Margrave Theater
| Margrave Theater | |
|
|
| location | |
| Address: | Theaterplatz 2 |
| City: | gain |
| Coordinates: | 49 ° 35 '59 " N , 11 ° 0' 20" E |
| Architecture and history | |
| Construction time: | 1715-1719 |
| Opened: | January 10, 1719 |
| Spectator: | 570 seats |
| Architect: | Giovanni Paolo Gaspari (remodeling 1743/44) |
| Named after: | Margrave Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1945) |
| Internet presence: | |
| Website: | www.theater-erlangen.de |
The Markgrafentheater in the Middle Franconian city of Erlangen is the oldest baroque theater in southern Germany. The listed building is now one of three venues for Das Theater Erlangen .
location
The theater, inconspicuous in its facade, is located together with the Redoutensaal and the so-called Long House, the former royal stables , in a building complex north of the Erlangen palace gardens . The building is accessed with a passage that connects the adjoining Wasserturmstrasse to the south with the Theaterplatz to the north.
description
Opposite the 11 meter wide and 12 meter deep stage and the lowerable orchestra pit for 40 musicians are the three tiers of the horseshoe-shaped auditorium, supported by colonnades . The royal box extends over three axes and two zones of the ranks. It is crowned by a stepped canopy , which is supported by gilded herms ( comedy and tragedy ) and whose chinoiserie shows the purest rococo . Carved wooden borders hang from the edge of the canopy and are hung with gilded tassels . The proscenium boxes swinging forward below are clamped between ionic colossal pilasters with entablature .
The ornamentation with rocailles typical for the time of its creation (inauguration in 1719 and 1744) was dispensed with in order to fall back on the latticework with volutes and foliage, which was popular in the Régence period of the late 1720s . Since only the parapets in the first tier have wooden balusters and otherwise few plastic details were used, the effect of the room is mainly based on the decorative painting.
In the Margrave Theater, the setting that testifies to princely absolutism was largely omitted . While comparable buildings such as the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth or the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich mainly served to represent court society, the Erlanger Theater was primarily a house for everyone and the prince in it was only the " primus inter pares ".
history
The theater was built between 1715 and 1719 on behalf of Margrave Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Bayreuth as an “opera and comedy house”. Together with the Redoutensaal built in 1718/19 and the Long House added in 1721/22, the Margrave Theater was the last court building in Erlangen. On January 10, 1719, the inauguration took place with the opera Argenis and Poliarchus . Two pictures by Johann Baptist Homann from 1721 give an impression of the original design of the theater: In front of the stage, which was separated from the auditorium by an arched portal, was a wide orchestra pit. The lower parquet was furnished with simple wooden benches. The boxes, which can be reached via several external stairs, were probably reserved for more distinguished people.
In 1736, during the reign of Margrave Friedrich and a decade after the opera-loving Margrave Georg Wilhelm died, the theater was to be converted into a salt store. At the request of Georg Wilhelm's widow, the theater-loving Sophia , who lived in Erlangen Castle as a widow's residence for eight years after his death in 1726, this did not happen. At the instigation of the Margrave couple Friedrich and Wilhelmine from Bayreuth, the interior was redesigned in 1743/44 by the Italian theater architect Giovanni Paolo Gaspari , partially using the existing building fabric. The inauguration of the “famous new THEATRO” was celebrated “in the Carneval of the 1744 year” with the opera Sirace , and in the same year the engagement of Princess Elisabeth Friederike Sophie with other operas . Presumably in the 18th century, the interior was painted over with the colors green, purple, white and gold.
With the takeover of the Principality of Bayreuth by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810 , the theater came into their possession. In 1817, the later King Ludwig I of Bavaria donated the theater with the neighboring Redoutensaal to Erlangen University ; the theater became the Royal University Playhouse . In 1838 the theater was sold to the city of Erlangen. After renovation work, it was reopened on December 4, 1838 as the Erlangen City Theater . During the renovation of the interior in 1891/92, numerous minor changes were made and the ceiling was redesigned, which was painted by Gottfried Pfannenmüller with large figures of the four muses . In 1903 the building, run by the non-profit theater and concert association Erlangen from 1876 to 1933, was electrified . In 1907 the building was given an Art Nouveau facade facing the Theaterplatz . Since 1945 the official name of the building has been the Markgrafentheater.
In 1956 the theater was closed due to dilapidation.
In 1957 a discussion arose as to whether the theater, which was now in danger of collapsing, should be demolished or preserved. The city council voted with the so-called “big solution” for the preservation, so that in the following years there was an extensive general renovation as well as a conversion from a box to a rank theater. While the shell of the auditorium was left in its substance, the originally wooden supports were worked off to the smallest possible size. In order to convey the original situation again, the coloring was carried out according to the findings. With a redesign of the wooden ceiling of the auditorium, attempts were made to reconstruct the baroque division of the fields. Most of the rest of the building was replaced by a reinforced concrete structure . Boxes, corridors, cloakroom and foyer were renovated in the style of the 1950s. In December 1959, the Margrave Theater was reopened with The Marriage of Figaro .
From 1973 onwards, the city's own theater company was set up. Since then, the house has been operated in the so-called "three-pillar model" with in-house productions, guest performances and concerts.
From 1998 to 2000 there was another extensive renovation, including reducing the seating from 616 to 570 and securing the roof structure.
The Theater Erlangen has been directed by the artistic director Katja Ott since 2009.
Web links
literature
- Werner Heunoske, André Widmann: 300 years of the margrave theater . Anniversary in Erlangen . In: The Fourth Wall. Organ of the TheaterMuseum Berlin initiative . Edition 009. Berlin, 2019, pp. 82–87 ( Online in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- Christoph Friederich, Bertold Freiherr von Haller, Andreas Jakob (Hrsg.): Erlanger Stadtlexikon . W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-921590-89-2 ( online ).
- ^ A b c Andreas Jakob , Volkmar Greiselmayer: Markgrafentheater .
- Other sources
- ↑ List of monuments for Erlangen (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
- ↑ Bavarian Monument Atlas (cartographic representation of the Bavarian architectural and ground monuments by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD) )
- ↑ a b Herbert Paulus : On the art-historical significance of the Margrave Theater from 1743 . In: Heimatverein Erlangen und Umgebung e. V. (Hrsg.): Erlanger building blocks for Franconian homeland research . No. 27 , 1980, ISSN 0421-3769 , pp. 170-182 .
- ↑ a b Andreas Jakob : The new town of Erlangen . Planning and creation. In: Heimatverein Erlangen und Umgebung e. V. (Hrsg.): Erlanger building blocks for Franconian homeland research . No. 33 , 1986, ISSN 0421-3769 , pp. 89 .
- ↑ Thomas Engelhardt (Ed.): Erlangen im Barock . Glory and misery of the margrave's time. City Museum Erlangen, Erlangen 2010, ISBN 978-3-930035-14-4 , p. 99, 101 .