Musical Drama and Opera

After the court ensemble of singers and instrumentalists (Hofkapelle) was disbanded in 1724, the opera house (Komödienhaus) continued in Innsbruck as the k.k. Hoftheater, later known as the Nationaltheater. Traveling companies played and it was subsequently left over to private theatrical entrepreneurs. Emanuel Schikaneder was a visiting singer and actor from 1774 to 1776, when he may have received the inspiration for his “Tyroler Wastl.” In 1769 Michael Haydn and his wife Maria Magdalena took part in the performance of Giovanni B. Lewis Torinege’s opera“La parva dell’opera.” Singspiele (spoken dialogue with interpolated songs) by local composers were on the program, such as “Der Kaufmann von Smyrna” by Franz Sebastian Haindl (1727-1812) in 1776. But there were also operas by, among others, Georg Benda (“Medea”), Antonio Salieri (“Die Zigeuner”, the German version of “Il talismano”), Giovanni Paisiello (“La Molinara”), Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Wenzel Müller, and Franz Xaver Süßmayr, as well as ballets. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s “Zauberflöte” was shown in 1795, followed by “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” in 1797, “Der Schauspieldirektor” in 1799, “Die Hochzeit des Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” in 1800. The only remaining connection of the opera house with the ruling family was that special events were celebrated with an evening at the theater, for instance the name day of Archduchess Maria Elisabeth in 1801 with a “Singspiel and ballet” or the name day of Emperor Franz II in 1805 with “Die Tage der Gefahr” (the title was changed later to “Der Wasserträger”) by Luigi Cherubini. After 1820, Italian opera companies stayed at the Innsbruck opera house several times. Among other works, they presented “Tancredi” in 1822, “Il Turco in Italia” in 1824, the “Barbier von Sevilla” in 1826, probably each in the setting by Gioacchino Rossini. A “group of dilettantes” played Etienne-Nicolas Méhul’s “Josef und seine Brüder” in 1829. In 1823 Weber’s “Freischütz” was staged for the first time; in 1838 Beethoven’s “Fidelio” was premiered. Because of the dilapidated condition of the building, renamed several times after 1805 (1805: königlich bayerisches Hof-Nationaltheater), construction was started in 1844 on a new opera house based on plans by Giuseppe Segusini. On 19 April 1846, the birthday of Emperor Ferdinand, the theater director at the time, Ignaz Karl Korn, had the new opera house inaugurated. Besides plays by Eduard von Bauernfeld and Johann Nestroy, the first days featured an opera premiere: “Lucrezia Borgia” by Gaetano Donizetti. As Korn had no lucky hand at managing the theater, a committee (Theater-Gemeinde)was founded in 1847 that aimed to promote opera and theater on a permanent municipal stage. The leaseholders between 1852 and 1918 were not obliged to put on operas, so the city was offered “monthly operas” (Monatsopern) by Italian and German companies. In 1886 the Innsbruck municipality took over the ownership of the opera house, now merely called the Stadttheater. Throughout the 19th century, operas by leading composers kept appearing on the program: Friedrich von Flotow’s “Alessandro Stradella” (1847) and “Martha” (1849), Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Hugenotten” (1848) and “Prophet” (1852), Gustav Albert Lortzing’s “Wildschütz” (1851), “Waffenschmied” (1861) and “Undine” (1862), Giuseppe Verdi’s “Ernani” (1849), Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” (1873), “Fliegender Holländer” (1880) and “Lohengrin” (1882, 1885). Among the local composers represented on the stage in Innsbruck with their works were Matthäus Nagiller, who conducted the first production of his opera “Friedrich mit der leeren Tasche” there in 1859 and František Skuherský with his “Liebesring” (world premiere 1861). In 1908 “Salome” by Richard Strauss had its national premiere in Innsbruck.
Operetta, too, had secured its position on the Innsbruck stage: in 1884 there was, for instance, Karl Millöcker’s “Bettelstudent,” in 1887 Johann Strauß’ “Zigeunerbaron,” and in the 1894/95 season Johann Strauß’ “Fürstin Ninetta” and Charles Weinberger’s “Lachende Erben.”[40]
Italian actors, comedians and opera singers (“Operisten”) went on stage on market days in Bozen towards the end of the 17th century and still in the 18th. The Bozen parish choir director (Pfarrchorregent) Giovanni Abondio Crotti (1682-1731) submitted a “memo petitioning for permission to perform German opera” to the city in December 1725. “If the plot and performance are decent” the magistrate had “no misgivings.” The chief municipal architect approved 50 gulden “to set up the [temporary] theater.” The rest was “to be raised by the petitioner.” As Crotti was also permitted “to play opera in this market town” in 1726, itinerant actors who also wanted to provide musical dramas were now sent away. Towards the end of the 18th century a well-to-do merchant, Anton Melchior von Menz (1757-1801), dominated the Bozen musical scene. An enthusiastic music patron, he also laid the foundations for the music collection known as Gräflich Toggenburgische Musikaliensammlung and “undertook for several years,” as Johann Gänsbacher attests to in 1790, “to have Italian operas performed with German texts in the Merkantilsaal by the [parish?] choir, for which a few outside individuals were also appointed, such as [Josef Leopold] Zach [(1755-1815)] and [Daniel?] Goller [(1766-1816)] of Brixen, at carnival [...] namely 4 times a week for an entry fee.” There were usually one to two productions a season in the Mercantile Building auditorium or in Palais Menz. On the program were Singspiele by distinguished Italian composers such as Giovanni Paisiello (“Die eingebildeten Philosophen” in 1784, “Der König Theodor” in 1786, “Die Welt im Monde” in 1788, “Die zwo Gräfinnen” in 1790, among others), Domenico Cimarosa (“Das entdeckte Komplott” and “Die standhafte Liebe” in 1792, “Die heimlich Vermählten” in 1794, among others), Pietro Guglielmi (“Die adeliche Schäferin” in 1793), Francesco Bianchi (“Der wunderliche Engelländer” in 1795), always in German translation. In 1798 a “patriotic play with music” by Franz Bühler (1760-1823) entitled “Der Tiroler Landsturm im Franzosen Kriege” was produced. Bühler, who had been the organist at the parish church in Bozen since 1794, was at the cembalo (harpsichord) of the chamber orchestra in the Menz residence; Gänsbacher had taken part as an opera singer several times. In the Weimar journal Journal des Luxus und der Moden this orchestra was described as playing “with a precision that one is used to finding only in orchestras at courts, and rarely even there.” The audience consisted of nobility and townspeople as well as businessmen staying in Bozen.
The Italian theater company Gerolamo Mazzuccato inaugurated a new theater at the Kaiserkrone with “Pamela nubile” by Pietro Generali in 1805.[41] Forty-seven nobles and townspeople had formed a society of shareholders in 1804 under Johann Count Baron von Ehrenfeld and had the theater built with circa 800 seats. Performed here in the first half of the 19th century were mainly German Singspiele, including works by Adolf and Wenzel Müller, as well as operas by Weber (“Der Freischütz,”“Preciosa”), Mozart (“Don Giovanni,”“Die Zauberflöte”), Cherubini, Rossini, Cimarosa, Donizetti, Bellini, Auber, Hérold and Boiëldieu.[42] Later, besides German, Italian and French operas, operettas by Offenbach, Suppé and Millöcker were also successful.[43]
Venetian performers had control over the opera productions in Trent around 1700. In 1713 in Teatro Gaudentithey played “L’Amor trionfante nell’odio” by Giovanni Abondio Crotti (1682-1731), a musician at Trent Cathedral at the time, and “La Partenope” by the director of the cathedral music Antonio Quintavalle (†ca.1727). Around 1769 the merchant Domenico Osele had a theater built in which operas were staged from that time on. “L’amante di tutte” by Baldassare Galuppi was shown there in 1763. At carnival in 1772 three operas were on the program: “Il Ratto della sposa” by Pietro Guglielmi, “Le Contadine bizzarre” again by Galuppi, and “La Locanda” by Giuseppe Gazzaniga. The following years featured works by Pasquale Anfossi, Giovanni Paisiello and Giuseppe Sarti. The performers came from Verona, Venice and Milan. Another new theater was opened in 1819; among its first productions were Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” and “Barbiere di Siviglia.” Opera seasons assured regular operation. In 1838 the theater became the property of the owners of box seats and was played in by upper Italian companies. Pieces by composers from Trent were often performed in the 19th century, thus “Il Masnadiero” by Davide Urmacher (ca.1798-1875) in 1835, “Nerina” by Urmacher’s pupil Carlo Chiappani (1853-1928) in 1889, and “Urgella” and “La contessa d’Egmont,” both by Raffaello Lazzari (1845-1924), in 1898 and 1902, respectively.[44]
In May 1784 a new theater was opened in Rovereto. Construction had been initiated by the patricians Count Francesco Alberti Poja and Knight Luigi Carpentari. It started with operas by Domenico Cimarosa, Serafino Bellini and Pasquale Anfossi. The orchestra was composed of “various dilettante gentlemen and professors, both local and from abroad.” Among them, as the leader on cembalo (harpsichord) was the organist of San Pietro in Trent, Francesco Antonio Berera; on first violin the Rovereto burgher, notary and pupil of Giuseppe Tartini, Girolamo Untersteiner (1725-1811); on first oboe “the famous” (il celebre) Ignaz Malzat (1757-1804), oboist with the parish choir in Bozen and brother of the composer working in Stams Monastery, Johann Michael Malzat.[45]
Theater productions with music and dance at carnival time had provided welcome, publicly accessible entertainment for the townspeople in Sterzing as early as the beginning of the 16th century. Between 1511 and 1535 Vigil Raber wrote down the texts of over thirty plays that became well known as the Sterzing carnival plays (Sterzinger Fastnachtspiele). Here again the schoolmaster and his pupils contributed substantially, as did lay actors from among the townspeople, to performing the scenes accompanied by music in the town hall, on public squares, or in inns.[46]
The religious reference emphasized by the music was still evident in popular drama (Volksschauspiel) in the 18th century, such as the carnival interlude (Fasnachtsinterludium) from Kaltern, in which death and the devil, mocking the carnival excesses of the people, dance together and sing “a little song prettily and nicely.”[47] In Schwaz the parish choirmaster (Pfarrchorregent) Stefan Angerer (1711-after 1777) had his “Comedi” about a thief and a hermit staged in 1764, and the parish ensemble musician Anton Ringler his story of “the innocence of Hermenegilda, brought to death by slander but gloriously crowned by heaven” in 1766. In 1791 the parish choirmaster (Pfarrchorregent) Peter Paul Staudacher (1757-1806), a pupil of Stefan Angerer’s son Edmund Angerer OSB (1740-1794), was one of the initiators of performances of musical drama in Schwaz. The Pölzbühne next to the parish church had served as stage in Schwaz since 1597.[48]
In Kitzbühel in the 18th century the Confraternity of the Rosary provided financial support for religious popular drama. The music was provided by whoever was the parish organist and schoolmaster, e.g. Martin Eberl (†1723), who supplied the necessary “music composition” himself.[49] People living in smaller settlements around Innsbruck also had the opportunity to be edified by popular drama: a St John of Nepomuk Play with interpolated songs in Sankt Nikolaus in 1717; a “great musical drama” with the title of “Palladium Marianum” in the Kohlstatt in 1750; or a Singspiel in 1795 called “Der verlorene Sohn.” A Singspiel was also shown by the Spielgesellschaft Höttingin1797: “Die Jahel oder Die wunderbare Befreyung der Israeliten.” The Höttinger Peterlspiel told stories from the Bible, history and everyday life in Hötting in a series of one-act plays. The song-loving “Peterl” appeared in every scene. Around 1900, Peter Vögele (†1936) of Hötting accompanied the overtures and interludes, songs and dance scenes on his accordion with melodies that had been handed down to him orally.[50]
Around 1800, Singspiele conquered the theater in Schwaz. These included “Der Tiroler Wastel” by Emanuel Schikaneder with music by Johann Jakob Haibel (original performance in Vienna in 1796) and “Das Sonntagskind” probably as set to music by Wenzel Müller. In Kitzbühel one could watch the Singspiele “Das gerettete Tyrol” and “Der Prinzenraub” in 1800. In 1806 women from Aldrans applied for permission from the royal Bavarian court commission to play “Maria Stuart” with musical interludes. The knightly chivalry dramas that were put on in Innsbruck at the inn called Rößl in der Au, from 1858 to 1866, started with “Ad. von Friedberg oder Die verstoßene Gräfin von Schenkenstein” accompanied by “Turkish music.” The music for the popular dramas (Volksschauspiele) in Meran in the second half of the 19th century was often composed by the conductor of the civic band, Karl Grissemann.[51]

Fussnoten

[40] Walter SENN, “Innsbrucker Hofmusik,” Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 25 (1970) p. 670;
Konrad FISCHNALER, Innsbrucker Chronik 2, Innsbruck 1929, p. 129ff;
Konrad FISCHNALER, Innsbrucker Chronik 3, Innsbruck 1930, p. 65ff;
Franz Carl ZOLLER, Geschichte und Denkwürdigkeiten der Stadt Innsbruck und der umliegenden Gegend 2, Innsbruck 1825, p. 387, 403 etc.;
Franz HÖLBING, “Theater in Innsbruck,” Theater in Innsbruck, Festschrift ed. Theaterausschuß des Landes Tirol and City of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1967, p. 89ff;
Norbert TSCHULIK, Musiktheater in Österreich: Die Oper im 20. Jahrhundert, Vienna 1984, p. 326f;
Walter FRENZEL, 90 Jahre Städtisches Orchester: Eine Geschichte zur Entstehung und Entwicklung des ‘Innsbrucker Symphonieorchesters 1, Innsbruck [1983], p. 7;
Manfred SCHNEIDER, Mozart in Tirol, exh. cat. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck 1991, p. 26ff;
Emil BERLANDA, Die Opernpflege im k. u. k. Hof- und Nationaltheater zu Innsbruck (1795-1861), typescript, Innsbruck 1949 (not qualified for PhD; copy in Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum).
 
[41] Tarcisio CHINI and Giuliano TONINI, La raccolta di manoscritti e stampe musicali ‘Toggenburg’ di Bolzano (secc. XVIII-XIX) (Cataloghi di fondi musicali italiani 5), Torino 1986, p. IXff;
Johann GÄNSBACHER, Denkwürdigkeiten aus meinem Leben, ed. and commentary Walter Senn, Thaur 1986, p. 3, 126;
Oswald SAILER, “Chor und Choralgesang in der Geschichte Südtirols bis 1876,” Der Schlern 50 (1976) p. 198;
Adalbert Sikora, “Zur Geschichte der Volksschauspiele in Tirol,” Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg 3rd series, no. 50 (1906) p. 372;
Giuliano TONINI, “Il teatro musicale a Bolzano dal XVII al XX secolo,” Il Cristallo 24, no. 1 (1982) p. 32ff.
 
[42] Giuliano TONINI, “Il teatro musicale a Bolzano dal XVII al XX secolo,” Il Cristallo 24, no. 1 (1982) p. 34f.
 
[43] Giuliano TONINI, “Il teatro musicale a Bolzano dal XVII al XX secolo,” Il Cristallo 24, no. 1 (1982) p. 36ff;
see also Giuliano TONINI, Il teatro musicale a Bolzano dal XVII al XX secolo, typescript, PhD Milan 1979/80.
 
[44] Renato LUNELLI, La musica nel Trentino dal XV al XVIII secolo, Part 2 (XVIII secolo), Trento 1967, p. 96ff;
Clemente LUNELLI, “Trento,” Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti, vol. 4, Torino 1984, p. 582f;
Antonio CARLINI, “Associazioni e attività musicale,” Ottocento musicale nel Trentino, ed. Antonio Carlini et al., Trento 1985, p. 48ff;
Clemente LUNELLI, “Spettacoli pubblici a pagamento nel seicento e settecento a Trento,” Studi Trentini di scienze storiche 64 (1985) p. 30ff.
 
[45] Antonio CARLINI, “Associazioni e attività musicale,” Ottocento musicale nel Trentino, ed. Antonio Carlini et al., Trento 1985, p. 67ff;
Fortunato ZENI, Note per una cronaca del Teatro di Rovereto dal Seicento al Novecento (Annali Roveretani, Serie documenti e fonti 4), Rovereto 1994, p. 34ff, 200f. -
For Ignaz Malzat in Bozen, see Franz M. WEISS OSM, “Ignaz Malzat, ein vergessener österreichischer Komponist des 18. Jahrhunderts,” Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 35 (1987) p. 144f.
 
[46] Eugen THURNHER, “Spiele und Spielgut in Tirol,” Theater in Innsbruck, Festschrift ed. Theaterausschuß des Landes Tirol and City of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1967, p. 19;
Anton DÖRRER, “Spielbräuche im Wandel von 6 Jahrhunderten,” Tirol: Natur, Kunst, Volk, Leben, 2nd series, no. 8 (1930) p. 8;
Manfred LINSBAUER, “Lukas Geizkofler und seine Selbstbiographie,” Veröffentlichungen des Tiroler Landesmuseum[s] Ferdinandeum 60 (1980) p. 46;
Konrad FISCHNALER, “Die Volksschauspiele zu Sterzing im XV. und XVI. Jahrhundert,” Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg 3rd series, no. 38 (1894) p. 375ff.
 
[47] Norbert HÖLZL, “Die Gestalt des Todes im Südtiroler Volksschauspiel,” Der Schlern 40 (1966) p. 509.
 
[48] Erich EGG, “Das kirchliche Musikleben im alten Schwaz,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 37 (1962) p. 48;
Erich EGG, “Schwaz vom Anfang bis 1850,” Stadtbuch Schwaz: Natur-Bergbau-Geschichte, ed. Erich Egg et al., Schwaz 1986, p. 185;
Erich EGG, “Hof- und Bauerntheater - Musik und Literatur,” Die tirolische Nation 1790-1820, exh. cat. Tiroler Landesausstellung in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum 1984, Innsbruck 1984, p. 157, 163;
For Stefan Angerer, see new data first published by Hildegard HERRMANN-SCHNEIDER, “Zur Edition,” Edmund ANGERER, Berchtoldsgaden Musick ‘Kindersinfonie’, Erstdruck (Beiträge zur Musikforschung in Tirol 3), Innsbruck 1997, p. 10f. -
Stefan and Edmund Angerer are not related to the Angerer family to which the organ repairers Josef Matthäus Angerer (1783-1826) and Gregor Josef Angerer (1826-1910) belonged; see Alfred REICHLING, “Bildhauer - Schulmeister - ‘Orgelmacher’ – Tausendkünstler: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Tiroler Familie Angerer im 17. und 19. Jahrhundert,” Der Schlern 50 (1976) p. 685ff.
 
[49] Konrad FISCHNALER, “Eine Rosenkranz- und Geißler-Bruderschaft in Nordtirol,” offprint Zeitschrift für Volkskunde  (1933) p. 186.
 
[50] Anton DÖRRER, “Hundert Innsbrucker Notendrucke aus dem Barock: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters in Tirol,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 14 (1939) p. 267;
Konrad FISCHNALER, Innsbrucker Chronik 3, Innsbruck 1930, p. 76ff;
Adalbert KOCH, “Die Musik im Höttinger Peterlspiel,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 15 (1937) p. 22f;
Anton DÖRRER, “Amazonentheater in Tirol,” Dolomiten 29, no. 153 (5 July 1952) p. 9;
Ellen HASTABA, “Theater in Tirol - Spielbelege in der Bibliothek des Tiroler Landesmuseums Ferdinandeum,” Veröffentlichungen des Tiroler Landesmuseums Ferdinandeum 75/76 (1995/96) p. 233ff.
 
[51] Adalbert SIKORA, “Zur Geschichte der Volksschauspiele in Tirol,” Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg 3rd series, no. 50 (1906) p. 357, 370;
Konrad FISCHNALER, Innsbrucker Chronik 3, Innsbruck 1930, p. 77;
Anton DÖRRER, “Amazonentheater in Tirol,” Dolomiten 29, no. 153 (5 July 1952) p. 9;
Otto STOLZ, Meran und das Burggrafenamt im Rahmen der Tiroler Landesgeschichte (Schlern-Schriften 142), Innsbruck 1956, p. 156.