The Salzburg great world theater
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| Title: | The Salzburg great world theater |
| Genus: | Mystery play |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Hugo von Hofmannsthal |
| Publishing year: | 1922 |
| Premiere: | August 12, 1922 |
| Place of premiere: | Collegiate Church Salzburg |
| Director of the premiere | Max Reinhardt |
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The Salzburg World Theater is a play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . It is based on the mystery play The Great World Theater by Pedro Calderón de la Barca . Its basic concept is retained, but the concrete design of the figures (especially the beggar) is changed in order to be able to refer to the social and political crisis situation after the First World War .
content
The life of the people is allegorically presented as a play: On behalf of God (here referred to as master ), who is passed on through angels, the still unborn souls receive their respective roles from the personified world, i.e. the life they have to lead. Four souls are given roles that represent different social classes: the king, the rich, the peasant and the beggar. Two others are given roles as personifications of beauty and wisdom. Deviating from Calderón's model, the soul that is supposed to become a beggar rebels against this fate and initially does not want to play the role. In his earthly life as a beggar he is then employed by the farmer as a lumberjack and therefore receives an ax. Through the whispering of the adversary, a kind of devil figure, he is on the verge of violently using the ax against the existing order, but is then appeased and submits to his fate. At the end, death appears in order to call people away from their earthly life. Most of all, the rich man defends himself against death until the beggar comforts him and people, now again as souls without earthly costume, are led to God by the angels.
Publication and performance history
The first plans for the piece were made in the summer of 1919; Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt were preparing the first Salzburg Festival at this time . However, it took until August 1921 for the work to actually be designed. It first appeared in July 1922 in the Munich magazine Neue deutsche Demokratie (first episode, first issue); the first book was published in the same year with a different text version Insel Verlag . It was premiered on August 12, 1922 as part of the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Max Reinhardt. The music came from Einar Nilson , the set was created by Alfred Roller , and the role of the beggar was played by Alexander Moissi .
While Hofmannsthal's other mystery play Jedermann has established itself as an integral part of the festival, the Salzburg Great World Theater could not prevail and was only in the program again in 1925, for which there were further changes to the text. Reinhardt staged the play again in Berlin in 1933; the premiere took place on March 1st.
In 1947 and 1949 two radio play versions were made, the first was produced by RIAS (director: Hanns Korngiebel ), the second by Hessischer Rundfunk (director: Hans Kettler ).
Web links
- TV production by NDR from 1961 (Director: Hans Jaray , 72 minutes)
- The Salzburg world theater in the Gutenberg-DE project
- The Salzburg world theater at Zeno.org .
- Overview of the secondary literature in the Hofmannsthal bibliography online
Individual evidence
- ^ T. Reitmeier: The Salzburg Great World Theater (1922) . In: M. Mayer, J. Werlitz (ed.) Hofmannsthal-Handbuch. JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 211-213
- ^ Salzburg Festival Archive
- ^ Ariane Thomalla: Morality game in times of crisis. "The great Salzburg World Theater" was premiered 85 years ago. Deutschlandfunk.de, published on August 13, 2007.
- ^ RIAS radio play in the ARD radio play database
- ↑ HR radio play at Audible.