Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VI.
Fig. 5: Advertising Poster from
the 1950ies (original: Palace
Library Schwetzingen).
206
VI. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
manque que de la santé pour y jouir de tous
les plaisirs qu’on y goute. Comédie-Francaise,
Comédie-Italienne, grand opera italien, opera
buffa, ballets, grande chère, conversation,
politesse, grandeur, simplicité, voilà ce que
c’est que la cour de Manheim.“ 48 Some of his
own works – Alzire ou les Américains, Nanine
ou l’homme sans préjugé, Zaire and L’Indiscret
– were performed in his presence and in his
honour. On 30th September 1762, Voltaire’s
tragedy Olimpie was played here for the
first time – a high point in the history of the
Schwetzingen theatre. 49 Up to Carl Theodor’s
move to Munich, the stage was used regularly
during the summer months, and almost weekly
in the 1770s. In 1772, the English music
historian and critic Charles Burney described
an atmosphere that was to remain familiar
to later visitors of the Rococo theatre as well:
“When you leave the Schwetzingen theatre
in the summer, after the opera, and walk out
into the Elector’s garden, you will be met
48 Letter to his niece, dated 5th August 1753, No. 3548, Theodore
Bestermann (ed.), Voltaire. Correspondance, 3 vols., Paris
1975, p. 1011. Cp. Bärbel Pelker, “Sommer in der Campagne -
Impressionen aus Schwetzingen”, in: B. Pelker/S. Leopold (eds.),
Hofoper in Schwetzingen, Heidelberg 2004, pp. 29 ff.
49 Pelker 2004, pp. 31 f.
by the most magnificent, exhilarating view
imaginable.“ 50 After 1778, Schwetzingen for
a while lost not just the court but the theatre,
its second social centre, along with it. Only
during the Elector’s sporadic visits, for example
in 1785, was the small stage used. However,
even when not in use, it constituted one of the
attractions of the garden and was probably
“admired by every connoisseur”, as Garden
Director Zeyher put it as late as 1824. 51 Once
the archducal court of Baden had made sure
that the theatre could be used once again,
it was finally put back into service on Whit
Monday, 1823. The members of the Mannheim
court theatre performed two comedies by
August von Kotzebue (Der Rehbock and Die
Feuerprobe). It is an interesting detail that this
time the performance was not primarily staged
for the enjoyment of the courtiers, with visitors
merely permitted to attend, as had been the
case in the 18th century. The comedies were
performed as part of the annual fair that took
place over Pentecost – although this remained
an isolated event. 52
But then the artists responsible for the
productions performed during the annual
festivals of the 20th century, too, were to
discover in the “country seat” atmosphere, and
the love of the arts evident from the palace,
the garden and the theatre, a genius loci as
inspiring and enchanting as ever. The Austrian
conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt wrote: “The
time I spent at Schwetzingen in the spring of
1983 has become a special time in my long
career – an enchanted castle set in an unreal
park, and this incredibly atmospheric little
theatre. […] In such an ambience you end
up being enchanted yourself, as in Alcina’s
flower garden – the music must be played in
a different way from the factories in the large
cities.“ 53
(Susan Richter)
50 Pelker/Leopold 2004, appendix, p. 228.
51 Zeyher/Rieger 1824, p. 173.
52 Zeyher/Rieger 1824, p. 174.
53 Schwetzinger Festspiele, Schloß Schwetzingen 1972-1986,
Süddeutscher Rundfunk Stuttgart 1986, p. 102.