3. - Schlösser-Magazin

current appearance is shaped by numerous
20th-century alterations. 67
The Berlin opera house, built from 1742 at
the request of the Prussian king, Frederick the
Great, by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff,
was a conventionally laid out theatre with
the traditional tiers of boxes. Its free-standing
façade, however, was a novel element in
Germany as it made the theatre into a
detached, imposing feature of the surrounding
cityscape. Later alterations and the damages
inflicted on the building during WWII have
left nothing of the original interior, however.
Knobelsdorff again supplied the design of the
theatre inserted into the Potsdam city palace
in 1745-1748. The semicircular auditorium
was inspired by the Teatro Olympico, and
featured gradually rising rows of seats in the
manner of an amphitheatre. This theatre,
destroyed in 1802 when it was converted into
apartments, represents the earliest attempt
at recreating the type of the Classical theatre,
and is typologically more significant and more
far-reaching in its influence even than the
Schwetzingen balcony theatre. 68
In 1766-68 Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt
created a small theatre for the “Neues Palais”
in Potsdam that was a unique combination
of an amphitheatre and an open-balcony
theatre. 69 Prior to this another architect,
Carl von Gontard, had submitted plans for a
late Baroque box theatre with a bell-shaped
ground plan; this, however, did not suit the
ideas of Frederick the Great.
When the Margravine Wilhelmine of
Bayreuth saw the plans for the Berlin opera
house her brother sent her she decided to
have another theatre built at Bayreuth. The
structure, intended as a court opera house,
was nevertheless erected not as part of the
palace but as an independent building in
town, flanked by elaborate townhouses. The
exterior façade was designed by Josef Saint-
Pierre, the auditorium and stage machinery by
67 Reus, Klaus-Dieter, p. 21.
68 Sommer, Claudia: Vom kurfürstlichen Jagdsitz zur Residenz
Friedrichs des Großen. In: Ausstellungskatalog Potsdamer
Schlösser und Gärten. Bau und Gartenkunst vom 17. bis 20.
Jahrhundert. Potsdam 1993, p. 76.
69 Sommer, Claudia, p. 131 sqq.
3. Justification for Inscription
Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena and his son, Carlo.
The interior was inaugurated on the occasion
of the wedding of Elisabeth Friederike, the
Margrave’s daughter, to Duke Carl Eugen
of Württemberg in 1748; the exterior was
not finished until 1750. The bell-shaped
auditorium based on Italian models features
three tiers of boxes, an imposing ruler’s box
and an open gallery. The room is magnificent
with its sumptuous decoration of sculptures,
emblems and frescoes in a high Baroque
style. Never altered since, the margrave’s
opera house in Bayreuth is the most splendid
Baroque theatre north of the Alps. 70 Despite
its sheer magnificence the structure remains
faithful to that of the traditional Italian box
theatre.
In Munich a theatre was built in 1751-53 for
Elector Max III Joseph of Bavaria; the plans
were by François Cuvilliés, and the layout was
that of a traditional four-tiered box theatre
with a horseshoe-shaped ground plan and
an electoral box, two tiers in height, directly
opposite the stage. The entire auditorium was
put into storage during WWII, and rebuilt
elsewhere in 1958. 71
The Duke of Swabia, Carl Eugen,
commissioned a ”Commoedien Theatri“
in 1758/59; it was built by Philippe de La
Guêpière, and situated in the eastern pavilion
of Ludwigsburg Palace. In structure it is a
three-tiered box theatre with a bell-shaped
ground plan. The original basic structure, the
stage, large parts of the stage machinery and
a number of sets have survived. In 1812 King
Frederick commissioned alterations and a
redesign in the then fashionable Empire taste
that were carried out by Nicolaus Friedrich
Thouret. The royal box and forestage boxes
were preserved while the rest of the boxes
were removed, to be replaced by open
balconies. 72
70 Krückmann, Peter O.: Das markgräfliche Opernhaus. In:
Ausstellungskatalog: Paradies des Rokoko I. Das Bayreuth der
Markgräfin Wilhelmine. München 1998, p. 69 sqq.
71 Strictly speaking it was the box fronts that were removed.
72 Scholderer, Hans-Joachim, p. 37 sqq.
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