Vienna

Vienna, capital up to 1918 of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and until the mid-19th century the focal point of the German-speaking theatre. Its theatrical history begins at the end of the 15th century, when the humanists encouraged their students at the university to perform the works of Plautus and Terence as well as new plays in Latin. By the mid-16th century plays in the vernacular were incorporating elements of indigenous folk-comedy which were to be important later, but these had for a time to give way to the splendours of Jesuit drama. The influence of the English Comedians, who first appeared in the neighbourhood in 1608, combined with indigenous drama to give rise to the Haupt-und Staatsaktion, with its heroic background and its all-pervading Hanswurst, who with his companions under Stranitzky occupied in 1711 the Kärntnertor, the first permanent theatre building in Vienna. The Altwiener Volkstheater, or Folk-theatre of Old Vienna, reigned supreme. In 1776, however, the Emperor Josef II made the Burgtheater, built in 1741 in the Imperial palace, the home of serious drama in German, banishing the light-hearted comedies with their songs and dances to the remote suburbs. His reforms were ably implemented by the Austrian Josef von Sonnenfels (1733–1817), the theatre's Director from 1776, an exponent of ‘regular drama’ in the manner of Gottsched. The Burgtheater's pre-eminence was established by Josef Schreyvogel (1768–1832), who took over in 1814 and built up a repertory which included not only the classical plays of Europe and the works of Goethe and Schiller but also the first plays of Grillparzer and such lighter fare as Kotzebue. He recruited from many parts of the German-speaking theatre a company of distinction with a polished but natural diction, the Viennese parlando. Meanwhile, contrary to all expectations, the old folk-comedy flourished in the suburbs, at the Leopoldstädter Theater (1781), the Josefstädter Theater (1788), and the Theater an der Wien (1801), the first manager of the last being Mozart's librettist Emanuel Schikaneder. Two comic characters typify this last phase of the old extempore farce—Kasperle and Thaddädl. Their brief but glorious reign gave way in the later 19th century to the unique mixture of farce, fairy-tale magic, and parody which culminated in the great but practically untranslatable plays of Raimund and Nestroy and finally disappeared in the vogue for Viennese operettas. The Burgtheater, after a period of decline following the departure of Schreyvogel, was revivified by the German playwright Heinrich Laube (1806–84), its Director from 1849, who retained the European classics in the repertoire if they had a contemporary appeal, but also introduced the well-made plays of France, partly because they were such admirable vehicles for the Burgtheater's intimate casual style. Its world-famous acoustics had been reinforced by the introduction of the box-set, which Laube pioneered in the German-speaking theatre. By the time of his retirement in 1867 pre-eminence had passed to Berlin. In 1888 the Burgtheater company moved to a new theatre which, destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1955, still stands on the Ring facing the Town Hall. With the founding of the Austrian Republic in 1918, responsibility for the Burgtheater passed from the Court to the state. Heavily subsidized, it is now too unwieldy for one man to influence creatively, and its somewhat conservative repertory absorbs the theatre of the avant-garde only when it has become established. But its brilliant company, in beautifully set and costumed productions directed by outstanding men of the theatre, still makes it one of the great theatres of Europe. Of the other Vienna theatres, the Leopoldstädter, rebuilt in 1847, was demolished in 1945; the Josefstädter has a widely based repertory in which the tradition of fine acting in an intimate style, initiated by Reinhardt when he took over in 1924, still survives; the Theater an der Wien is mainly notable for its operettas and musical shows. The Volkstheater, which presents classical and modern plays with a political flavour, was reconstituted from the earlier Deutsches Volkstheater in 1948. There are also the Raimundtheater, built in 1893 for folk-plays; the Akademietheater, seating about 500, opened in 1922; the Kammerspiele, the home of light comedy; and a number of experimental ‘cellar’ theatres. In summer the finely preserved rococo theatre in the Schönbrunn Palace, built in 1747, offers a season of plays mainly for visitors.