Franz Seconda

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Jakob Bartholomäus Franz Seconda (born May 1, 1755 in Dresden ; † January 31, 1833 in Dresden) was a German principal of a traveling drama company, director and actor .

Life

Franz Seconda was the older brother of Joseph Seconda and the eldest son of the delicatessen merchant Francesco Maria Seconda (1725–1773) and his wife Sophia Dorothea, born in Italy. Krampe (1729-1809).

Seconda had been in the service of principal Pasquale Bondini as an actor and theater cashier since 1779 . This had held the electoral Saxon privilege since 1777 and played with his company, the "Royal Saxon Comedians", in the summer months of BC. a. Leipzig and in winter Dresden, where he also organized redoutes (masked balls) in carnival. When Seconda joined the company, Bondini was also director of a theater in Prague for which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his “ Don Giovanni ” (1787) on behalf of Bondini. Bondini's privilege had already been renewed in 1782, and when the contract was renewed in 1788, Franz Seconda, who was familiar with the management, became Bondini's partner. A clause in the contract stated that in the event of Bondini's death, the privilege should be transferred to Seconda. Bondini died in 1789 on a trip to Italy in Brauneck (Tyrol) and Seconda took over the sole management of the company. This transition was confirmed in 1790.

In the period that followed, the troupe was limited to acting and hardly offered any musical theater performances. Franz Seconda left this to his younger brother Joseph and his German Opera Society . From 1792 the troop commuted regularly between Dresden and Leipzig and initially made occasional trips to Prague and Teplitz, as it was during Bondini's time. Even under Bondini's leadership, the company had to be subsidized. The performances during the Leipzig trade fair were very profitable, but in winter they needed donations from the court, initially 6,000, from 1801 even 7,200 thalers. It can be stated, however, that the Saxon theater lagged behind the boom in theatrical art elsewhere, to which a strictly applied censorship contributed. The appearance of church dignitaries on the stage was forbidden, as was prayer and even the mere mention of God was forbidden. In addition, in Saxony one stuck to a kind of superficial rhetorical style of play, while elsewhere the transition to an aesthetically elaborate game or the art of depicting people was gradually made. Nevertheless, some of the most famous actors of the late 18th century belonged to Franz Seconda's society, such as Friederike Wilhelmine Hartwig (1777–1849), Joseph Anton Christ (1744–1823) and Ferdinand Ochsenheimer (1767–1823).

In 1789 the actor Christian Wilhelm Opitz, who had been a member of the Bondini Society from 1780 to 1785, returned and directed it from then on. In 1801, however, Seconda failed when the attempt to have his contract transferred to Opitz in the event of his death. The repertoire of the Seconda'schen Gesellschaft preferred pieces by August Wilhelm Iffland and August von Kotzebue , the most popular playwrights of the time.

From 1806 the Secondasche troupe operated under the name of Royal Saxon Court Actors . Opitz died in 1810 and from this point on Seconda took over the directing himself. In 1814 his contract was canceled and the company was initially taken over as the court theater company. The Italian opera and the German drama were subsequently transformed into a joint state institution, the Royal Drama , which was headed by Hofrat Karl Gottfried Theodor Winkler as director. Franz Seconda's cloakroom and library were bought from his society, he himself was employed as an economist at the Royal Drama in 1815, which he remained until his retirement in 1831.

Seconda lived in Dresden until 1817 on Moritzstrasse, corner of Neumarkt, and from 1818 directly on Neumarkt.

In 1785 he became a Freemason and accepted into the Leipzig Lodge Minerva to the three palms .

Franz Seconda was married three times. First marriage (1776) to Maria Eberhardina Josepha Wilhelmina Peterka (1752–1777), second marriage (1778) to Euphrosina Dorothea Grohmann (1760–1795). After her death he had a third marriage (1795) with the actress Sophia Henriette Künzel (1765–1831).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Corinna Kirschstein: Seconda, Franz . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography . Processing status: August 2011, accessed on August 15, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Seconda, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seconda, Jakob Bartholomäus Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German principal of a traveling theater company, director and actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1833
Place of death Dresden