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Theater an der Wien
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The theatre was the brainchild of the
Vienna theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is otherwise best
known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera Die
Zauberflöte (1791). Schikaneder had been granted an imperial licence in 1786
to build a new theatre, but it was only in 1798 that he felt ready to act on
this authorization. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger;
construction was completed in 1801. The theater opened on June 13 of that
year with a prologue written by Schikaneder, followed by a performance of
the opera "Alexander" by Alexander Teyber. According to the New Grove, it
was "the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age."
Although "Wien" is German for "Vienna", the "Wien" in the name of the
theatre is actually the name of the Wien River (Wienfluss), which once
flowed by the theater site; "an der Wien" means "on the banks of the Wien".
Today the river is covered over in this location, and the spot houses the
Naschmarkt, an open-air market. |
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The Theater an der Wien was designed
in Empire style. 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. 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. The theatre experienced a golden age
during the flourishing of Viennese operetta, and 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 an der Wien 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
have had their German premieres there. In 1992, the musical Elisabeth (about
Franz Joseph's wife, Elisabeth of Bavaria aka Sissi), premiered there.
Text Source: Wikipedia
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