The House Composers of the Theater auf der Wieden in the Time of Mozart (1789-91) (original) (raw)
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The House Composers of the Theater auf der Wieden in the Time of Mozart (1789-91) 1
Some of the most important theatrical music in Europe was produced at the Theater auf der Wieden in suburban Vienna in the years 1789 to 1801. Beginning with the immensely popular Die zween Anton oder der dumme Gärtner aus dem Gebirge in July 1789, Emanuel Schikaneder produced one successful singspiel after another. The most successful of these were quickly staged in other European venues, both in the original German and in translation. 2 Yet, until recently, we have known only a single opera from that period, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Because scholars have not studied this repertory, 3 a myth of singularity for Mozart's singspiel has dominated the secondary literature. But Mozart's opera was in fact the fourth in a series of fairy-tale singspiels based on texts associated with Christoph Martin Wieland. And the music of Mozart's singspiel is firmly rooted in a unique style developed at the theater by a group of talented composers who interacted with Mozart, both learning from the master and influencing him in turn. Another myth about this theater has also persisted in modern literature, namely, that the music was of an inferior quality and that the performances were rather crude. While there is one derisive review of a performance at the Theater auf der Wieden by a north German commentator in 1793, 4 most contemporary reviews were positive, noting a high standard of musical performance. In his unpublished autobiography, Ignaz von Seyfried recalled performances of operas in the early 1790s by Mozart, Süßmayr, Hoffmeister etc., writing that they were performed with rare skill (ungemein artig). Seyfried describes Kapellmeister Henneberg conducting the orchestra from the "pianoforte. .. like a General commanding an army of musicians!" 5 1 An earlier version of this article was published as "Die Hauskomponisten am Theater auf der Wieden in
Die Hauskomponisten am Theater auf der Wieden in der Zeit Mozarts (1789-1791)
In Acta Mozartiana 48, Heft 1/4 (2001), 75-81. [Papers, symposium of the Deutsche Mozart-Gesellschaft, “Der Stein der Weisen: Musiktheater im josephinischen Wien,” Augsburg, May 6-7, 2001.] Translated as “The House Composers of the Theater auf der Wieden in the Time of Mozart (1789-91),” Min-Ad Israeli Studies in Musicology Online 2006/2: http://www.biu.ac.il/hu/mu/min-ad/06-2/2\_House\_Comp14-18.pdf
Some Little-Known References to Early Performances of Mozart's Operas
Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America, 2014
References to early performances of Mozart's La finta giardiniera, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, and La clemenza di Tito have recently come to light through the magic of Google Books. I present them here in chronological order.
Theatrical Objects and the Era of Mozart and Haydn
Any discussion of theatrical objects in a historical context is a great challenge in and of itself, due to a number of important factors. The first is modern experiential bias; the gap in experience of theatrical objects-primarily masks and marionettes-between our time and the time of Haydn and Mozart is quite profound. In contemporary American culture, masks and marionettes are more generally understood to be in the jurisdiction of children's theater-both of them being relegated primarily to the realm of children's play and artifice offering little of artistic value, neither to institutions marketing "high" culture, nor persons of sophisticated taste. In the mid to late 18th century, while they were on the decline for various reasons, masked Commedia dell'Arte performances were still a major cultural force throughout Europe. However, the lack of comprehensive scholarship exploring the degree to which Mozart was influenced by Commedia dell'Arte and Carnival, or Haydn by the Marionette Company at the Esterhazy palace for that matter, is in and of itself indicative of the tacitly perceived influence of masks and marionettes on the compositional styles of these two influential creators of music. Much like the improvisational element of Music of the 18th century, mask and marionette performances are particularly susceptible to the distorting processes of text-based historical scholarship.
Musicologica Austriaca, 2021
This article investigates the genesis, programming patterns, and transnational impact of the series of early music concerts (Historische Concerte) performed on the occasion of the Viennese International Exhibition of Music and Theater of 1892. Guido Adler was the co-organizer of those concerts, and this article will focus on the impact of this set of twelve historical performances on Adler’s epistemological perspective. Through this case study, I also aim to reassess the intersections between the history of monumental music editing and the historically informed musical practices in the context of international events at the turn of the twentieth century. This article is part of the special issue “Exploring Music Life in the Late Habsburg Monarchy and Successor States,” ed. Tatjana Marković and Fritz Trümpi (April 3, 2021).
Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 2004
A Viennese manuscript of the first act of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte recently surfaced in Budapest. The title page indicates that it was sold by the actor, singer and theater copyist, Kasper Weiß in 1796, and bears the name "Theater auf der Wieden" in Weiß's handwriting. This is the only known score with a clear connection to the theater for which Mozart composed his singspiel. It was probably based on the theater's score, which was certainly copied from Mozart's autograph. Upon close investigation the Budapest manuscript reveals a number of deviations from the autograph, variants that suggest something of a performing tradition that may in fact date back to Mozart himself, who conducted the first performances. At least one other Viennese copy of Die Zauberflöte exhibits similar peculiarities, indicating a path of transmission that complements the one going back to Constanze Mozart, who sold copies based on the autograph.