Dr.- Karl- Lueger Ring 2, A- 1014
Tel. 01- 5144 42613
Subway: Schottentor
Trolley: 1, 2, D
Open: for performances
Closed: Good Friday, Dec 24; Jul & Aug (exceptions for guided tours)
The Burgtheater in Vienna is an Austrian federal
theatre. It is considered one of the most important stages in Europe
and is the second oldest European and the largest German-language
spoken theatre after the Comédie-Française. The old Burgtheater was
located on Michaelerplatz from 1748. In October 1888, the new
building was opened on today's Universitätsring (then Franzensring).
After it had completely burned out in 1945 as a result of a bombing
attack, the Ronacher served as a temporary shelter until it was
reopened on October 14, 1955. The Burgtheater is considered the
Austrian National Theatre.
Older names of the Burgtheater
were k.k. Theater next to the castle and then until 1918 k.k.
Hof-Burgtheater. Especially in Vienna it is often called "The
Castle" for short, the ensemble members are known as "castle
actors". According to the number of employees and budget, it is the
"richest and largest repertory theater in the world". Martin Kušej
has been the director of the Burgtheater since September 2019.
The original Burgtheater was set up in a ball house
that the Romano-German king and later Emperor Ferdinand I had built in
1540 in the lower pleasure garden of the Hofburg, after the old ball
house had fallen victim to a fire in 1525. Until the beginning of the
18th century, the Jeu de Paume, a precursor of tennis, was played there.
On 14. Finally, in March 1741, Empress Maria Theresa, who had ordered a
general theatre closure after the death of her father, granted
permission to the "entrepreneur of the royal court operas" and tenant of
the theatre built in 1708 at the Carinthian Gate, Joseph Karl Selliers,
to convert the ballhaus into a theatre. At the same time, a new ballhaus
was built on the corner of Schauflergasse / today's Bruno-Kreisky-Gasse,
which gave its name to today's Ballhausplatz.
On May 14, 1748,
the newly designed theater next to the castle was opened with Gluck's
opera Semiramide riconosciuta. in 1756, major reconstruction works were
carried out, with a new rear wall being built, among other things. The
auditorium of the old Burgtheater was still a pure wooden structure and
accommodated about 1200 guests. The imperial family was able to reach
their court directly from the imperial chambers, with which the
Burgtheater was structurally connected. Several works by Christoph
Willibald Gluck, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz
Grillparzer were premiered at the alte Spielstätte am Michaelerplatz.
On February 17, 1776, Emperor Joseph II declared the theater the
Teutscher Nationaltheater. It was also he who ordered by decree that the
plays should not deal with sad events, so as not to put the imperial
spectators in a bad mood. Therefore, many pieces had to be changed and
provided with a "Wiener Schluss" (happy ending), for example Romeo and
Juliet or Hamlet. From 1794 the theatre bore the name K.K. Hoftheater
nächst der Burg.
in 1798, the poet August von Kotzebue was
appointed head of the Burgtheater, but after quarrels with the actors,
he left Vienna in 1799. Under director Joseph Schreyvogel, German was
introduced as a new stage language instead of French and Italian.
On October 12, 1888, the last performance took place in the old
house. The Burgtheater Ensemble moved to the new venue on the Ring. The
old Burgtheater had to give way to the completion of the Michaelertrakt
of the Hofburg. Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach had already drawn the
plans for this almost 200 years before the demolition of the old
Burgtheater. A faithful (but reduced) copy of the theater hall, built in
1817, is located in Oravita, Romania.
The "new" K.K. Hofburgtheater on the Ring opposite the
town hall is a building of historicism. It was opened on October 14,
1888 with Grillparzers Esther and Schillers Wallensteins Lager. It was
designed by Gottfried Semper (floor plan) and Karl Freiherr von
Hasenauer (facade), who had already jointly planned the Kaiserforum in
Vienna, in the forms of the Italian High Renaissance. In the original
plan of 1869, the Burgtheater was positioned in such a way that it would
have been directly connected to the new Kaiserforum. Due to the new
construction site opposite the new Vienna City Hall, the Hofburg was
connected to the new theater building by a tunnel that is now walled up,
so that the emperor and other court members could reach the performances
underground by carriage. The interior of the Burgtheater has a lavish
Baroque decoration. Construction work began on December 16, 1874 and
lasted for 14 years, during which the architectural duo quarreled.
Already in 1876, Semper retired to Rome due to health problems and had
Hasenauer realize his ideas alone, who, in the dispute of the
architects, had mainly advocated for a magnificently designed
Logentheater.
However, the well-known Viennese painter Gustav
Klimt, together with his brother Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch, created
the ceiling paintings in the two stairwells of the new theater in
1886-1888. The three took on this task after similar commissioned works
in the municipal theaters of Fiume and Karlovy Vary as well as in the
Bucharest National Theater. In the Feststiege on the side of the
Burgtheater facing the Café Landtmann (Archduke's Staircase) Gustav
Klimt recreated the artists of the Ancient Theater Taormina on Sicily,
in the stairwell on the "Volksgarten" side (Imperial Staircase, because
it was reserved for the emperor) the London Globe Theater and the final
scene from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". The imaginary Sick
Molières can be discovered above the entrance to the auditorium. In the
background, the painter immortalized himself in the company of his two
colleagues. Emperor Franz Joseph I. he liked the ceiling paintings so
much that he awarded the Golden Cross of Merit to the members of the
artist company of Klimt.
Externally, the new building resembles
the Dresden Semperoper, but even more so, due to the two transverse
wings with the magnificent staircases, which are quite atypical for
theater buildings, Semper's unfinished Munich project from the years
1865/1866 for a Richard Wagner Festival Hall over the Isar. The two
large-sized stairwells were to form an architectural counterpart to the
broad facade of the new town hall. Above the central wing there is a
loggia, which is framed by two side wings and is divided from a stage
house with a gable roof and a spectator house with a tent roof. Above
the central house, a statue of Apollo adorns the facade, perched between
the muses of drama and tragedy. Above the main entrances there are
friezes with Bacchus and Ariadne. On the exterior facade, portrait busts
of the poets Calderon, Shakespeare, Molière, Schiller, Goethe, Lessing,
Halm, Grillparzer and Hebbel can be seen all around. The masks, which
can also be seen here, point to the ancient theater, in addition,
allegorical representations adorn the side wings: love, hatred,
humility, desire for domination, egoism and heroism. Although the
theatre has been called the Burgtheater since 1919, the old inscription
K.K. Hofburgtheater still exists above the main entrance. Some pictures
of the old portrait gallery were hung in the new building and can still
be seen today – however, these pictures were originally smaller, they
had to be "extended" to make them look better in the high room. The
places of these "additions" are visible as fine lines on the canvas.
The Burgtheater was initially well received by the Viennese due to
its magnificent appearance and technical innovations such as electric
lighting, but soon criticism of the poor acoustics was voiced. in 1897,
a reconstruction of the auditorium was carried out in order to alleviate
the acoustic problems. The new theater became an important meeting place
for social life and soon became one of the "sanctuaries" of the
Viennese. In November 1918, the supervision of the theater passed from
the master of the Imperial court to the new state of German Austria.
In 1922/1923 the Akademietheater was opened as a Kammerspielbühne of
the Burgtheater. On May 8, 1925, the Burgtheater entered the Austrian
criminal chronicle, when Mentsha Karnicheva committed a revolver
assassination on Todor Panitza here.
National Socialist ideas also left their mark on the
history of the Burgtheater. in 1939, the strongly anti-Semitic book by
the theatre scholar Heinz Kindermann, Das Burgtheater, was published by
Adolf Luser Verlag. Heritage and mission of a national theater. In this
he analyzed, among other things, the "Jewish influence" on the
Burgtheater. On October 14, 1938, for the 50th anniversary of the
opening of the Burgtheater, a Don Carlos production by Karl-Heinz Stroux
was shown, which served the ideology of Hitler. The role of Marquis Posa
was played by the same Ewald Balser, who a year earlier in another Don
Carlos production (by Heinz Hilpert) at the Deutsches Theater in the
same role railed against Joseph Goebbels' lodge with the phrase: "Give
freedom of thought!“. The actor and director Lothar Müthel, who was
director of the Burgtheater between 1939 and 1945, staged the Merchant
of Venice in 1943, in which Werner Krauß portrayed the Jew Shylock
clearly anti-Semitic. The same director staged Lessing's parable Nathan
the Wise after the war. Adolf Hitler himself visited the Burgtheater
only once during the Nazi regime (in 1938), later he refused for fear of
an assassination attempt.
For the actors and theater employees
who were classified as "Jewish" under the Reich Citizenship Act of 1935,
a performance ban was soon imposed; they were put on leave, dismissed or
arrested. Between 1938 and 1945, the Burgtheater Ensemble did not offer
any significant resistance to the Nazi ideology, the schedule was
heavily censored, only a few actively joined the resistance, such as
Judith Holzmeister (then also engaged at the Volkstheater) or the actor
Fritz Lehmann. Many Jewish ensemble members were helped to emigrate; an
actor, Fritz Strassny, was murdered in a concentration camp.
In the summer of 1944, the Burgtheater also had to be closed due
to the ordered general theater closure. From April 1, 1945, when the
Red Army approached Vienna, a military unit was camped in the house,
part of it was used as a weapons warehouse. The house on the Ring
was damaged in a bombing raid and burned out completely on April 12,
1945. The auditorium and stage became unusable, only the steel
structure remained. The ceiling paintings and parts of the foyer
were almost undamaged.
The Soviet occupying power expected
the Viennese City Councilor for Culture Viktor Matejka to get
Vienna's cultural life back on track as soon as possible. The city
council therefore convened a meeting of all Viennese cultural
workers in the city hall for April 23 (a state government did not
yet exist). As a result of the discussions, eight cinemas and four
theatres resumed operation at the end of April 1945, including the
Burgtheater. The house took over the Ronacher establishment, which
was understood by many castle actors as an "exile", as a temporary
quarters (and remained there until 1955). This venue was chosen by
the newly appointed director Raoul Aslan, who was particularly
committed.
The first performance after the Second World War
was Sappho by Franz Grillparzer on 30 April 1945 in the 1943
production by Adolf Rott with Maria Eis in the title role. Other
productions from the Nazi era were also resumed. With Paul Hörbiger,
who was still in danger of his life as a Nazi prisoner a few days
before, Nestroy's play Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt was shown. The
Akademietheater could be played (the first performance was on 19.
April 1945 Hedda Gabler, a production by Rott from the year 1941)
and also in the Redoutensaal in the Hofburg performances took place.
Aslan had the Ronacher rebuilt in the summer because the stage was
too small for classical performances. On September 25, 1945,
Schiller's Virgin of Orleans could be played on the enlarged stage.
The first new productions are associated with the name of Lothar
Müthel: Jedermann and Nathan der Weise, in both of which Raoul Aslan
played the main role. The production of the merchant of Venice by
Müthel in Nazi times seemed to have sunk into oblivion. The audience
was very pleased with the return of Else Wohlgemuth, who was
expelled from the ensemble in 1938, to the stage. After seven years
of exile, she appeared in Klara Biharys Die andere Mutter at the
Akademietheater in December 1945. in 1951, the Burgtheater opened
its doors for the first time, but only the left side wing, where the
celebrations for the 175th anniversary of the theater took place.
in 1948, a competition was announced for the reconstruction:
Josef Gielen, who was the director at the time, first tended to
support Otto Niedermoser's ex aequo first-rate design, according to
which the house should have been converted into a modern rank
theater. Finally, however, he voted for the project of Michel
Engelhart, whose plan was more conservative, but also more
cost-effective. The character of the Logentheater was largely taken
into account and retained, but the central courtyard loft was
replaced by two tiers, and the acoustics, the weakness of the house,
were significantly improved by a new, sloping ceiling construction
in the auditorium.
On October 14, 1955, the restored Haus am
Ring was reopened under the new director Adolf Rott. On this
occasion, Mozart's A little night music was played. On October 15
and 16, the first performance followed (for reasons of space as a
double premiere) in the restored theater: König Ottokar's Glück und
Ende by Franz Grillparzer, staged by Adolf Rott. A few months after
the signing of the Austrian State Treaty, the choice of this piece,
which deals with the beginning of Habsburg rule in Austria and
Ottokar von Horneck's eulogy on Austria (... it's a good country, /
Probably worth a prince to subdue his! / Where have you seen the
like before? ...), extremely symbolic. Under Rott and his successors
Ernst Haeusserman and Gerhard Klingenberg, the classical Burgtheater
style and the "Burgtheater German" finally became trend-setting for
the German stages.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Burgtheater
(along with other well-known Viennese theaters) participated in the
so-called Brecht boycott.
Gerhard Klingenberg internationalized the Burgtheater, he invited
such eminent directors as Dieter Dorn, Peter Hall, Luca Ronconi, Giorgio
Strehler, Roberto Guicciardini and Otomar Krejča. Klingenberg also made
possible the Burg debuts of Claus Peymann and Thomas Bernhard (1974
premiere of Die Jagdgesellschaft). Bernhard was in talks to succeed
Klingenberg, but Achim Benning was eventually appointed, to which the
writer replied with the text Die theatralische Bruchbude auf dem Ring
(How I was to become Burgtheaterdirektor).
Benning, the first
ensemble representative of the Burgtheater to be appointed director
(from 1976 to 1986), continued Klingenberg's path of Europeanization by
other means. He brought directors such as Adolf Dresen, Manfred Wekwerth
and Thomas Langhoff to Vienna, looked to the then politically separated
East with performances of Václav Havel's plays and took more
consideration of the audience's taste.
Claus Peymann, director from 1986 to 1999, was brought to Vienna by
the short-term Minister of Education, Helmut Zilk, and further
modernisation of the programme and the staging styles took place. In
addition, Peymann was never embarrassed to make critical comments in
public; an attitude unusual for Burgtheater directors until then.
Therefore, he and his program met with rejection from parts of the
audience. The biggest Viennese theater scandal since 1945 occurred in
1988 with the premiere of Thomas Bernhard's drama Heldenplatz, which was
fiercely opposed by conservative politicians and zealots. The play deals
with Austria's coming to terms with the past and critically examines the
present – with attacks on the then ruling SPÖ. Together with Peymann,
Bernhard faced applause and boos on stage after the premiere.
Bernhard, who has a love-hate relationship with his home country,
forbade the performance of his plays in Austria by testament before his
death in 1989. Peymann, who had a difficult friendship with Bernhard
(see Bernhard's play Claus Peymann buys a pair of trousers and goes out
to eat with me), feared damage to the author's work if his plays were
not shown in his homeland, of all places. At first, it was at least
possible, with the permission of the executor Peter Fabjan – Bernhard's
half–brother - to continue the productions that were already in the
schedule of the Burgtheater. Shortly before the tenth anniversary of
Bernhard's death, the premiere director Peymann finally staged a new
production of the Bernhard play Before retiring. Since then, Bernhard's
plays have continued to be on the Burgtheater's schedule and are
regularly re-released.
in 1993 the rehearsal stage of the
Burgtheater in the Arsenal was opened (architect: Gustav Peichl). Since
1999, the Burgtheater has been operating as a Ges.M.B.H.
Klaus Bachler succeeded Peymann as director in 1999. He is a trained
actor, but mostly worked as a cultural manager (artistic director of the
Wiener Festwochen). Bachler brought the theatre to the fore as a
cultural event and engaged directors such as Luc Bondy, Andrea Breth,
Nicolas Brieger, Peter Zadek and Martin Kušej. He is accused of having
"not designed the castle, but only managed it" and of having
indiscriminately invited big names in the international theater business
to stage productions. "At the end of the Bachler era, the castle was not
fish, not meat".
Among the unusual "events" of the Bachler
Direction were the Orgien-Mysterien-Theater by Hermann Nitsch with the
performance 122. Aktion (2005), the recording of the MTV Unplugged
concert with the Toten Hosen for the music channel MTV (2005; available
under the title Only to visit), John Irving's reading at the Burgtheater
from his book Until I Find You (2006), The 431st animatographic
expedition by Christoph Schlingensief and a large event by him under the
title Area 7 - Sadochrist Matthäus - An Expedition by Christoph
Schlingensief (2006). Daniel Hoevels accidentally cut his throat in
Schiller's Maria Stuart (December 2008). Outpatient care was sufficient.
In October 2005, the Burgtheater celebrated the 50th anniversary of its
reopening with a gala evening and with the performance of Grillparzer's
König Ottokar's Glück und Ende in the production by Martin Kušej, which
had been performed with great success at the Salzburg Festival in August
2005. Michael Maertens (in the role of Rudolf von Habsburg) received the
Nestroy Theater Award as the best actor for his role in this play.
Leading actor Tobias Moretti was awarded the Gertrud Eysoldt Ring for
this role in 2006. Furthermore, there was an open day on October 16,
2005, at which the 82-minute film burg / privat. 82 miniatures by Sepp
Dreissinger was shown for the first time. The film contains one-minute
cinematic "stand portraits" of castle actors and guest actors who,
without saying a word, try to present themselves with the most natural
facial expression possible. Klaus Dermutz wrote a work on the history of
the Burgtheater. The motto of this season was a quote from Lessing's
Minna von Barnhelm: "It's so sad to be happy alone.“
The 2006
Mozart Year was also commemorated at the Burgtheater. Since Mozart's
Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail 1782 had been premiered at the
Hof-Burgtheater, a new production (directed by Karin Beier) of this
opera was staged for the Wiener Festwochen in May 2006 in cooperation
with the Vienna State Opera.
From September 2009 to March 11, 2014, Matthias Hartmann was the
artistic director of the Burgtheater. The director, who hails from
Osnabrück, previously headed the Schauspielhäuser Bochum and Zürich.
With him, directors such as Alvis Hermanis, Roland Schimmelpfennig,
David Bösch, Stefan Bachmann, Stefan Pucher, Michael Thalheimer and
actors such as Dörte Lyssewski, Katharina Lorenz, Sarah Viktoria Frick,
Mavie Hörbiger, Lucas Gregorowicz, August Diehl and Martin Wuttke came
to the castle. Matthias Hartmann himself staged around three premieres
per season, about once a year he staged at the major opera houses.
For more internationality and "cross-over" he was able to win the
Belgian artist Jan Lauwers and his Needcompany as artists in residence
for the castle, the New York group Nature Theater of Oklahoma show their
great episodic drama Live and Times as an annual sequel. For the new
appearance – the Burgtheater presented itself without a fixed logo with
puns about the CASTLE – the Burgtheater was awarded the Cultural Brand
of the Year in 2011.
Hartmann was able to increase the
utilization of the theater by 15 percent compared to the Bachler era
(comparison of the seasons 2008/09 and 2011/12). In the only four and a
half years of his tenure, the Burgtheater was invited to the Berlin
Theatertreffen seven times. Predecessor Klaus Bachler received nine
invitations in 10 years. However, Hartmann was also accused by the
writer Peter Truschner that, after the Bachler era, he had "certainly
not served the Burgtheater in his self-absorption and the
self-enrichment that came with it".
On behalf of Culture Minister
Josef Ostermayer, Hartmann was dismissed without notice by the
Bundestheater Holding on March 11, 2014, because legal opinions obtained
by the Minister found Hartmann's gross disregard for managing director
duties. The dismissal of Hartmann was preceded by the immediate
dismissal of the former commercial director of the company, Silvia
Stantejsky, on November 18, 2013. In connection with these events,
severe criticism was also leveled at the supervisory Board of the
Burgtheater and at holding Managing Director Georg Springer, who
subsequently retired. The allegations against Stantejsky and Hartmann
still occupy the courts in 2016.
The Burgtheater came to the media in the winter of 2013/2014, when
accounting irregularities led to the dismissal of the deputy of the
artistic director, Silvia Stantejsky. Auditors found inconsistencies in
a financial audit of the financial years responsible for Stantejsky as
commercial managing director, which cannot be clarified. Financial
problems of the Burgtheater have already come to the attention of the
public before: for example, the annual report for the 2011/2012 season
shows a non-cash annual deficit of 3.705 million euros and, as a
consequence, a capital reduction of the same amount.
Stanteysky's
dismissal without notice took place on November 18, 2013. On January 3,
2014, News magazine reported for the first time about the dismissal. On
January 9, the auditing company KPMG received the order for a forensic
examination of the suspicions against Stantejsky. In an interview with
ZiB 2 on January 22, Georg Springer, the managing Director of the
Bundestheater Holding, made serious allegations against Stantejsky: she
had built up a very intelligent shadow organization and set loose
actions. Six days later, in an interview with the radio station Ö1,
Stantejsky vigorously denied all allegations: both Dr. Springer and the
Supervisory Board are informed of all accounting decisions. In parallel,
nothing can happen at all.
On February 10, 2014, KPMG published
an interim report: this found clear indications of falsified evidence
and the pretense of false facts by Silvia Stantejsky. According to the
Supervisory Board of the Burgtheater, a balance sheet loss of probably
8.3 million euros is therefore to be expected for the year 2012/13. This
could be accompanied by additional tax payments of 5 million euros.
On February 24, the National Council faction NEOS submitted an
urgent question on the Burgtheater case, which included 72 questions. At
the same time, the (then still designated) Minister of Culture Josef
Ostermayer announced that he would request the Austrian Court of
Auditors to examine the financial management of the Burgtheater.
On February 27, 2014, it became known that an anonymous complaint
against Silvia Stantejsky had been received by the Corruption
Prosecutor's Office. On the same day, KPMG submitted the forensic
examination report. It says that the commercial management of Stantejsky
was managed in a very centralized manner and was run like a container
organization. Furthermore, there were suspicions of document, evidence
and balance sheet forgery, money laundering and infidelity.
In a
press interview from the previous day, Martin Wagner, senior partner of
KPMG, criticized Hartmann and Springer: it was easy to see from the
development of bank debt that the house is loss-prone. If you spend more
than you have, the debt increases. If there is still a balanced result,
common sense tells you that something does not fit together.
The
financial losses were estimated in the audit report at over 8 million
euros, in addition, according to media reports, there are about 5
million euros in additional tax payments. The losses had been concealed
by falsely posting revenues to the previous year and expenses to the
following year. The documents created for this would have required
Hartmann's signature, but this is missing on the booking documents.
Therefore, a "system error" for which he is responsible has been
discussed since the beginning of March 2014. On 10. In March, Hartmann
tried to leave his post dormant, but he was dismissed the following day
by Culture Minister Josef Ostermayer.
Hartmann himself claimed
that after 14 years without inflation compensation, with massively
increased personnel costs, the house would no longer have been operable
in accordance with the law. He had pointed out this circumstance several
times and also questioned the "Stantejsky system" at an early stage with
the owner, the Bundestheater Holding. However, even the involvement of
the Berlin theatre expert Peter F. Raddatz in 2011 did not encourage the
holding company to act.
Hartmann has taken legal action against
the dismissal. Through his lawyers, he declared the process illegal and
ineffective and is suing for almost two million euros. This sum is
calculated from the annual salaries for his directorial function until
the original end of the contract in the summer of 2019 and from fees for
his work as a director.
On 19 March 2014, Karin Bergmann was appointed interim director of
the Burgtheater by Josef Ostermayer. She was to hold this post until
August 30, 2016. In April 2014, it was announced that the then
Burgtheater director Klaus Bachler had transferred a total of 32,400
euros to Mrs. Bergmann as a tax-free "gift" in 2009. However, Bergmann
would not have complied with the official reporting obligation for
gifts. Bachler was already the artistic director of the Munich Opera in
2008/09, but he also received a full salary in Vienna, while his deputy
director Bergmann ran the business. Therefore, it was doubted that it
was actually a gift. An attestation by the independent lawyer Karl
Newole, commissioned by the magazine NEWS, of an "accidental aid
construction". The donation would have been "either a direct taxable fee
payment or some kind of indirect salary increase". The newspaper Die
Presse also reported that Bergmann's husband, the architect Luigi Blau,
received seven commissions from the Burgtheater without a tender in the
Bachler era. However, Bergmann did not approve of this process.
On October 24, 2014, Karin Bergmann was definitely appointed director of
the Burgtheater until 2019. There had been a finding process with a
total of 29 interested parties who had either applied or been
approached. According to Culture Minister Josef Ostermayer, there have
been detailed discussions with the two candidates of the proposal of the
Selection Committee. The Supervisory Board then unanimously approved the
Minister's proposal. For Bergmann, not only the proposal of the
selection committee, but also "her previous performance" in the interim
management spoke, said Ostermayer when presenting the decision to the
press.
Bergmann's schedule does not differ much from that of her
three predecessors, she presents classics and a contemporary schedule in
the Akademietheater and the other venues of the castle. She has hired a
number of new directors to the house. Already in its first season, the
Burgtheater was voted Theater of the Year by the trade magazine Theater
heute and two world premieres were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen:
The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz and the Unmarried by Ewald
Palmetshofer. The directors Georg Schmiedleitner (with the Last Days of
Humanity by Karl Kraus), Michael Thalheimer (with the Austrian premiere
of Elfriede Jelinek's Die Schutzbefohlenen) and Jette Steckel with a
radical reinterpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone were successful in their
previous directorship.
In 2016, the Burgtheater received 13 out
of 36 nominations of the Nestroy Theatre Award. Furthermore, two
nestroys were permanently awarded to artists who worked at the
Burgtheater: to the director Frank Castorf and the set designer Harald
B. Thor.
On 30 June 2017, it was announced that the director Martin Kušej,
director of the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel since 2011, will succeed
Karin Bergmann as Burgtheater Director at the beginning of the 2019/20
season.
From November 2020, the theater remained closed due to
the COVID-19 pandemic. After an exchange of the air conditioning and the
seating, the house was reopened in September 2021 with a ceremony in the
presence of the Federal President and the State Secretary of Culture,
the keynote address was given by Bachmann Prize winner Nava Ebrahimi.
Director Stefan Bachmann from the 2024/25 season
From the
beginning of the 2024/25 season, the Swiss theater director and artistic
director of the Cologne playhouse Stefan Bachmann is to take over the
direction.
The auditorium seats about 1,340 spectators (1,175 seats), making it
one of the largest theatres in Europe. The stage portal is 12 m wide and
9 m high at the highest point. The lacing floors and lighting bridges
are located at a height of 28 m. The stage area is around 780 m2, with a
width of 31 meters and a depth of about 25 meters – however, it can be
expanded by an extension in the cercle area. The stage itself is located
on the 1st floor of the theater building, for the actors there are two
entrances on each side of the stage. In the backstage area there is a
large elevator, which is 20 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep and is
therefore suitable for the transport of decorations, which may be very
wide and up to 3.5 meters high, but only just under 1.25 meters deep.
Larger curtain parts can only be transported tilted.
The stage
was rebuilt in 1954 by the Austrian company Waagner Biro, which also has
experience at other stage and opera houses. The main stage is equipped
with a rotary cylinder stage, which has a diameter of 21 m and four
depressions, which can be driven down to 8.8 m. It was built according
to the plans of Sepp Nordegg and is a total of 5 floors deep, so the
stage sets can be exchanged in the paternoster principle. The stage
renovation, which began in 1994, was completed in 2004, during which,
among other things, the old control system was replaced by a computer
control system. The revolving cylinder stage has two stage carriages and
four recesses, a revolving stage with a diameter of 21 meters and six
orchestra recesses, which can accommodate 70 musicians.
The Iron
Curtain of the Burgtheater weighs 16.8 tons. In the event of a fire, he
can separate the stage room from the auditorium within 28 seconds and
stop the flames for at least 20 minutes. After the great fire of the
Ringtheater, all Viennese theaters were obliged to provide the stages
with an iron curtain. The Burgtheater has its own company fire brigade.
Architecturally unique and patented is the complex air fountain, the
ventilation system of the theater, which starts under the round roof of
the air intake hut, simply called Schwammerl by the Viennese, on the
side of the Volksgarten. This system was designed by the air hygienist
Dr. Carl Böhm and the iron elements were executed according to the plans
of the engineering office Ignaz Gridl. The air is cleaned and tempered
by filters. The used air is drawn out of the auditorium from the room
into the open air through the brass grille of the crystal chandelier
wreath in the center of the hall ceiling. The bubble angel, a green
angel figure with a wind instrument, rotates the exhaust air opening
with the wind as a weather vane on the dome. This part of the
ventilation system is best viewed in the attic ("chandelier floor") and
on the domed roof of the theater.
There used to be showers and
toilets on the steep roof of the Burgtheater, which were built there
during the reconstruction of the theater after the Second World War, so
that the actors could sunbathe during the breaks between rehearsals.
However, this has been prohibited since 1977, and the facilities have
been removed again. A weather camera is installed on the roof, which
allows a view of the Ringstrasse during the TV program Wetterpanorama
Österreich.
The soufflers at the Burgtheater work with radio
technology, there is no longer a souffleur box.
Guided tours of
the house take place every day at 15 o'clock in German and on Fridays,
Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays also in English. During the
months of July and August, German and English guided tours take place on
all weekdays. In addition, guided tours on various topics such as Gustav
Klimt are also available on request.
The costume workshops are located in the 1st district, in the Hanuschhof, props and stage design workshops of the Burgtheater are located in the arsenal. They not only supply castle productions, but they also work on order for other Austrian and international stages. The workshops work in the form of a GmbH (Art for Art – Theaterservice GmbH). In addition, it is possible for private individuals to borrow costumes from the fund. The costumes and the props are carefully selected and elaborately made, usually only wigs made of real hair are used, the production of which can often take two to three weeks. A large warehouse for unused costumes is located on Montleartstraße in the 14th district.
The Akademietheater, built between 1911 and 1913 by the architects
Fellner and Helmer and Ludwig Baumann, has been the Burgtheater's second
venue since 1922. It has since been rebuilt and renovated in terms of
stage technology.
The casino on Schwarzenbergplatz in the Erzherzog
Ludwig Viktor Palace is regarded as a venue for contemporary pieces and
special projects. It was opened under Director Benning on April 26, 1981
as the 3rd room at Schwarzenbergplatz and has been played with
interruptions since then (see Lusterboden). The current name comes from
the Peymann directorate, which initially used the room only as a
rehearsal stage.
The vestibule is the studio stage of the Burgtheater
and is located under the Feststiege facing the Café Landtmann. The
vestibule was prepared for performances in the 1990s.
The Lusterboden
is a rehearsal stage located in the attic of the Burgtheater at a height
of 43 meters. This room in the attic has been around since 1955, it is
used, among other things, as a prop warehouse. From September 16, 1979,
he was also used again and again for performances (first as the 3rd Raum
– Lusterboden, later only Lusterboden), then replaced by the Raum am
Schwarzenbergplatz. When this was used again for rehearsals, Peymann
once again resorted to the Lusterboden as a performance venue, from 1986
to 1993 the Lusterboden functioned as a regular venue of the house.
Since 1993, the event law prohibits the public use of theater spaces
that are located higher than 8 meters above the street level. After all,
after the reopening of the room at Schwarzenbergplatz, the Lusterboden
was again used as a rehearsal stage, for which it is also currently
used.
An unusual venue was the production of The Anatomist by Klaus
Pohl with Ignaz Kirchner. It took place in the Anatomical Hall of the
Academy of Fine Arts on Schillerplatz (2005-2006).
The extraordinary
production of Albert Ostermaier's Last Call, Andrea Breth's first
collaboration with Martin Kušej's set designer, Martin Zehetgruber, was
performed on rehearsal stage 1 at the Arsenal in the 3rd district, which
was converted into a theatre space at short notice (2002). Three
performances of Christoph Schlingensief's last play Via Intolleranza II
took place on the same rehearsal stage in June 2010.
A special venue
was the festival stairs of the Burgtheater Christian Nickel's production
Die Wand based on the novel by Marlen Haushofer in December 2012.
Another rehearsal stage is located in Turnergasse in the 15th district.
The Burgtheater has always been in the spotlight for the Viennese. It
was always considered particularly noble to go "to the castle". Already
in the 19th century, the rumors and the scandals about the castle actors
were among the most popular topics of the Viennese. In the castle, the
different social strata (bourgeoisie and nobility) could meet, although
their places were strictly separated from each other. The castle actors
"connected" the two estates and thus enjoyed a particularly high social
status in Vienna (see Ban on curtains later).
The actress
Charlotte Wolter, for example, was celebrated almost hysterically, her
voice – the powerful Wolter scream - was legendary. Later, in the 1940s,
of course, the married couple Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger was
public favorite number 1. "Die Wessely" was liked to be imitated by the
ladies, her hairstyle, the "Wessely crown", made fashion. However, the
popularity of the two was also misused for propaganda purposes when they
campaigned for the completion of the Anschluss. The daughters of the
married couple, who later all became actors, often suffered from the
fame of their parents.
However, "The Castle" sometimes also got
into negative headlines. In the run-up to the premiere of Thomas
Bernhard's Heldenplatz in 1988, many Austrians felt offended in their
honor, which is why the large-scale action by Martin Humer, who dumped
cow manure in front of the Burgtheater, which was intended as a protest
against it, was liked by many. Many Viennese were also not very
impressed by Hermann Nitsch's performance in 2005.
Funerals of
famous castle actors are still a popular event, the Viennese love the
beautiful corpse. However, this characteristic of the Viennese was
caricatured on stage in the musical play Pompes Funèbres by Franz
Wittenbrink. Particularly big events were the funeral of Paul Hörbiger
in 1981 and the farewell of Josef Meinrad in 1996, to which thousands of
people from all over Austria came. Meinrad was so popular that the
square between the Burgtheater and the Volksgarten was named after him.
While nowadays other theaters often have to fight for survival, the
desire of the Viennese to go to the castle seems to be unbroken. The
occupancy rate of the house in the 2005/06 season was 84 percent with
313,000 visitors. The revenue target was exceeded by € 380,000, a total
of six million euros were raised.
A big topic of conversation for
the Viennese is always the appointment of a new artistic director –
usually the speculation about the person of the possible director begins
months before the decision, which is announced by the respective State
Secretary for Culture and the Media and usually provides further topic
for discussion for months.
In the main building of the theater
there are two companies that, although they do not belong to the
Burgtheater, have now become "institutions". The Leporello bookshop is
located on the left side of the entrance hall and, in addition to books,
also carries gift items from the Burgtheater as well as signed scene
photos. It usually opens one hour before the start of the performance
and stays open until the end of the performance. In the right, southern
wing of the theater is housed the noble restaurant Vestibül, which is an
architectural "reflection" of the venue of the same name in the left
wing of the building and is especially known for its wine offer. In the
restaurant, similar to Café Landtmann, actors and theatre people can
often be found before and after the performance.
The Burgtheater
can be seen on the reverse of the 50 schilling banknote from 1970. It is
also repeatedly the motif of Austrian coins and stamps.
The language spoken on the stage of the Burgtheater is referred to as "Burgtheater German" and is considered by many to be a particularly beautiful variant of the German language (which is common in the southern German-speaking area). This was actually an artistic language and served to enable the audience to understand the actors, who came from different regions of the German-speaking world, even under the not ideal acoustic circumstances of the Burgtheater. As a classic example of Burgtheater German, many call the stage language that Paula Wessely used.
Meanwhile, a large part of the actors and theater staff do not come from Austria, but from Germany or other countries; nevertheless, many castle actors are accepted by the Viennese as Viennese and revered as "their actors". The German Michael Heltau is one of the greatest Wienerlied performers, and Robert Meyer, who hails from the border area of Germany to Austria, is one of the most popular Nestroy performers. The Swiss Annemarie Düringer was just as much a favorite of the audience as the German Ignaz Kirchner, and the German-born Susi Nicoletti was considered the Austrian actress par excellence. The actors who were brought to Vienna by Claus Peymann and initially hostile, such as Gert Voss and Kirsten Dene, also soon became audience favorites. A good cast (sometimes with guest actors) can make it almost impossible to get tickets for a production. The names of the already mentioned Hörbigers and "der Wessely" acted like a magnet on the audience, practically everything was completely sold out where they performed. But even later there were and still are "long-running hits": for the Ottokar production with "the Orth", "the Maertens", "the Merkatz" and "the Moretti" or the Nathan with "the Brandauer" it was very difficult for months to buy tickets without a subscription. The contributions in the guestbook of the Burgtheater homepage testify that some productions have a real fan community. Nevertheless, it happens again and again that the more conservative castle visitors in a modern production loudly express their displeasure during the performance.
The special theatrical superstition, which is of course also
widespread elsewhere, is also to be found in the Burgtheater, where
tradition is particularly important, and the resulting customs and
rituals are always observed. Many actors even believe – with a certain
wink – that the house has a "house spirit".
There are strict
house rules, for example, those that regulate bowing. The order of
bowing prescribes who, when and with whom to bow, with special rules for
the premiere. One such rule is supposedly, for example, that all those
who play in the second act must bow, those who perform only in the first
act, of course, can also do it, but do not have to. At the premiere, as
a rule, all the participants bow, including the extras and child actors.
Sometimes different rules applied to special members of the ensemble,
for example, old Paul Hörbiger did not always have to bow down with the
others, because otherwise he would have missed his train.
The
so-called ban on curtains was an unwritten law that was observed for
almost 200 years. It goes back to a police theater order of August 19,
1798, which stipulated that only guests and debutants, but not ensemble
members, were allowed to bow to the curtain. The reason was the high
prestige of the actors, they were considered "actors of His Majesty" and
as such it would have been impossible for them to bow to the common
people. The ban on curtains, the abolition of which was repeatedly
discussed over time, which was also not fully complied with – for
example, in performances for children – and only applied to the main
building (i.e. never to the Academy Theater), was lifted by the then
Minister of Education Helmut Zilk at the beginning of the 1983/1984
season. The first premiere without a ban on curtains was Nestroy's Fear
of Hell in the production by Leopold Lindtberg.
The Burgtheater works in the repertoire system, that is, at least 30
plays are played alternately in each season. Every year there are about
25 to 30 premieres in the Burgtheater, Akademietheater and in the small
venues.
In the first decades, the repertoire of the Burgtheater,
that is, the scope of the plays performed, was very large. In some
cases, up to 160 different pieces could be seen per season in the Laube
directorate, and at the beginning of the 1918/1919 season there were 107
pieces. Some productions often stayed on the schedule for 10 years or
more, some even for decades, both in the old and in the new Burgtheater.
For this, they were shown no more than 4 to 6 times per season. Thus,
subscribers did not have to watch the same play too often, but were
faced with an exceptionally diverse variety. This system ended after the
First World War. Suddenly, only 20 pieces were available in the
repertoire of the 1919/20 season. When directing came to the fore and
productions became outdated more quickly due to changing fashions, plays
were scheduled at least as often per year as they used to be in 10 or 20
years.
The current program of the Burgtheater is announced on
posters and a red board to the left of the main entrance. In the past –
before Bachler's time – it was customary to hang the program on the
facade above the main entrance. The posters are printed every day with
the current line-up and hung up during the performance on the eve; they
also contain the names of the extras (always the current line-up in the
case of multiple line-ups).
After the Second World War, the
program booklets had a uniform appearance that applied to all federal
theaters: they were marked on the front side by a series of closely set,
brown, vertical lines, on the lower middle the name of the theater was
indicated in italics. The theater notes were inserted into the program
booklets. They were printed daily for the respective performances and
contained, among other things, information about the piece, author,
beginning, end and cast. After the advent of the program booklets, they
were inserted into them. This system was maintained until 1986. With the
beginning of the Peymann management, this system was gradually
abolished, the previously common frequent reshuffles had been replaced
by constant occupations over the years. Now the respective line-up was
printed in the program booklet. Any changes will be announced by
inserted, smaller notes ("In today's performance, N. N. plays the role
of XY").
In addition to (cultural) historical texts and
information about the work and the author since the direction of
Peymann, the program booklets mostly contained the entire text of the
performed piece, in which the changes, cuts and director's instructions
were marked. Occasionally, photos of the stage designs or models as well
as the costume figures were also printed.
Older program booklets
have a collective value and can be purchased at the Burgtheater on
special days (such as on the open day). In the Peymann Directorate, the
appearance of the program booklets was redesigned by Karl-Ernst
Herrmann. They were basically similar for the Burgtheater and the
Akademietheater and differed in the first years only by a different
color scheme (light gray for the Akademietheater, light beige for the
castle). Later, experiments were carried out with other colours and
different formats. Only the program booklet for André Heller's Sein und
Schein was completely different from the other program booklets and
contained illustrations by the artists involved in the equipment (Roy
Lichtenstein or Mimmo Paladino). Under Bachler's direction, the program
booklets were basically given individual designs and they usually
contain associative texts and images of the piece, only very rarely the
text of the piece. The posters and the program booklets of the
Burgtheater are produced in the agensketterl printing house in Mauerbach
(Lower Austria).
The repertory was the collection of the
documentation of the performances at the Burgtheater, which had been
made since 1821. The performances were entered in large books every day,
and at premieres the casts were entered. All the actors who later took
on a role in the respective play were supplemented. For productions that
were on the schedule before 1821 and were still being played, the casts
have been added since 1776. Those pieces that disappeared from the
schedule until 1821, on the other hand, were not taken into account.
Sources for this are theater and program notes or old theater magazines.
The management of the repertory was abandoned in 1958. They were
followed by the performance plates. They were created by the director's
office for each production of a play and contained the performance
dates, the casts and any reshoots.
In the annual report of the
Burgtheater you can find the exact cast and reshuffle lists, as well as
statistics on the utilization of the house for various productions.
In order to maintain direct contact with the audience, the
Burgtheater regularly organizes public audience talks – partly general
ones, where the audience gets the opportunity to ask the management
questions, partly special audience talks on individual productions,
which always take place after a performance, and where the audience can
meet the dramaturgy, the director and the actors. Matinées and readings
prepare important events, such as premieres, and entries in the
guestbook of the homepage are also answered.
From 1776 until the time after the First World War, there was no
subscription system in the current sense. There were the so-called trunk
seats in all parts of the auditorium. They were entitled to visit the
Burgtheater every day and to use a certain seat. Due to the regular
seats, the schedule had to be particularly varied. Often, more than 100
different works were shown in a single season. Popular plays could be
staged several times a year, sometimes for decades in the same
production. However, directing at that time played a significantly
subordinate role. In addition, in order to increase interest in the
performances, frequent reshuffles took place. The Burgtheater is
currently offering a similar system as part of the fixed subscription.
In addition to these full subscriptions, there were also
half-subscriptions (they entitled to visit on even or odd days) and
quarter-subscriptions (visit on every fourth day). Due to the radical
restriction of the repertoire, which was large in number until 1919/20,
this system became obsolete. From 25. In November 1919, the full
subscription on gallery seats was discontinued, as well as the quarter
subscription on parquet seats. The half-subscribers were deprived of the
right to visit for one day, which allowed more tickets to go on free
sale.
There are currently 30 different subscriptions and various
cycles (such as the cycle After the premiere). The optional subscription
entitles the holder to purchase tickets of a certain category at lower
prices even before the official advance booking starts. Many
performances are also offered in the youth subscription "Theater der
Jugend". There is a separate subscription for seniors, where a
performance is offered once a month, which starts earlier (at 16 or 17
o'clock). The fixed subscription entitles the holder to attend five
performances of his choice on a pre–determined day of the week (except
Saturday, you can choose any day) with a big discount - the subscription
holder has a fixed seat with this subscription.
Every 20th of the
month, advance ticket sales for the performances of the next month will
start, election subscription holders can reserve tickets already from
the 15th of the month. Guests from other federal states and from abroad
can also order tickets in writing or by fax. There are quotas for
teachers and young people, since January 2007 it is even possible to get
free tickets for whole school classes for certain performances with
subsequent conversation. One hour before the start of the performance,
you can buy remaining tickets at half price, and standing room tickets
are always withheld, which are also offered before the start of the
performance, but for very coveted performances, you can only buy one
standing room ticket per person at a time.
Theoretically, the
Burgtheater and its side stages will be performed every day from
mid-September to 30 June. Until the Bachler management, the Burgtheater
started its play operation every year on 1 September (after a two-month
summer break). In general, only Good Friday and Holy Evening are free of
performances, due to rehearsals it may happen that on some evenings
there is no performance on one or the other stage. These so-called
closing days for the all-day holding of stage, decoration and lighting
rehearsals in the Burgtheater and the Akademietheater were introduced
for the first time under the direction of Peymann and caused a lot of
controversy for a few years, some of which were held on the culture and
readers' letter pages of Austrian newspapers. Peymann was accused of
reducing the revenues of the Burgtheater by closing days.
In
February 2007, a great debate was triggered by the news that a fan mile
for the 13th European Football Championship was to be erected in June
2008 in front of the town hall - and thus also in front of the
Burgtheater - and the Burgtheater is calling for possible replacement
venues so that the performance is not impaired and no closing days are
required.
The Society of Friends of the Burgtheater is a public organization operating as a registered association, which was founded in 1956 by about 200 theater lovers and has its headquarters in Goethegasse in the 1st district of Vienna. Among the founders were also famous personalities such as Friedrich Heer and Clemens Holzmeister. Since then, the membership has increased to about 700 people. The company has its own theater contingent with fixed seats available for the first performance after each premiere at all the theater's venues. The association maintains intensive contact with the house and the actors. He organizes public meetings, readings, book presentations and information evenings for his members, and he also tries to appeal to the young audience by trying to hire popular young artists for these events. The society also supports the study of talented young actors at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and sometimes holds writing competitions.
In the imperial times, the actors enjoyed a high social rank and great prestige. They were mostly employed for life. Today, there are usually annual contracts for ensemble members. Since October 1971, the guidelines for the activities of the ensemble representation of the Burgtheater have been in place. A person of trust chosen by the ensemble has the right to speak to the management, among other things, about the line-ups and the planning of the programme. The current ensemble speaker is Philipp Hauß. The Burgtheater is basically a typical ensemble theater, most actors are bound by long-term contracts, guests come only for individual roles. At the same time, the Burgtheater has always thrived on outstanding actors who came to the Burgtheater for only one or a few roles and got involved with their personality.
Famous former ensemble members: Erich Aberle, Trude Ackermann, Rosa Albach-Retty, Wolf Albach-Retty, Ernst Anders, Raoul Aslan, Blanche Aubry, Erich Auer, Ewald Balser, Günther Georg Bauer, Bernhard Baumeister, Patrick O. Beck, Maria Becker, Klaus Behrendt, Ulrike Beimpold, Anne Bennent, Achim Benning, Joachim Bißmeier, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Monica Bleibtreu, Karl Blühm, Marcus Bluhm, Karl Böhm, Uwe Bohm, Otto Bolesch, Markus Boysen, Rolf Boysen, Viktor Braun, Marion Breckwoldt, Inge Brücklmeier, Traugott Buhre, Gandolf Buschbeck, Horst Caspar, Karim Chérif, Hansa Czypionka, Bruno Dallansky, Theodor Danegger, Ernst Deutsch, Max Devrient, Birgit Doll, Käthe Dorsch, Lona Dubois, Margarethe Dux, Thomas Egg, Hartmut Ehler, Heinz Ehrenfreund, Karl Eidlitz, Maria Eis, Christine Enghaus, Richard Eybner, Ulli Fessl, o. W. Fischer, Sebastian Fischer, Georg Filser, Peter Fitz, Ludwig Gabillon, Zerline Gabillon, Bruno Ganz, Wolfgang Gasser, Helma Gautier, Gerhard Geisler, Adrienne Gessner, Siegmund Giesecke, Alexander Girardi, Boy Gobert, Käthe Gold, Hugo Gottschlich, Fritz Grieb, Ingeborg Gruber, Karlheinz Hackl, Günther Haenel, Carla Hagen, Amalie Haizinger, Fritz Hakl, Konrad Adolf Hallenstein, Paul Hartmann, Heidemarie Hatheyer, Angelika Hauff, Wolfgang Hebenstreith, Urs Hefti, Fred Hennings, Jürgen Hentsch, Miguel Herz-Kestranek, Philipp Hochmair, Elisabeth Höbarth, Attila Hörbiger, Christiane Hörbiger, Paul Hörbiger, Frank Hoffmann, Paul Hoffmann, Stella von Hohenfels-Berger, Thomas Holtzmann, Judith Holzmeister, Gusti Huber, Wolfgang Hübsch, Manfred Inger, Helmut Janatsch, Antonie Janisch, Michael Janisch, Julia Janssen, Hanns Ernst Jäger, Gertraud Jesserer, Peter P. Jost, Curd Jürgens, Josef Kainz, Elisabeth Kallina, Lilly Karoly, Otto Kerry, Lisl Kinast, Pauline Knof, Inge Konradi, Willi Kowalj, Hilde Krahl, Friedrich Krastel, Josef Krastel, Tom Krinzinger, Ida Krottendorf, Karl Friedrich Krüger, Jutta Lampe, Pavel Landovský, Jenny Lattermann, Inge Leddihn, Fritz Lehmann, Lotte Ledl, Joseph Lewinsky, Florian Liewehr, Fred Liewehr, Hugo Lindinger, Robert Lindner, Theo Lingen, Paola Loew, Alfred Lohner, Else Ludwig, Sylvia Lukan, Ferdinand Maierhofer, Leslie Malton, Paulus Manker, Sigrid Marquardt, Johanna Matz, Josef Meinrad, Kurt Meisel, Peter Miklusz, Karl Wilhelm Meixner, Rudolf Melichar, Robert Meyer, Wolfgang Michael, Erna Michall, Karl Mittner, Nick Monu, Heinz Moog, Hans Moser, Ulrich Mühe, Hans Günther Müller, Fritz Muliar, Alfred Neugebauer, Dorothea Neff, Susi Nicoletti, Ruth Niehaus, Cornelius Obonya, Hanns Obonya, Joseph Offenbach, Max Ophüls, Elfriede Ott, Dorothea Parton, Karl Paryla , Romuald Pekny, Denis Petkovic, Max Pfeiler, Hedwig Pistorius, Erika Pluhar, Ernst Princz, Ulla Purr, Will Quadflieg, Charles Regnier, Emerich Reimers, Heinz Reincke, Ulrich Reinthaller, Veit Relin, Walther Reyer, Tonio Riedl, Hilde Rom, Hermann Romberg, Otto Rub, Albert Rueprecht, Heinz Rühmann, Johanna Sacco, Adele Sandrock, Johannes Schauer, Fritz Schediwy, Erich Schellow, Hannes Schiel, Aglaja Schmid, Otto Schmöle, Wenzel Scholz, Hermann Schöne, Peter Schratt, Liselotte Schreiner, Joseph Schreyvogel, Heinrich Schweiger, Alma Seidler, Julia von Sell, Albin Skoda, Stefan Skodler, Adolf von Sonnenthal, Edd Stavjanik, Sigfrit Steiner, Wolfgang Stendar, Lilly Stepanek, Lena Stolze, Peter Striebeck, Walter Stumvoll, Sonja Sutter, Michael Tellering, Johannes Terne, Hans Thimig, Helene Thimig, Hermann Thimig, Hugo Thimig, Curth Anatol Tichy, Jane Tilden, Lotte Tobisch, Heinz Trixner, Alexander Trojan, Eckart Uhlmann, Gertrud Ukena, Gert Voss, Hilde Wagener, Rudolf von Waldenfels, Martha Wallner, Brigitte Walzl, Peter Weck, Antje Weisgerber, Angelika Welzl, Oskar Werner, Paula Wessely, Rudolf Wessely, Josef Wichart, Jürgen Wilke, Heinz Woester, Gusti Wolf, Paul Wolf-Plottegg, Charlotte Wolter, Klausjürgen Wussow, Philipp Zeska, Eleonore Zetzsche, Eva Zilcher, Kurt Zips, Heinz Zuber.
Meriam Abbas, Therese Affolter, Susanne von Almassy, Axel von Ambesser, Leon Askin, Barbara Auer, Bibiana Beglau, Senta Berger, Josef Bierbichler, Hans Christian Blech, Pinkas Braun, Ella Büchi, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, Edith Clever, August Diehl, Ralf Dittrich, Karoline Eichhorn, Veronika Fitz, Cornelia Froboess, Tuncay Gary, Helmut Griem, Olivia Grigolli, Matthias Habich, Etienne Halsdorf, Corinna Harfouch, O. E. Hasse, Hannelore Hoger, Marianne Hoppe, Anatol Käbisch, Christine Kaufmann, Hermann Killmeyer, Klaus Kinski, Wolfram Koch, Jutta Lampe, Hermann Lause, Helmuth Lohner, Susanne Lothar, Eva Mattes, Sunnyi Melles, Kurt Meisel, Karl Merkatz, Bernhard Minetti, Tobias Moretti, Richard Münch, Dierk Prawdzik, Hans-Michael Rehberg, Martin Reinke, Hans Christian Rudolph, Ilse Ritter, Sophie Rois, Otto Sander, Maximilian Schell, Otto Schenk, Christoph Schlingensief, Walter Schmidinger, Robert Stadlober, Oliver Stokowski, Tilda Swinton, Franziska Tilden, Susanne Tremper, Ulrich Tukur, Angela Winkler, Ulrich Wildgruber, Werner Wölbern, Gisela Uhlen, Walker Wyatt, Hans Dieter Zeidler.
Honorary members are: Max Devrient 1922, Hugo Thimig 1922, Georg Reimers 1922, Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius 1922, Hedwig Bleibtreu 1924, Rosa Albach-Retty 1928, Tiny Senders 1929, Anton Wildgans 1932, Else Wohlgemuth 1935, Raoul Aslan 1946, Erhard Buschbeck 1949, Werner Krauß 1959, Alma Seidler 1960, Adolf Rott 1962, Franz Salmhofer 1963, Fred Hennings 1963, Ewald Balser 1963, Ernst Lothar 1963, Eduard Volters 1964, Hermann Thimig 1965, Paula Wessely 1967, Käthe Gold 1967, Ernst Haeusserman 1968, Fred Liewehr 1969, Attila Hörbiger 1971, Josef Meinrad 1973, Leopold Lindtberg 1974, Rudolf Steinboeck 1978, Heinz Moog 1978, Susi Nicoletti 1983, Erich Auer 1986, Gusti Wolf 1987, Fritz Muliar 1995, Wolfgang Gasser 1997, Judith Holzmeister 2000, Heinrich Schweiger 2000, Annemarie Düringer 2001, Michael Heltau 2003, Klaus Maria Brandauer 2008, Gerhard Blasche 2008 , Klaus Bachler 2009, Martin Schwab 2009, Gert Voss 2009, Sylvia Lukan 2010, Claus Peymann 2012, Elisabeth Orth 2014, Peter Simonischek 2019,[48] Karin Bergmann 2019,[49] Achim Benning, Gerhard Klingenberg, Albin Skoda.
Michael Heltau, Annemarie Düringer 2010, Gert Voss 2011, Claus Peymann 2012, Klaus Maria Brandauer 2013, Elisabeth Orth 2014, Karin Bergmann, Peter Simonischek 2019
In addition to the actors, about 300 Burgtheater employees work on
the success of the theater evenings. In the collective agreement, the
rights and obligations of theater employees (including, of course, those
of actors) are precisely regulated. An important point is that you are
not allowed to play longer than until 23 o'clock, which of course can be
a problem with longer performances, so an unusually early start time had
to be set for the performance of the sports piece. There are about fifty
billeteurs, but they are employed by another company. The post of night
fireman is considered a particularly important function. Johann Bugnar
has been responsible for the overall technical management since the
2009/2010 season. Ernst Meissl has been appointed Technical Director of
the Burgtheater; he is the successor of Heinz Filar, who in turn
succeeded Friedrich Schlanzar. In total (together with the employees of
the other companies, such as the costume workshops), about 600 people
support the work at all venues.
The work of a well-functioning
comparative series is also of great importance for the success of the
productions. There are no extras working at the Burgtheater – the
amateur actors are exclusively referred to as extras. The head of the
comparative series has been Wolfgang Janich since 1986, who himself
completed an acting education and also steps in in an emergency. In some
plays, even the chief inspector, Klaus von Schwerin, who used to work at
the Berlin Schaubühne for years, appears as an extra. The extras are
selected very carefully by multi-stage casting procedures, and even the
companions of the participating animals are called extras and paid for
the care of the animals. Claus Peymann wanted to abolish the supporting
series and fill the supporting roles with actors, but they refused.
Being a member of the ensemble of the Burgtheater is probably the
dream for many actors and is one of the highlights of the career in the
life of an artist on stage. The ensemble members of the Burgtheater are
additionally honoured for special achievements.
One form of
honour is the Burgtheater Ring (the Concordia). The ring was donated by
Jakob Lippowitz, the editor of the Neues Wiener Journal, and was awarded
annually between 1926 – the year of the 150th anniversary of the
founding of the Burgtheater - and 1934 to a member of the Burgtheater or
to a playwright for special merits. It was first awarded to Arthur
Schnitzler and Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius and in the following years it
was awarded to the playwrights Hermann Bahr, Gerhart Hauptmann, Karl
Schönherr, Ludwig Fulda as well as the actors Max Devrient, Georg
Reimers, Hedwig Bleibtreu and Else Wohlgemuth.
The Ring of Honour of
the Burgtheater has been awarded to members of the ensemble at irregular
intervals by the collegiate body of the Burgtheater since 1 October
1955. This award is proposed by the works council.
Honorary members
have been specially honored artists since 1922. The occasion at that
time was the fortieth anniversary of the stage of Max Devrient. Together
with him, Hugo Thimig, Georg Reimers and Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius were
appointed honorary members. The appointment was made in agreement with
the Federal Theatre Administration on a proposal from the Burgtheater
Directorate. These first appointments were followed by the official
guidelines in 1926, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the
Burgtheater. According to them, only very prominent, meritorious
ensemble members, and even these, are allowed to participate only after
many years of belonging to the House of this honor. The number of living
honorary members should not exceed one tenth of the total membership.
The title may not be used verbally or in writing if the bearers
participate in events that would be incompatible with the dignity of the
title, i.e. if they perform in operettas, varietés or cabarets, for
example. The names of the honorary members are carved in marble at the
foot of the festival steps on the Volksgarten side and recorded for
eternity. Special customs also apply to the funeral of honorary members.
The coffin of the deceased actor or actress is laid out on the festive
staircase and then carried once around the theater. Since October 20,
2010, the honorary members have also received a so-called. Honorary ring
of the management (not identical to the honorary ring of the
Burgtheater, which is awarded by the works Council) (until then a
certificate was presented to you). The first wearer of the ring is
Michael Heltau. The ring was designed by the jeweler Wagner and shows
the facade of the Burgtheater.
The doyen (currently Michael Heltau)
or the Doyenne (since 2015 Elisabeth Orth) of the Burgtheater remains
connected to the stage of the house for life, so enjoys an engagement
until death, that is, he or she cannot be retired. This honorary title
is given to two of the older honorary members of the house – usually the
longest–serving, who have already been members of the ensemble for the
longest time -, one lady and one gentleman each, who then have the task
of representing the house to the outside world. A prerequisite for this
award is that one must have previously been appointed chamber actress or
chamber actor. The award is passed on only after the death of its
bearer. The first doyenne of the Burgtheater was Christiane Weidner. For
many years, this function was held by Hedwig Bleibtreu (1868-1958) and
Rosa Albach-Retty, a member of a long-established acting family, which
also included her granddaughter Romy Schneider. She died in 1980 at the
age of 106. She was followed by Adrienne Gessner (deceased on 23. June
1987), from 1987 to 2000 Paula Wessely, the mother of Elisabeth Orth,
Christiane and Maresa Hörbiger, and finally from 2001 to 2014 Annemarie
Düringer. Among others, Fred Liewehr, Otto Tressler, Fred Hennings and
Karl Eidlitz were the doyen of the Burgtheater.
The Burgtheater
Gallery is a collection of artist portraits in the foyer, a kind of
"gallery of honor", some of which still comes from the old building on
Michaelerplatz. Since October 23, 2006, not only old paintings adorn the
walls. Contemporary artists portrayed some of today's audience favorites
in 2006: Christy Astuy immortalized Annemarie Düringer and Branko
Samarovski, Franz Graf drew Elisabeth Orth and Ignaz Kirchner,
photographer Ilse Haider photographed Andrea Clausen and Michael Heltau,
Josef Kern painted Karlheinz Hackl and Martin Schwab, Klaus Maria
Brandauer and Kirsten Dene were portrayed by Elke Krystufek. Kitty
Speiser and Gert Voss were depicted in specially created room
installations by Gregor Zivic. In 2008, this collection was expanded by
twelve works of art from the "Young Portrait Gallery". Petra Morzé and
Philipp Hochmair were photographed by Fabian Fink, Maria Hahnenkamp
photographed Regina Fritsch and Michael Maertens, Birgit Minichmayr and
Philipp Hauß were painted by Lucy McKenzie, Maja Vukoje portrayed Maria
Happel and Roland Koch, Gabi Trinkaus interpreted Johanna Wokalek and
Johannes Krisch and Erwin Wurm portrayed Dorothee Hartinger and Nicholas
Ofczarek.
At the suggestion of Burg Director Franz Herterich, Federal
President Michael Hainisch created the chamber title for performing and
performing artists in the field of music and performing arts in 1926.
Since that time there have been chamber actors and chamber singers in
Austria. The first Austrian chamber actors were Maria Mayen, Maria
Mayer, Raoul Aslan and Willi Thaller. They all received the title in the
anniversary year of 1926. In later years, the title was no longer
limited to members of the Burgtheater, but was, although rarely, also
awarded to those of the Theater in der Josefstadt and other Austrian
stages.
Every year there are productions for the Salzburg Festival and for
the Wiener Festwochen in co-production with the Burgtheater, for the
latter the castle and Academy theaters are also an important venue.
These productions are usually added to the repertoire after the festival
season.
Productions of the Burgtheater are regularly invited to
the Berliner Theatertreffen for other international theater festivals
and the castle is also welcome abroad in guest performances, especially
of course in the German-speaking countries, but also in other countries.
In recent decades, Burg productions have performed in Amsterdam,
Avignon, Berlin, Bogotá, Edinburgh, Merano, Moscow, Mülheim an der Ruhr,
Prague, Venice, Rome, Warsaw and Zagreb, among others. It is worth
noting major tours of Japan and the Soviet Union, as well as guest
performances in Israel and New York. Productions from major European
theatres are also often invited to the Burgtheater, such as the Thalia
Theater in Hamburg.
In summer, the Burgtheater serves as a venue
for the ImPulsTanz dance festival, which is now considered the largest
European dance event.
The Burgtheater was named Theatre of the
Year by the theatre magazine Theater heute in 2015 and 1995.
When Emperor Joseph II elevated the theatre next to the castle to the
status of a court and national theatre, he created the triple structure
of top management, administration and artistic direction, which has
essentially been preserved to this day. In the monarchy, the supreme
leadership was in the hands of the Obersthofmeisteramt or the
Oberstkämmerer Amt. The administration had changing titles, head of
theater or general director. In addition, the Burgtheater was leased for
several years, with the lessees dealing only with the highest authority,
but were independent in financial administration and personnel matters.
They were only responsible to the censorship for the selection of pieces
and the schedules. The artistic direction, in turn, was once in the
hands of a college of directors, then again it was entrusted to an
artistic secretary or an artistic director, but was also temporarily
exercised by the general director or by a college of actors.
According to the law of April 3, 1919, the so-called Habsburg Law, after
the end of the monarchy, the so-called royal property of the House of
Habsburg-Lorraine became the property of the Republic of Austria. This
also included the court theatres, i.e. the K. K. Hofburgtheater, the
Court Opera and the Schönbrunner Schlosstheater. This law became part of
the Federal Constitution in 1920.
On 21 May 1920, the Austrian
state government placed the "Austrian State Theatres" (as the official
name at the time was) under the jurisdiction of the State Office for
Home Affairs and Education. The State Theatre Administration was used as
the administrative authority. Here again a tripartite division began.
The highest management was with the Minister of Education, the
administration was with the State Theater Administration (later:
Bundestheaterverwaltung; briefly also: Generalintendanz; finally
Bundestheaterverband; today Bundestheater-Holding). The artistic
direction lay with the director (with differently regulated powers).
Until 1918 there was a ban, according to which actors of the
Burgtheater were forbidden to participate in films in any form. The
cinema was considered a threat to the survival of the acting stages, and
so they did not want to play into the hands of the film producers. A
relaxation of this situation began only from 1913 with the productions
of the theater director Max Reinhardt.
In 1936, Willi Forst made
the feature film Burgtheater, which tells of an aging Burgtheater actor
– portrayed by Werner Krauß – who falls in love again. The time of the
plot was in 1897, the characters – such as the "castle director" Franz
Herterich or the actor Friedrich Mitterer, embodied by Krauß – were
fictional characters, although the name Mitterer is an allusion to the
name of the once actually celebrated actor Friedrich Mitterwurzer. The
film presents productions from the last years of the 19th century.
Scenes from Don Carlos, Faust and Cabal and Love are re-enacted.
From 1956, the Ministry of Education financed a series of recordings of
plays by the Burgtheater. The recordings were to be shown in the cinema,
which is why a film director was commissioned with Alfred Stöger.
Interesting productions such as Wilhelm Tell (1956, with Ewald Balser as
"Tell" and Albin Skoda as "Gessler"), Ein Jux will he sich machen (1957,
with Josef Meinrad and Inge Konradi), Don Carlos (1960, with Walther
Reyer) and Der Bauer als Millionär (1961, again with Josef Meinrad) were
captured on film material. Nevertheless, the cinema performances
remained sparsely attended. Only one generation of schoolchildren was
forced to be happy with this.
In 1982, Elfriede Jelinek addressed
the period of the Nazi dictatorship in the history of the Burgtheater in
her play Burgtheater. The play was premiered in Bonn in 1982 and
premiered in Austria at the Graz Theater am Bahnhof and met with
controversial reviews because it painted a negative picture of the then
legendary ensemble members, such as Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger,
who are clearly recognizable in the main characters.
Thomas
Bernhard repeatedly dealt with the topic of Burgtheater in his works,
for example in his novel Holzfällen (1984) – where he lets a satiated
Burgtheater actor perform – or Alte Meister (1985), where individual
remarks oscillating between admiration and contempt apply to the
Burgtheater. He wrote three dramolettes in which Claus Peymann appears
in person, Claus Peymann leaves Bochum and goes to Vienna as a
Burgtheater director, Claus Peymann buys a pair of trousers and goes to
dinner with me and Claus Peymann and Hermann Beil on the Sulzwiese,
which were published in 1990.
The crime novel Böses Licht by
Ursula Poznanski, published in 2023, is partly set in the Burgtheater.
Today, the Burgtheater often serves as a popular backdrop for
television films. In the crime comedy Wiener Blut by Dirk Regel starring
Ottfried Fischer, a castle actor (portrayed by Markus Hering) is
murdered. The last twenty minutes of the Austrian children's film Die
drei Posträuber (directed by Andreas Prochaska), which was shot in 1998
based on a book by Christine Nöstlinger, play on stage and in the prop
warehouse of the Burgtheater.
The most interesting productions of the Burgtheater are recorded by the ORF and can be seen in its program, but also on 3sat or the ZDFTHEATER channel. The television director Peter Schönhofer makes theatrical films of a slightly different kind instead of just recordings. His two best-known are the adaptations of Don Carlos and King Ottokar's Happiness and End. The filming of his films lasts for several days and includes both regular performances and rehearsals, during which the camera crews have the opportunity to shoot scenes directly on the stage. The theatrical film is thus cut from several performances and also includes close-ups and scenes filmed on stage, which are not feasible with conventional live recordings. At the Berliner Theatertreffen 2005, Schönhofer's theatrical film was shown instead of the performance of Don Carlos, since no Berlin theater could meet the technical requirements required by the Burgtheater for the production of Andrea Breth. Some productions are also available on DVD when the piece is no longer played. From time to time, TV viewers can gain an insight behind the scenes through documentaries, as in the film by ORF presenter Erna Cuesta (2005), The Vienna Burgtheater - In front of and behind the scenes of a world stage.
The Burgtheater has a magazine, the vorspiel, which is published five times a year. It is distributed as a supplement to the daily newspaper Der Standard, but can be taken free of charge in the venues of the Burgtheater and in the larger box offices. On the homepage you will find every foreplay for download. The Deuticke Verlag regularly publishes books about important directors, actors and the theatre as edition burgtheater. A total of eight volumes have been published so far.
1771, June 2 - Armida by Antonio Salieri
1782, July 16 - The
Abduction from the Seraglio. Singspiel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(music) and Johann Gottlieb Stephanie (libretto)
1785, October 12 -
La grotta di Trofonio. by Antonio Salieri (music) and Giambattista Casti
(libretto)
1786, May 1 - Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (music) and Lorenzo Da Ponte (libretto)
1786, November 17 -
Una cosa rara. by Vicente Martín y Soler (music) and Lorenzo Da Ponte
(libretto)
1788, January 8 - Axur, re d'ormus. by Antonio Salieri
(music) and Lorenzo Da Ponte (libretto)
1789, December 11 - La Cifra
by Antonio Salieri
1790, January 26 - Così fan tutte by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (music) and Lorenzo Da Ponte (libretto)
1818, April 21
- Sappho by Franz Grillparzer
1821, March 26/27 - The Golden fleece
by Franz Grillparzer
1825, February 19 - King Ottokar's Happiness and
End by Franz Grillparzer
1831, April 3 - The Sea and the Waves of
Love by Franz Grillparzer
1834, October 4 - The Dream of a Life by
Franz Grillparzer
1838, March 6 - Woe to the one who lies! by Franz
Grillparzer
1849, April 19 - Herod and Mariamne by Friedrich Hebbel
1874, January 21 – Libussa by Franz Grillparzer
1889, April 25 -
Gyges and his Ring by Friedrich Hebbel
October 9, 1895 - Love Affair
by Arthur Schnitzler (with Adele Sandrock)
1899, March 1 - The Green
Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler
1902, November 29 - Der arme Heinrich
by Gerhart Hauptmann (Director: Hugo Thimig; with Josef Kainz, Lotte
Medelsky)
1913, October 16 - Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
1929, December 3 - Haunting by Gerhart Hauptmann:
The Black Mask
(Director: Hans Brahm; with Paul Hartmann, Else Wohlgemuth)
Witch
Ride. Ein Satyrspiel (Director: Hans Brahm; with Hans Marr, Albert
Heine)
1934, October 21 - The Rogue of Bergen by Carl Zuckmayer
1939, November 11 - Ulrich von Lichtenstein by Gerhart Hauptmann
(Director: Lothar Müthel; with Ewald Balser, Käthe Dorsch)
1943,
November 15 - Iphigenia in Aulis by Gerhart Hauptmann (Director: Lothar
Müthel; with Ewald Balser, Käthe Dorsch)
1952, March 8 - Herbert
Engelmann by Gerhart Hauptmann. Arranged by: Carl Zuckmayer (Burgtheater
im Akademietheater; Director: Berthold Viertel; with O. W. Fischer)
1974 - May 4: Die Jagdgesellschaft by Thomas Bernhard (directed by Claus
Peymann, set and costumes by Karl-Ernst Herrmann; with Judith
Holzmeister, Joachim Bißmeier, Werner Hinz, Rudolf Wessely; also TV
recordings for ORF)
1976 - March 31: Magnetic kisses by Wolfgang
Bauer (directed by Fritz Zecha; stage design Thomas Richter-Forgách,
costumes Alice-Maria Schlesinger; with Gertraud Jesserer, Wolfgang
Hübsch, Tom Krinzinger, Franz Morak, Ulli Fessl, Wolfgang Gasser,
Gabriele Buch, Bibiana Zeller)
1976 - June 26: The Famous Ones by
Thomas Bernhard (first at the Theater an der Wien, then at the
Akademietheater; directed by Peter Lotschak, stage design and costumes
Gian Maurizio Fercioni; with Horst Christian Beckmann, Franz Morak,
Johanna Matz, Angelika Hauff, Wolfgang Gasser, Bibiana Zeller, Rudolf
Wessely)
1979, November 17 - Protest by Václav Havel
1986, May 23
- Pokouseni by Václav Havel
1988, June 1 - The Underperformers by
Peter Turrini
1988, November 4 - Heldenplatz by Thomas Bernhard
(Director: Claus Peymann)
1990, November 10 - Death and the Devil by
Peter Turrini
1991, April 12 - Babylon Blues by George Tabori
1992, May 14 Fernando Krapp wrote me this letter by Tankred Dorst
1992, June 22 Goldberg-Variations by George Tabori
1993, February 17
- Alpenglühen by Peter Turrini
1998, January 23 - A sports play by
Elfriede Jelinek (Director: Einar Schleef)
2000 - Viridiana by Luis
Buñuel (Director: Dimiter Gotscheff)
2003 - Transdanubia Dreaming by
Bernhard Studlar (Director: Nicolas Brieger)
2004 -
Schwarzenbergplatz by Rimini Protokoll (Casino at Schwarzenbergplatz)
2006 - Sevastopol Boulevard by Igor Bauersima (Academy Theater)
2011,
December 21 - Froschfotzenlederfabrik by Oliver Kluck (Director: Anna
Bergmann, Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz)
2013 - Shadow (Eurydice says)
by Elfriede Jelinek (Director: Matthias Hartmann, Akademietheater)
2016 - The Innocents, Me and the Unknown at the Edge of the Country Road
by Peter Handke (Director: Claus Peymann)