5. A Book on Viennese Theater Life

Nationale Blätter 1889, Volume II, 9

We have repeatedly pointed out the decline of theater life in our imperial city in these pages. We have shown that stage managers and critics are losing their understanding and audiences are losing their receptiveness to artistic value, and that there is now only a need for light merchandise, sensational plays and frivolous entertainment. Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's book "Das Wiener Theaterleben", recently published by Otto Spamer in Leipzig, deals with this subject in detail. The book wants to protest against the development that our theater life has taken in recent years; it wants to gain clues for a cure by objectively examining the mistakes that have been made. The book must be described as a manly deed, which shows on every page that its author, who has been dealing with the relevant circumstances for years, is deeply serious about artistic life. We find the current situation characterized with sharp words: "The Burgtheater is facing the bureaucratic adventure of a Burckhard management, the Deutsches Volkstheater has become a source of income without artistic character, the Theater an der Wien and the Carl-Theater have yet to regain their lost balance. The lack of historical sense, the disregard for tradition, weighs like a curse on our theater life, and it is one of the noblest tasks of this writing to bring out the historical sense in Viennese artistic life, to demonstrate the value of tradition." What Müller-Guttenbrunn means by this "historical sense" needs to be explained. As a rule, a theater was created with a very specific task, it served a limited field of art. Only in this way could it employ truly remarkable artists and achieve good things. The wider the circle it draws for its artistic achievements, the more artists it needs; it will then have to let them go idle a lot, which is only conceivable with mediocre forces. Only if an art institute remains true to its original purpose, if it does not go beyond the circle it has drawn for itself in order to compete with other theaters, only then will it continue to be a need for the public. But if tradition is put on the back burner and all theaters begin to compete with each other in the same tasks, then they are all working towards their ruin. The Carl Theater, for example, was unable to thrive because it did not stick to its original task, the Parisian Schwank, but wanted to compete with the Stadttheater and the Wiedener Theater; the Wiedener Theater, which had grown up as an operetta theater, was competing with the others, and recently even with the Volkstheater. It is also wrong of our court theaters to engage in the performance of plays that they should leave to the private theaters. The Burgtheater performs French sensational dramas that only belong in the Carl Theater, and Müller-Guttenbrunn aptly remarks of the Court Opera: "Today the Court Opera has the same absorbing power as the Burgtheater, and just as here the cultivation of great poetry often has to give way to the cultivation of Parisian box-office magnets, so in the Court Opera everything often takes a back seat to the modern ballet. "Excelsior, "Wiener Walzer", "Die Puppenfee", "Sonne und Erder" dominate entire seasons, and recently, the opera has also taken up a larger part of the annual schedule, and even an old operetta by Suppe (the opera "Das Pensionav") has been attempted."

What Müller-Guttenbrunn demands is a strict division of the theaters' performances, whereby the two court theatres should take advantage of their more favorable financial situation by focusing exclusively on artistic tasks. The author sharply criticizes the fact that the awareness of this duty has almost completely disappeared from the management of these court theatres. He says: "In the Vienna Court Opera House there is room for Bachrich, Pfeffer, Hager and Robert Fuchs and none - but no, we don't want to mention the relegated ones." And he is equally eloquent about the performances themselves: "The emphasis is on external splendor, on pomp, and the audience has been so spoiled by this that the Court Opera is today the absolute and sole ruler of the Imperial City's stage productions. One of the most insubstantial and crass masterpieces of contemporary opera, the "Vasall von Szigeth", dominates the 1889/90 season as a novelty; the magnificent set bears the vain, almost incomprehensible libretto.... " "And it must be described as a barbaric phenomenon that the one-act ballets, equipped with all their splendor, have exerted such a devastating influence on our opera audiences that entire operas, even "Fidelio", are performed in front of half-empty houses, because one only comes into the house for the "appendix", for the "train piece" of the evening!" Müller-Guttenbrunn's words about the personnel of the Court Opera are also worth taking to heart: "In general, the artists of the Vienna Court Opera stand high. Its orchestra is unique in the world, and its vocal forces are constantly renewed from the best voices in Europe... Despite all this, the shortcomings in the personnel of the Vienna Court Opera cannot be concealed. We currently lack a poetic first baritone, we completely lack a master of colorful singing. They let Miss Bianca Bianchi go, made the miserable experiment with Broch and now committed themselves to Miss Abendroth. But this singer is to the Court Opera exactly what Miss Swoboda is to the Burgtheater - she is completely immature, she belongs in the conservatory. There is also a lack of a successor for Ms. Materna, and this is almost more necessary than the one for Ms. Wolter at the Burgtheater... Our busiest tenor, Mr. Georg Müller, is also singing at the end of his career; our Buffo Mayerhofer has passed this end; he has been singing without a voice for ten years. If you want to see our opera at its peak, just listen to a performance of "Lohengrin"; if you want to get to know it at its lowest point, listen to "Lucia", sung by Mr. Müller and Mr. Horwitz and Miss Abendroth. Mr. van Dyk joined us with high hopes; but in a year and a half he has only managed three roles." We have quoted these judgments of Müller-Guttenbrunn about the Court Opera in greater detail because they prove to us that the general decline of the arts has not spared this institution either, and because it is precisely this chapter of the book in question that seems to us to have been most carefully worked out. Here the author delves much deeper into the subject than in the other sections. I am reluctant to censure, but least of all do I like having to criticize a book that undoubtedly has great merits. But there is a fundamental flaw that will make the effect that the book should otherwise have impossible. This is very regrettable.

This shortcoming is particularly evident in the chapter on the Burgtheater. The treatment remains an external one. The author's point of view is more commercial than purely aesthetic. We do not wish to dispute the justification of the former, but the latter should also be given due consideration. In a book about Viennese theater life, we would also have expected an assessment of Viennese dramatic art. For the general decline of theater life is largely due to the development of acting itself. Our Viennese dramatic art has two living role models: Sonnenthal and the Wolters. Both are important in their own way and can be enchanting, but both are dangerous to their imitators. Both Sonnenthal and the Wolters have major flaws, but these are completely drowned out by their natural artificiality. In their imitators they are magnified and can even produce the absurdity of all theatrical art. Sonnenthal is a great actor, but he plays in a mannered way, he does not play the man, but the actor. That is why Sonnenthal is at his greatest when he has to portray people who are already playing comedy in life. Sonnenthal's mannerism, however, is borne by the artist, which is why, with him, the rationally contrived gesture ceases to be such a gesture. One forgets that so much about this artist is "made". But where Sonnenthal's counter-art, the mannerism with all its faults, comes to light, that is with Robert. This actor lacks artistic soul, every note, every move is "studied", he is an acting technician without actually being an artist. And we notice this flaw in almost all the younger artists at our Burgtheater. They do not know how to free themselves from Sonnenthal's school. We therefore wish the theater a director who would have the courage to form his own opinion of Sonnenthal and be to the younger artists what Sonnenthal can never become to them. At the same time, we have drawn attention to one of the most significant downsides of Sonnenthal's possible directorship. As far as the female forces at the Burgtheater are concerned, we notice far too much of Wolter's influence in them. Wolter is certainly an incomparable artist. But what is great about her cannot be imitated, and what can be imitated is contrary to art. Wolter speaks magnificently; the sound of her voice alone elevates the role to an ideal realm. But she speaks in a manner contrary to the language, incorrectly. Wolter plays with idealistic verve, but she achieves this through means which, considered in themselves, make a mockery of any aesthetic judgment. We would like to say this especially with regard to Miss Barsescu, who should not spoil her great talent by imitating Wolter. In this direction, we definitely missed Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's critical eye.

We were particularly interested in the part of the book that deals with the Deutsches Volkstheater. After all, this institution must have been particularly close to the heart of the author, who had a great deal to do with its creation. He remarks very aptly: "The faulty, completely inadequate management of the Deutsches Volkstheater, which has enjoyed the warmest participation of the Viennese public for six months and has become a 'goldmine' for Mr. Geiringer, can be proven in all directions. The staffing level is still unworthy of a Viennese theater. It lacks a first lover, a heroic father, a heroine, a naïf, a soubrette. The salon lady is an unknown entity on this stage, the role of a Second Lover is in the hands of a chargen player. There is no director or dramaturge." Müiller-Guttenbrunn also finds the repertoire completely inadequate. "More than thirty performances of "The Marriage of Valeni", twenty-three performances of "The Famous Wife" and just as many of "Schönthan's Last Word" describe the situation here. Eighty days for Schönthan and Ganghofer-Brociner, one hundred for the rest of the literature - who's laughing?" We are in complete agreement with all of this, but we cannot suppress one thing. We would have expected Adam Müiller-Guttenbrunn, after the performance of the "Marriage of Valeni", a disgraceful play whose performance was a downright sacrilege on account of its crude power and its crude views, to have simply said: This play must disappear from the repertoire. Perhaps it would have been possible to considerably reduce the "more than thirty performances" that he now criticized. Instead, he pampered the play in an entire feature article in the way we have already discussed in these pages. So what we actually wanted from the book was only partially fulfilled, albeit to an extraordinary degree for this part. But what could have given it the impressive position that we would have wished it to have: to force the leading circles to reflect, that is what it lacks. It would have been an emphasis on the artistic-aesthetic point of view, which would have revealed that the author is at the height of the contemporary view of art and therefore has the full right to judge the relevant questions. As it now stands, it may not even be able to prevent the most pernicious thing that threatens Vienna and its art: the Burckhard directorate.