Düsseldorfer Marionetten-Theater”.

The productions of the Zangerle family since 1956 (no longer in the repertoire of the Düsseldorf Marionette Theater):

Under the direction of Emanuel and Franz Zangerle:

  • Dr. Faust , the old folk play (also performed in Cologne and Steinau)
  • The Freischütz Romantic Opera by Carl Maria von Weber (1957)
  • The Broken Jug Comedy by Heinrich von Kleist (1958)
  • The Abduction from the Seraglio Singspiel by Mozart (1959)
  • The Clever by Carl Orff (1960)
  • The Apostle Game by Max Mell / The Coffee Cantata by JS Bach (1961)
  • The betrayed Kadi by Chr. W. von Gluck / Bastien and Bastienne by WA Mozart (1962)
  • The Prodigal by F. Raimund (1964)

Under the direction of Winfred Zangerle:

  • Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (1968)
  • Lumpazivagabundus by Nestroy (1969)
  • Circus Marionetti by Irmhild Radtke (1970)
  • The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht (1971)
  • Former relationships between Nestroy and the maid as mistress of Pergolesi (1972)
  • We are made of good wood Scene program with Louis Armstrong, Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Nurejew, Marcel Marceau and Charlie Chaplin on roller skates by Winfred Zangerle (1973)
  • The Bajazzo by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1974)
  • Kalif Storch Märchen nach Hauff (Diether Krebs gave the magician his voice) (1976)
  • The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1977)
  • Look here ... it's us by Winfred Zangerle (1979)
  • Dwarf nose fairy tale after Hauff (1979)

Guest performances took place in Vienna in 1974, in Moscow in 1975, where the Nureyev puppet was refused entry, in 1975 at the Pupteatra Internacia Festivalo in Esperanto / International Puppet Theater Festival - PIF in Zagreb and Ljubljana, in 1977 in Zurich and Lucerne and in 1980 at the World Puppet Festival held in Washington DC.

Since 1982, a travel stage has also been used to perform outside of Düsseldorf, for example in Munich , Vienna , Nagoya , Warsaw , Katowice , Moscow , Jakarta , Vancouver during Expo 1986 and in a series of world premieres in the German Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover.

literature

  • Anton Bachleitner: The Düsseldorfer Marionetten, Puppen & Masken , Frankfurt 2003, ISBN 978-3-935011-39-6
  • Monika Salchert: When the puppets were dancing in the bridge, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, December 28, 2016
  • "60 years of Marionetten-Theater in Düsseldorf", self-published commemorative publication of the Düsseldorf Marionetten-Theater, Düsseldorf 2016

Web links

Commons : Düsseldorfer Marionetten-Theater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 20.7 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 21.5 ″  E