3. - Schlösser-Magazin

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3. Justification for Inscription
a skylight, and the building was used by
the senate as a session room. In 1950-1952 the
stage (without its machinery) and auditorium
were returned to their original appearance,
and since then they have been shown as a
museum.
A smaller, more intimate theatre was built in
1784 by Richard Mique for Marie Antoinette
in the garden of the “Petit Trianon”. Here the
floor does tilt slightly towards the orchestra.
Rows of removable benches flank a central
aisle. Two open galleries surround the
horseshoe-shaped auditorium. The amateur
theatre is decorated in the “Goût grec“ and
was used for private productions for the
enjoyment of the Queen, who occasionally
performed in them herself. The layout
conforms, if somewhat timidly, to the
demands of modern theatre-building that had
been put into practice at Schwetzingen years
before.
It was not until 1773 that a theatre – the
“Grand Théâtre” built by Victor Louis
in Bordeaux – met the demands of the
theoreticians and satisfied the critics. It
served as a model for what is today called the
“Théâtre de l’Odeon” in Paris, built 1778-
1782 from plans by Charles de Wailly and
Marie-Joseph Peyre. 63 On the whole, France
was late in adapting to the demands made by
architectural theoreticians regarding modern
theatres.
Developments in Germany
Germany’s oldest theatre survives in the
castle of Celle, once the seat of the Welf
Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. It was
built in 1676, featuring tiers of boxes in the
Italian style, and first altered in 1690. After
having been partially destroyed during the
Seven Years’ War it was restored in 1772, in
a different style and with fewer boxes. The
fourth gallery was removed entirely, and the
third became an open balcony. Here, too,
modern developments made themselves felt,
if rather slowly. Repairs in 1817 and 1837
63 Hesse. Michael, p. 141.
were followed, in 1855, by a full-scale redesign
in a neo-Rococo style. With further renovation
work carried out in 1935 and 1939, little
original substance is left in Germany’s oldest
theatre today. 64
The oldest German theatre actually preserved
in its original shape can be found in “Schloss
Friedenstein” in Gotha, formerly the seat
of the Dukes of Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg.
Originally the auditorium, which had served
as a hall for ball games before being converted
into a theatre in 1681, was furnished with
simple chairs. The scenery stage of what today
is called the “Ekhof Theatre” was technically
among the most advanced in the entire Holy
Roman Empire. 65 As late as 1687 a gallery
with a ducal box was added at the level of the
stage, modelled on the Italian tradition. The
auditorium was given its current appearance
in 1775 when a second balcony was added;
at the same time the ducal box was reduced
in size, and neither balcony had any further
subdivisions. These changes were introduced
in order to allow the public access to the
theatre. 66 For all its early establishment and
advanced stage machinery, its owners were
rather late in introducing developments that
had been put into practice as early as 1753 at
Schwetzingen.
Next in the chronology is the “Markgrafen
Theater” in Erlangen, built in 1719 for
the Prince of Brandenburg-Bayreuth as a
Baroque box theatre. In 1743 the Margravine
Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, sister of Prussia’s
Frederick the Great, had the interior
refurbished and redesigned; Giovanni
Paolo Gaspari created a horseshoe-shaped,
three-tiered box theatre that adhered to
the traditional type but also featured a
fashionable rocaille décor. The theatre’s
64 Köhler, Marcus: Das Schlosstheater in Celle. Die Geschichte
einer verfehlten Rekonstruktion. In: Opernbauten des Barock.
Internationale Tagung des Deutschen Nationalkomitees von
ICOMOS und der Bayerischen Verwaltung der staatlichen
Schlösser, Gärten und Seen. Bayreuth 1998, pp. 48-53.
65 Reus, Klaus-Dieter: Faszination der Bühne. Bayreuth
2001, p. 49. The first stage to have wings mounted on trolleys
that could be pulled on and off stage was constructed
in 1628 by Giovanni Aleotti for the Teatro Farnese“.
66 Dobrittsch, Elisabeth: Barocke Zauberbühne. Das Ekhof-Theater
im Schloss Friedenstein Gotha. Weimar 2004, p. 57 sqq.