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Theater an der Wien (Papageno gate in Millöckergasse)

The Theater an der Wien (The Theatre on the Wien River) is a theatre in Vienna. Opened in 1801, it has a fabled history, and continues to be an important venue to this day.

Contents

Origin

The theater was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute (1791). Schikaneder's troupe had already been successfully performing for several years in Vienna in the smaller (800-seat) Theater auf der Wieden, where The Magic Flute had premiered. Schikaneder, whose performances often emphasized spectacle and scenery, felt ready to move to a larger and better equipped venue.1

He had already been granted an imperial licence to build a new theatre in 1786, but it was only in 1798 that he felt ready to act on this authorization. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger in Empire style (it has since been remodeled). Construction was completed in 1801. The theater has been described as "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age."2.

Papageno gate sculpture

The theatre opened on 13 June 1801 with a prologue written by Schikaneder followed by a performance of the opera "Alexander" by Alexander Teyber. In 1807 it was acquired by a group of court nobles that included Count Ferdinand Palffy von Erdöd, who bought the theater outright in 1813. During the period of his proprietorship, which lasted until 1826, he offered opera and ballet and, to appeal to a wider Viennese audience, popular pantomime and variety acts, losing money in elaborate spectacles until he was forced to sell the theater at auction in 1826.

Theater an der Wien, 1815

Only a part of the original building is preserved: the "Papageno gate" is a memorial to Schikaneder, who is depicted playing the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute, a role he wrote for himself to perform. He is shown with his three children, playing the Three Boys in the same opera.

Premieres at the theatre

As a prominent theatre in an artistically vital city, the Theater an der Wien has been the location for the premieres of many works of theatre and music that endure to this day, among them:

Later history

Theater an der Wien (former, Broadway style entrance wing; demolished in 2005)

The theatre experienced a golden age during the flourishing of Viennese operetta. From 1945 to 1955, it was one of the temporary homes of the Vienna State Opera, whose own building had been destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.

In 1955, the theater was closed for safety reasons. It languished unused for several years, and by the early 1960s, the threat had emerged that it would be converted to a parking garage (this was the same era of "urban renewal" that in America nearly destroyed Carnegie Hall).

Fortunately, in 1962 the theater found a new and successful role for itself as a venue for contemporary musical theater. Many English-language musicals had their German premieres there. In 1992, the musical Elisabeth (about Franz Joseph I of Austria's wife, Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sissi), premiered there. The musical Cats directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne played successfully for seven years.

Recent years: revival as a full time opera house

In the Mozart bicentennial year, the Theater an der Wien presented a series of major Mozart operas and it has since become a full-time venue for opera and other forms of classical music under the direction of Roland Geyer. The first opera to be given was Mozart's Idomeneo.

Geyer is quoted as saying that he wishes to "present cutting edge directors and interesting productions" 4, and his three main areas of focus are on Baroque opera, contemporary opera, and Mozart.

The theater's seasons have included the following works:

Entrance wing facing Naschmarkt, redesigned in 2006

Among the singers are Marijana Mijanovic, Frederica von Stade, Olaf Bär, Patricia Petibon, Anatoli Kotscherga, Anja Silja, Diana Damrau, Plácido Domingo, Maria José Montiel, Andrea Rost, Christine Schäfer, David Daniels.

The Theater an der Wien frequently collaborates in co-productions with other opera houses, such as the Washington Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, and the Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden.

Nomenclature

"Wien" is the German word for "Vienna"; but the "Wien" in the name of the theater is not the name of the city but rather the name of the Wien River (Wienfluss), which once flowed by the theater site; "an der Wien" means next to (that is, on the banks of) the Wien. In modern times the name has become somewhat opaque, since the river has been covered over in this location; the covered riverbed now houses the Naschmarkt, an open-air market.

Artistic directors

  • Roland Geyer

Notes

  1. ^ Braunbehrens 1990
  2. ^ "Emanuel Schikaneder" in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
  3. ^ Source: Eric Bromberger's program notes for a performance of Schubert's work by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, 12 November 2007; [1]
  4. ^ Anne Midgette, "In Mozart's Backyard, A Fraught Rebirth of an Opera House", New York Times, 26 November 2006

References

  • Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1990) Mozart in Vienna. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
  • Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, online edition. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

External links

Coordinates: 48°11′57″N 16°21′49″E / 48.19917, 16.36361

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