Opera house in front of the Salztor
The opera house in front of the Salztor was a theater building opened in 1701 in Naumburg (Saale) . The house was built on his behalf during the reign of Duke Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz . It burned down in 1716 and was never rebuilt. In the 15 years of its existence, at least 14 different operas and one play were performed in the Naumburg Opera House.
prehistory
The city of Naumburg had had a trade fair privilege of the emperor since the Middle Ages, which it also used with the Petri and Pauli Mass , which took place every year in June. Since Leipzig, 60 km away , had had such a privilege since 1669, the two cities were in competition with each other. With the Oper am Brühl, which opened in 1693, Leipzig had a functioning theater to entertain the trade fair guests, in which operas were performed during the three trade fair times.
In order to increase the attractiveness of the Naumburg trade fair, the Duke Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz, in whose territory the city of Naumburg lay but only owned the so-called residence house and an official building there, left four plots of land at the end of Neugasse near the Salt Gate requisition in order to build an opera house on it.
building
The opera house, which opened in 1701, was around 27 meters long and 12 to 16.5 meters wide, so the house should have room for around 400 people.
The building plans were probably carried out by the regional master builder Johann Heinrich Gengenbach , who was in the ducal service at the time . The house was (in contrast to the 10 meter longer Leipzig Opera House) made of masonry, had a cellar and was equipped with various theater machines.
On the Naumburg city map from 1701, the opera house can be seen as a cross-shaped building. Unfortunately, other views of the building no longer exist.
History of the Opera House
The opera house in front of the Salztor was ceremoniously opened on the afternoon of June 28, 1701 with the opera “Orpheus and Euridice” in front of “all the noble lords” . Other sources speak of an opening only in 1702. The opera performances in Naumburg were public, but were arranged, supervised and financed by the duke. He also continued to own the house. In contrast to other civic operas of the time (e.g. Gänsemarktoper in Hamburg or the Opernhaus am Brühl in Leipzig) , Naumburg played a special role, since the opera house was not financed by citizens. The difference between the Naumburg house and other princely baroque theaters was that the house was only played during the Petri and Pauls Mass, which lasted around June 29th of each year, so just like the Leipzig Opera was a pure trade fair opera . The Duke chose the composers of the operas to be performed and, as can be read in some of the opera composer's biographies, moved with his entire court to Naumburg during the opera period. Some of the composers also wrote music for the ducal table before the opera performances.
The organization of the opera performances is rather poorly documented. The composer Johann Theile , who was born in Naumburg and composed operas for the Hamburg Gänsemarktoper, stayed in Naumburg around 1710, but what is documented is only part of an intermediary activity with Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel , who was in Halle at the time, around the To deliver the order of the Duke to compose the opera “Valeria”, he comes with it for the above Roles out of the question. The son-in-law of the founder of the Leipzig Opera Nicolaus Adam Strungk , a certain Samuel Ernst Döbricht, is more likely . Döbricht brought a message from the Duke of Zeitz, dated June 8, 1709, to the ducal administrator in Naumburg, who had enclosed 4 keys for the opera house in Naumburg. In it, the Duke asked his representative to make an inventory of “machines and other things in the opera house” and then to hand over the keys to Döbricht. This handover initiated a guest performance by the Leipzig opera troupe, which should then lead to the performance of Heinichen "Olympia Vendicata" at the 1709 fair. In 1711, Döbricht is also mentioned in the personal files of the Zeitz court orchestra as being used for composition. A certain Johann Christoph Frauendorff can also be considered for the direction of the opera from 1704 to 1716, as he was a Saxon-Zeitzscher councilor and held the office of mayor in Naumburg every two years; he also wrote Caspar Schürmann's librettos for operas.
It is not clear whether the musicians of the Zeitz court orchestra, which has been directed by Theile's student Christian Heinrich Aschenbrenner since 1695, were used for the Naumburg opera performances, or whether other musicians played.
The stage technology in Naumburg can only be reconstructed today based on the requirements for the pieces being played. There should have been three consecutive fields (including the stage prospect ) on the stage , as was required in the play "The Confused House Jacob".
In the text book of the opera "Telemaque" by Georg Caspar Schürmann it is required that
“A theater like that from which Wolcken comes down.
A lake across the whole theater, on which ships go back and forth, but
which afterwards sink and sink in the storm.
An area of grottos and all kinds of shells,
between which small hills with bitter orange trees can be seen.
A forest .-- A garden with fountains.
The sea with rocks and a ship that is being burned.
A shipwreck.- Hell.- The Elisaic fields.
A royal hall with stairs and galleries.
A sky of Minerva decorated with victory symbols.
Cupido's flight through the air.
Pluto up in a machine from below.
A fire-breathing dragon .... "
should be present.
With his operas, the Duke tried not to be inferior to the Leipzig Opera House and over the years hired artists such as Georg Caspar Schürmann, Johann David Heinichen , Johann Friedrich Fasch , Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Barthold Feind for his opera house. The “Leipzig style”, in which not only purely German operas, but also purely Italian operas and German operas with Italian inserts, also prevailed in Naumburg. Since the other Thuringian princes are likely to have been regular guests in the opera house in front of the Salztor, they had noticeably fewer operas staged at their courts during the Naumburg opera period, as they satisfied their operatic interests in Naumburg.
The Naumburg Opera House was destroyed by fire on April 30, 1716 and was not rebuilt afterwards. Therefore, probably no operas were performed in 1716. From this time only two opera performances from 1717 in the Naumburg Residenzhaus on the market (today Naumburg District Court ) date .
The Duke on May 2, 1717 due to his religious conversion to Catholicism, the administration of the Protestant bishopric of Naumburg was forfeited and the Duchy of Saxe-Zeitz to Electoral Saxony was forced to cede ended the recent Saxon Sekundogenitur , which is also the end for the Naumburg opera history meant.
The ruins of the opera house stood at least until 1752. The site of the old opera house was later rebuilt, and today the Naumburg city archive is located on it.
List of the operas performed in the Naumburg Opera House
Only the opera The happy change of love or Paris and Helena von Heinichen has survived from the Naumburg repertoire, of the others only a few arias or only the text books exist. Only the names of some operas are known.
| title | composer | libretto | premiere | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orpheus and Euridice | Reinhard Keizer ? | ? | June 28, 1701 | |
| Jupiter and Callisto | ? | ? | 1702 | |
| The confused house of Jacob | - | - | 1703 | Play with accompanying music by Barthold Feind |
| Octavia | Reinhard Keizer? | Barthold enemy? | 1705 | |
| Telemaque | Georg Caspar Schürmann | Johann Christoph Frauendorff | 1706 | Ballet performances by dance master Samuel Rudolph Behr |
| Germanicus | Georg Philipp Telemann | 1706 | meanwhile not sure whether “Germanicus” was played in Naumburg | |
| Lucretia | Reinhard Keizer? | Barthold enemy? | 1707 | |
| The confused house of Jacob | - | - | 1708 | Repetition of 1703 |
| Olimpia Vendicata | Johann David Heinichen | Georg Christian Lehms | 1708 | Repeat 1709, some arias have been preserved; only completely Italian-language opera from Naumburg |
| The happy exchange of love or Paris and Helena | Johann David Heinichen | ? | 1710 | the only completely preserved opera from Naumburg |
| Clomire | Johann Friedrich Fasch | ? | June 29, 1711 | |
| The pleasant fraud or carnival in Venice | Johann David Heinichen | ? | 1711 | Repetition of the 1709 performance from Leipzig; received some arias |
| The faithful Dido | Johann Friedrich Fasch | ? | 1712 | |
| Valeria | Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel | ? | 1712 | possibly also listed as early as 1711 |
| Orion | Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel | ? | 1713 | |
| Artemisia | Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel | ? | 1713 | |
| Clomire | Johann Friedrich Fasch | ? | 1715 | Repeat from 1711 |
| The lucky deceit or Clytia and Orestes | Johann Augustin Kobelius | ? | 1717 | Performance in the Residenzhaus |
| Isabella and Rodrigo | Johann Augustin Kobelius? | ? | 1717 | Performance in the Residenzhaus |
Rediscovery of the opera The happy change of love or Paris and Helena
In 2001 the archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, believed to be lost, returned to Berlin from Kiev. It contained an autograph of the hitherto missing opera The happy change of love or Paris and Helena von Heinichen. The opera was played again after more than 300 years as part of a concert performance by the Berlin “Lautten Compagney” on November 10, 2012 in the Audimax of the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences .
literature
- Johann Christoph Gottsched: The German Schaubühne: According to the rules and patterns of the old, Volume 5. Breitkopf, Leipzig 1744, p. 32f.
- Herbert Alfred Frenzel : Thuringian Castle Theater. Society for Theater History, Berlin 1965.
- Friedhelm Brusniak: Musical theatrical forms in small residences: 7th Arolser Barock-Festspiele 1992, conference report. Studio-Verlag, Friedrichshafen 1993.
- Rüdiger Pfeiffer: Johann Friedrich Fasch, 1688–1758: Life and Work. Noetzel, Heinrichshofen Books Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1994.
- Susanne Alberts: Music in Naumburg, Saale 1650–1720: Church and courtly music life in Naumburg an der Saale at the time of secondary school. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Saarbrücken, 2004.
Web links
credentials
- ^ Herbert Alfred Frenzel: Thuringian Castle Theater. Society for Theater History, Berlin 1965. p. 105.
- ^ Herbert Alfred Frenzel: Thuringian Castle Theater. Society for Theater History, Berlin 1965. p. 107.
- ^ Susanne Alberts: Music in Naumburg, Saale 1650–1720: Church and courtly musical life in Naumburg an der Saale at the time of secondary school. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Saarbrücken, 2004. p. 56.
- ^ Herbert Alfred Frenzel: Thuringian Castle Theater. Society for Theater History, Berlin 1965. S105.
- ↑ Hanna Walsdorf, Marie-Thérèse Mourey, Tilden Russell (ed.): Taubert's "Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister" (Leipzig 1717) Frank & Timme, Berlin, 2019, p. 80.
- ^ Michael Maul : Baroque Opera in Leipzig (1693-1720) text volume . Rombach publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 2009. p. 651.
- ↑ Christoph Schmitt-Maaß: Fénelon's "Télémaque" in the German-speaking Enlightenment (1700-1832) , Walter de Gruyter Berlin and Boston, 2018. p. 225
Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 2 " N , 11 ° 48 ′ 21.1" E