Opera house on Taschenberg
The Opernhaus am Taschenberg (also Klengelsches Opernhaus or Komödienhaus am Taschenberg ) was a theater building in Dresden . The first Dresden opera house, built by Wolf Caspar von Klengel from 1664 to 1667 , held up to 2000 visitors and was one of the largest European theaters of its time. It was built on the site of the ballroom designed by Paul Buchner in 1597 . The diverse rededication of the building is remarkable. In 1707 plans arose to convert the opera house back into a ballroom, but these were not implemented, in the same year it was decided to convert the building into a Catholic court chapel. Further phases of use as the workshop of the organ builder Gottfried Silbermann and as an archive followed before it was demolished in 1888.
Inner city location
The opera house on Taschenberg was directly adjacent to the southwest corner of the Dresden Residenzschloss and was connected to it by a corridor. At the time of construction there was a free area to the west on which the Zwinger was built from 1709, separated by Sophienstrasse .
building
The exterior of the opera house, built from Pirna sandstone , was rather plain, while the interior was ornate. With large columns and two obelisks , the design of the interior was reminiscent of the formal language of ancient architecture. The auditorium was more than 16 meters wide and more than 20 meters long. Two horseshoe-shaped tiers led around the auditorium on the ground floor ; A flat ceiling closed off the auditorium at the top. It was adorned with a ceiling painting by Johann Oswald Harms , which depicted Helios with the sun chariot , which the rose-fingered Eos flies ahead with a host of geniuses . The auditorium was separated from the stage by a proscenium on which the life guards were stationed. The stage itself was 25 meters deep and could accommodate ten backdrops.
The contemporary Italian historian Gregorio Leti described the opera house as follows: "The Comedy House [...] with arches, columns and balconies made of marble could not be more splendid than it is, and there is probably no other building so beautiful and dignified in Europe."
history
The opera in today's sense was created in Florence at the end of the 16th century and gained popularity first in Italy and later in Germany. In the second half of the 17th century all important German princes founded their own court theaters and in Saxony the art-loving Elector Johann Georg II had the foundation stone laid for the opera house on Taschenberg, which opened in 1667. The opera Il teseo by Pietro Andrea Ziani (libretto: Giovanni Andrea Moneglia ) was performed at the opening, and Italian opera also later dominated performance practice. On February 9, 1672, the first performance of the earliest fully preserved German opera Drama or Musical Drama by the Dafne by Marco Giuseppe Peranda and Giovanni Andrea Bontempi took place. Under Johann Georg III. was Carlo Pallavicino conductor and director of the Italian opera in Dresden, but also German musicians such as Christoph Bernhard worked at the Opera House on Taschenberg. In 1691 Johann Georg Starcke converted the opera house into a four-tier theater based on the Italian model.
Friedrich August I of Saxony , who converted to Catholicism , had the opera house redesigned into a Catholic court chapel in 1707 and 1708, which was consecrated on April 7, 1708 in honor of the Most Holy Trinity. Johann Christoph von Naumann directed the renovation ; Raymond Leplat was responsible for the installation . Gottfried Silbermann built the organ for the new chapel in 1720. Balthasar Permoser created the larger-than-life church fathers Augustinus and Ambrosius out of limewood for the Trinity altar of this new church in 1725 , which are now in the court church . After the completion of the court church in 1755, the court chapel was rebuilt into a ballroom, which in 1802 was given a classical facade by Johann Gottlob Hauptmann. From 1804 it was converted into an archive building and demolished in 1888. From 1896 until its destruction in 1945, Johannes Schilling's Wettin obelisk stood at this point.
When it was converted into a Catholic court orchestra, Dresden initially no longer had an opera house for a good decade. Only in preparation for the upcoming celebrations of the wedding of the Prince Elector of Saxony, who later became Elector Friedrich August II , was a new opera house built in 1718–1719 with the opera house at the Zwinger .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hubert Ermisch : The old archive building on the Taschenberge in Dresden. A souvenir sheet , p. 5. Wilhelm Baensch Verlagbuchhandlung, Dresden 1888.
- ^ Hubert Ermisch : The old archive building on the Taschenberge in Dresden. A souvenir sheet , p. 16. Wilhelm Baensch Verlagbuchhandlung, Dresden 1888.
- ^ A b c d e Matthias Rank: Semperoper Dresden 1985 , p. 9. Verlag Zeit im Bild, Dresden 1985.
- ^ A b Heinrich Magirius : The Semperoper Dresden: building history, equipment, iconography , pp. 11-13. Verlag Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 2004.
- ↑ a b c Fritz Löffler : The old Dresden . 6th edition, 1981, p. 76.
- ↑ List of stage works by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi based on the MGG in Operone.
- ^ Friedrich August Forwerk: History and description of the Catholic court and parish church in Dresden . Dresden, 1851, page 11 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Inventory of the organs in Saxony: Dresden: Catholic chapel on Taschenberg (Residenz-Schloss) (organ built in 1720).
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 9.1 ″ N , 13 ° 44 ′ 9.3 ″ E