Robert Kautsky

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Robert Kautsky with one of his stage sets for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Vienna 1949

Robert Kautsky ( October 26, 1895 in Vienna - June 18, 1963 in Leoben ) was an Austrian theater painter , stage and costume designer who worked for many years at the Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Festival .

life and work

Kautsky comes from a family of theater painters and actors. His grandfather Johann Baptist Wenzel Kautsky (1827–1896) was a painter and set designer in Prague, his grandmother was the actress and writer Minna Kautsky (1837–1912). His father Hans Joseph Wilhelm Kautsky (1864–1937) was an Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prussian court theater painter in Vienna and Berlin. His eldest brother Hans Kautsky (1891–1966) became a famous chemist, his second brother Fritz worked as a geologist in Sweden. His uncle was the social democratic theorist Karl Kautsky (1854–1938), married to Luise Kautsky .

Robert Kautsky graduated from high school in Vienna and then went to the academy in Berlin-Charlottenburg. After the end of the First World War he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

His grandfather, Johann Kautsky, was a highly respected stage painter who created numerous new productions for the Vienna Court Opera in the 1870s and 1880s. For example, in 1870 he designed the decorations for the Viennese premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeer's Afrikanerin and, together with Carlo Brioschi and Hermann Burghart, designed the scenery for two further important Viennese premieres: in 1874 of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida and in 1878 of Richard Wagner's Siegfried . The African woman's sets could be seen at the Vienna Opera until 1903, those of Aida until December 1931. The grandson followed in his grandfather's footsteps and worked for the Vienna State Opera as early as 1920, at the age of 25. He was responsible for the “decorative equipment using the original Italian designs” for Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi . In 1921 he became director of the painting hall of the Vienna State Opera. In the same year he married Rosa Krupha. In 1924 he became a member of the Vienna Art Association .

For many years he assisted the legendary set designer Alfred Roller and was jointly responsible for the decorations for Feuersnot by Richard Strauss in March 1922. In December of the same year, his first independent set premiered, Humperdinck's fairy tale opera Hänsel und Gretel , staged by Woldemar Runge and conducted by Richard Ostrich. He had a long-term collaboration with the composer and conductor, both in Vienna, where Kautsky outfitted Arabella , Ariadne auf Naxos and the Rosenkavalier , and in Salzburg. Like Strauss, Kautsky was continuously active in Vienna and Salzburg during all system changes - from the First Republic to the corporate state and Hitler regime to the Second Republic . How far he came to terms with the Nazi regime is not known.

He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival , again together with Roller, in 1933 for another Richard Strauss premiere, Die ägyptische Helena . In Salzburg he worked with a number of well-known conductors and directors, most recently with Oscar Fritz Schuh for a new Così fan tutte in 1947. Kautsky's most successful productions were made in the post-war years in the alternative quarters of the State Opera, in the Volksoper and at the Theater an der Wien . The stage sets for Beethoven's Fidelio were used in 145 performances, that for Offenbach's Hoffmann's stories 216 times. Both productions were created in 1945, the Fidelio staged Erich von Wymetal , the Offenbach opera Oscar Fritz Schuh. His Aida equipment from 1946 reached 290 performances, the new production of The Magic Flute from 1948 was shown 239 times, Der Rosenkavalier from 1955 a total of 175 times.

As the last stage sets at the State Opera, three quite different works are listed in the archive in 1960: Andrea Chénier in May, Capriccio in June and Der Wildschütz in October. Capriccio's decorations remained on the State Opera's repertoire until 1997, 33 years after his death.

Stage designs for the Salzburg Festival

literature

  • The yearbook of the Viennese society . Biographical contributions to contemporary Viennese history. Edited by Franz Planer. Vienna: F. Planer 1929
  • Robert Teichl: Austrians of the present . Lexicon of creative and creative contemporaries. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichische Staatsdruckerei 1951
  • Hans Vollmer [ed.]: General lexicon of the visual artists of the 20th century . 6 volumes. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag 1953–1962
  • Yearbook Vienna Theater Research . Volume 13-16, 1966, p. 226 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lothar Beyer, Eberhard Hoyer: Franz Hein, Arthur Schleede, Hans Kautsky and the inorganic chemistry in Leipzig . In: News from chemistry . tape 48 , no. 12 , 2000, pp. 1493-1497 , doi : 10.1002 / nadc.20000481212 .
  2. ↑ Detailed biography at biospektrum.de .
  3. ^ Archives of the Vienna State Opera : search results , performances with Johann Kautsky, accessed on December 11, 2016
  4. ↑ The information is provided with reservation, as the archive of the Vienna State Opera was not fully recorded until 1955.
personal data
SURNAME Kautsky, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian theater painter, stage and costume designer
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1963
Place of death Leoben