Emil Claar

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Emil Claar

Emil Claar , actually Emil Rappaport , pseudonym Emil Ralk (born October 7, 1842 in Lemberg , Austrian Empire , † July 25, 1930 in Frankfurt am Main ) was an Austrian theater actor , director , director and writer .

Life

Emil Claar, caricature

Claar, the son of a lawyer, was originally supposed to study medicine, but soon gave up and turned to acting. In 1860 Heinrich Laube engaged him at the Burgtheater, where he appeared under the pseudonym Emil Ralk .

This was followed by engagements in Graz, Linz and Innsbruck. Barely 20 years old, he went to Berlin, where he made his debut as "Bellmaus". Although his prospects in Berlin were better than in Leipzig, he went there out of gratitude to Laube, who had taken over the theater in 1869. He stayed there for six years.

From 1870 he also began working as a director at the Weimar Court Theater. In 1875 he went to Prague and in 1876 to Berlin as theater director of the Residenztheater.

In 1879 he was appointed director of the United City Theater in Frankfurt am Main. Under his predecessor Otto Devrient , the Frankfurt theater had experienced artistic stagnation, but at the same time the construction of the new opera house had started on the initiative of Frankfurt citizens . On October 20, 1880, Claar was able to celebrate the opening of the new opera house. In the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm I and Crown Prince Friedrich , it was inaugurated with a festive performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni . In the same year he was accepted into the Frankfurt Freemason Lodge Zur Aufstieg Morgenröthe . Through the publisher of the Frankfurter Zeitung , Leopold Sonnemann , Claar became aware of Sophie König in Leipzig in 1881 and signed her.

Claar remained general manager until 1900. After that, he resigned the management of the Frankfurt Opera in order to concentrate entirely on drama . In 1899 the construction of the new theater began, which was to replace the over 100 years old and long too small old city theater Comoedienhaus .

On October 1, 1902, the theater opened with a performance of Faust and Wallenstein's camp . Claar managed the new house until 1912. After a total of 33 years as a theater director in Frankfurt, he retired at the age of 70.

Claar opened the theater to large sections of the population by introducing folk and afternoon performances. He campaigned for the naturalistic dramatists Henrik Ibsen , August Strindberg and Gerhart Hauptmann , but usually avoided premieres. In order not to take any chances, he mostly only staged plays that had already been successful elsewhere, especially in Berlin. Under his leadership, the Städtische Bühnen acquired a reputation as one of the leading German theaters.

Claar also appeared as a writer and playwright, albeit with less lasting success. He was married to the singer and actress Hermine Claar-Delia (1848-1908).

Honorary grave in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Claar died on July 25, 1930 at the age of 87 in Frankfurt and was buried in Frankfurt's main cemetery. The grave is designated as an honor grave and is a listed building . Emil-Claar-Straße in Frankfurt's Westend is named after him.

Works

  • Simson and Delila , comedy in one act, 1870
  • Shelley , 1874
  • Poems , 1885
  • The Sisters , Play in 4 Acts, 1892
  • New poems , 1894
  • Königleid , drama in five acts, 1895
  • Secular Legends , Poems, 1899
  • Fifty years of theater. Pictures from my life , 1926

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Emil Claar  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Emil Claar  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Claar, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rappaport, Emil (real name); Ralk, Emil (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Austrian theater actor, director, director and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Lemberg , Austrian Empire
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1930
Place of death Frankfurt am Main