3. - Schlösser-Magazin

V.
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V. Report on the Music Historical Importance: Dr. Bärbel Pelker
the ceremonial opera in Mannheim on the name
days of the Elector and Electress, on 4 and 19
November, was intended primarily to celebrate
the Prince’s rule, the content of the Schwetzingen
opera programme presented audiences with a
veritable Arcadia, the Utopia of a “Golden Age”,
free from conflicts and constraints. The choice of
the very first opera was programmatic in nature.
It was “Il figlio delle selve”, and its story is that of
a “son of the wild”, who is unaware of his royal
origin, yet is transformed into a responsible
prince. The interpretation of the substance of the
repertoires shows that Carl Theodor, in making
this choice, had already laid down the idea for
Schwetzingen without a shadow of a doubt,
since the motif of human perfection through
knowledge was particularly topical in the age of
Enlightenment. Most of the operas that followed
in Schwetzingen reflected societal order in all
sorts of different ways. The operas dealt with
the advantages of country life, the erosion of
the traditional barriers between the estates, the
antagonism between nations, stories of love
across socially divisive barriers, the casualness
of communication liberated from social rules,
humanity, humanitarianism, compassion
and (in the case of “Alceste” by Wieland and
Schweitzer) fulfilment of duties to the extent of
self-abnegation.
The design of the theatre also matched the
programmatic concept of the special roster of
performances. In contrast to the court theatre
in Mannheim, Carl Theodor deliberately did
without the prince’s box. He used to take a seat
in the stalls, at the same level as his subjects.
A further intention of the artistically minded
Prince Elector is brought to the fore by the
properties of the auditorium with its timber
structure, its open circles, the double floor of
its orchestra pit as an additional resonating
chamber and the choice of the colour scheme.
This involuntarily draws the observer’s gaze
away from the colours of the balcony balustrades
to the proscenium, which contrasts very strongly
with them on account of deep-blue marble
tones and gold decoration dominating space.
The auditorium was never designed to have any
representative function, purely to be part of a
theatre, concentrating on what matters most
(the happenings on stage) and, at the same
time, guaranteeing perfect reproduction of the
works performed, thanks to the most modern
understanding of acoustics. The outcome of this
is a theatre, which is not only the oldest one in
the world with a gallery and which still has its
original eighteenth-century three-dimensional
decorations, but, more than that, one that can
also be considered as the ideal prototype of a
theatre for both music and the spoken word.
The inclusion of the Arcadian surroundings of
the summer residence is strikingly mirrored in
the description of the stage decorations, which
are specified in the librettos of the following
selected operas. These distinguish between “wild”
regions and laid-out gardens, and this can most
certainly be seen as reflecting of the two parts of
the Schwetzingen estate (the English and French
gardens) 25 :
Il figlio delle selve: A forest, with rocks, caves
and springs
L’isola disabitata: A very appealing region of a
small uninhabited island facing the sea, with
exotic trees, very specially decorated by nature,
with wondrous caves and flowering shrubs
Il Don Chisciotte: A forest at the end of a
mountain, with cliffs, the mouth of a cave
big enough for people walk in; a fountain
surrounded by benches
I Cinesi: The scenery takes the form of a number
of rooms giving onto the garden [...]
Il filosofo di campagna: A garden
Le nozze d’Arianna: An uninhabited island
ends in a gigantic cliff rising from the sea,
where Theseus’ completed boat is seen moving
away from land. A region of laughter, fun and
amusement, with grapevines, ripe grapes and
25 The only instructions for stage sets quoted here are those that
make some reference to nature. The detailed Schwetzingen
opera repertoire is to be found in: Hofoper in Schwetzingen.
Edited by Silke Leopold and Bärbel Pelker. Heidelberg 2004,
pp. 87–154. The descriptions given here are from the German
translations of the original libretti. Since the Schwetzingen
stage had a double door leading out to the gardens, it is also
conceivable that the gardens were really integrated in opera
performances (as sort of real perspective, such as in “La
contadina in corte”).