Title: Theatre in Vienna : a critical history, 1776-1995 /
Authors: Yates, W. E.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Theater Austria Vienna History
Abstract: This is the first general history in English of theatre in Vienna, the one German-speaking city which, in the eighteenth century and for most of the nineteenth, sustained a theatrical life comparable to that of Paris or London. The book covers this theatrical culture from the beginnings of modern theatre in 1776 to the present day, relating it to social, political and intellectual history. It focuses primarily on the most important and productive theatres: the Burgtheater of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and the commercial theatres that housed Viennese dialect comedy and operetta. Particular emphasis is placed on the dramatists and composers from whom the lasting importance of the theatres chiefly derives, and on the ideological pressures reflected in the repertory, in censorship (to which one chapter is devoted), and in press reception. The book draws on original documents including diaries, memoirs and reviews, and is accessible to general readers as well as specialists.
Contents: 1. The establishment of the "city of theatre": 1. The two theatres in the centre ; 2. Enlightenment reform ; 3. The first commercial theatres -- 2. Censorship: 1. Censorship until 1848 ; 2. Censorship after the 1848 Revolution -- 3. The "old" Burgtheater: 1. From Pálffy to Schreyvogel ; 2. The Laube era ; 3. The last years in the "Old" Burgtheater -- 4. Commercial theatres in "Old Vienna": 1. Three "popular theatres" ; 2. Karl Carl ; 3. The cultural climate and working environment ; 4. The debate about "popular drama" ; 5. Pokorny, Treumann, and the decline of dialect comedy -- 5. Opera and operetta: 1. Opera and ballet in the Biedermeier period ; 2. The rise of operetta -- 6. The late nineteenth century: new foundations: 1. The Wiener Stadttheater ; 2. Nationalist sentiment: the Deutsches Volkstheater and the Raimundtheater ; 3. The Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater -- 7. Modernism at the end of the monarchy: 1. Modern drama ; 2. Opera and operetta -- 8. 1918-1945: 1. Economic depression ; 2. The art of the twenties ; 3. Austro-Fascism and Anschluss -- 9. The Second Republic: 1. Postwar rebuilding ; 2. The present.