Joseph Karl Huber

Joseph Karl Huber , even Joseph Carl Huber , in the vernacular Leopoldl-Huber called ( in 1726 in Vienna - 24. April 1760 ibid), was an Austrian actor and playwright . As the creator of the comic character “ Leopoldl ” he achieved great popularity with the public and, despite the ban, continued the tradition of parody and travesty in the Vienna Volkstheater.

life and work

Little is known about the life of Joseph Karl Huber. He belonged to the traveling stage of Johann Joseph Felix von Kurz , called Bernadon , who was fought in the context of the so-called Hanswurst dispute (1747–1783) by Joseph von Sonnenfels because of extemporating . Sonnenfels was an advisor to Empress Maria Theresia and enforced the censorship and in 1752 a "extemporiation ban". Bernadon was banned from the city and the impromptu theater should be put to an end. According to Sonnenfels, the theater should represent, teach and educate bourgeois life, observe the poetics of Aristotle, the text should be written down and the popular buffoon should disappear from the stage. The Protestant enlightenment paradigm thus also caught on in Vienna and literature began to play a dominant role in the theater.

Leopoldl

The Leopoldl however, is a standing role and comic figure of the Viennese popular theater , which was created by Huber to 1745th According to the theater lexicon of 1841, Leopoldl is a character “in extemporaneous plays”, thus still a figure of the impromptu theater in the tradition of the Commedia dell'arte , which was to be suppressed by the literaryization of the Viennese theater under Joseph von Sonnenfels at the end of the 18th century . The Viennese then awarded the creator of the figure the honorary title Leopoldl-Huber .

marriage

In 1751, Huber married the Hofburg actress Christiane Lorenz (1730–1799), who named herself Huber or Huberinn after her marriage and achieved great success as the actress of tragic heroines during her marriage. She remained unmarried for 15 years after his untimely death. Christiane Huber was acquainted with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , also edited several plays herself and appeared in the 1760s as Miss Sara Sampson at the Hofburgtheater in Lessing's play, edited by her deceased husband. Huber had included a Hanswurst figure in Lessing's play. Lessing's name was not mentioned in the context of this production.

Plays and arrangements

• 1754: Something against the assumption or it is high time , comedy
• 1755: Misssara and Sirsampson , adaptation of Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson
• 1760: Zange or Die Rache , a mourning play in prose, borrowed from the English of Mr. D. Eduard Youngs
• 1762: Argenide or The hasty vow, given by Idomeno, king in Creta, the murderer of his own son Eurindo , mourning game of three acts
• 1783: The English Kaper , original comedy in one act

literature

• Herbert Zeman (ed.): The Austrian literature. Your profile from the beginnings in the Middle Ages to the 18th century. (Austrian literature 2). Graz 1986.

Web links

• Andrea Harrandt: Joseph Karl Huber. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 .
• Joseph Karl Huber in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philipp Jakob Düringer , H. Barthels (ed.): Theater-Lexikon: Theoretical-practical manual for board members, members and friends of the German theater , Leipzig: Wigand 1841, Sp. 630