Hofmannsthal, Hugo von

Hofmannsthal, Hugo von (1874–1929), Austrian poet and dramatist, who as a young man was in the forefront of the reaction against naturalism. His early verse-plays, of which Der Tor und der Tod (Death and the Fool) was produced at Munich in 1898, reveal his delight in beauty and in poetic and mystical intuitions, but in his later plays his exquisite poetry was diluted in an effort to enhance the dramatic content of his dialogue and relate his characters to a social framework. He turned to subjects which were obviously theatrical, and his first success in the theatre came with Elektra (1903), produced in Berlin by Reinhardt, who directed most of his plays. It was followed by Ödipus und die Sphinx (1905), König Ödipus (1907), and Alkestis (1909). Also to this period belongs the first of his adaptations, which in his hands became almost new plays—Das gerettete Venedig (1905), based on Otway's Venice Preserv'd, produced with sets by Gordon Craig. In 1911 Hofmannsthal produced what is perhaps his best known play, Jedermann, based on the old Dutch morality play Elckerlyc (Everyman) and incorporating some elements from Hans Sachs. After its first production in Berlin it was transferred to the Salzburg Festival, founded in 1917 by Reinhardt and Hofmannsthal, and it has since been seen at all the festivals there, in an open-air setting in front of the Cathedral. For the festival in 1922 Hofmannsthal adapted Calderón's Elgran teatro del mundo as Das Salzburger grosse Welttheater. In two plays of the same period, set in and near Vienna, Der Schwierige (The Difficult Man, 1921) and Der Unbestechliche (The Incorruptible Man, 1923), Hofmannsthal reverted to the vein of comedy which had been apparent in Der Abenteurer und die Sängerin (The Adventurer and the Singer, 1898) and Cristinas Heimreise (Cristina's Journey Home, 1909). Both are pleas for marital fidelity as the natural and desirable sequel to the equally natural philanderings of immaturity, but Der Schwierige in particular stands out as a masterpiece, combining high comedy of subtle human relationships with irony and social satire. Hofmannsthal's last play was again based on Calderón, an adaptation, as Der Turm (1925), of La vida es sueño, which takes up once more the conflict between material power and spiritual integrity.

Hofmannsthal's plays are little known in the English-speaking world, where he is remembered mainly as the librettist of several of Richard Strauss's operas, including Elektra (1909), based on his play.