The muses go out in summer.pdf

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extracted text: THE MUSES GO OUT IN SUMMER Although in June or July of every year the generouslysubsidized German theatres and opera-houses close for the summertime, theatrical and musical events are likely as not to be offered. The stages that are chosen for the sum mertime theatrical and musi cal events are likely as not to be the courtyards and gardens of castles and palaces. These often provide settings more spendid and enchanting than any indoor stage’s painted canvas can offer. Authentic Settings for Historical Dramas What is more, on some of these outdoor stages an un surpassable authenticity of setting can be achieved— namely, when a play is enact ed at the very place where the events that it portrays took place. An excellent example of this is picturesque Castle Jag sthausen, in the south-west ern part of Wurttemberg. This castle was once the seat of the famous knight Gotz von Berlichingen; now, every year in July and August, Goethe‘s drama Gotz von Berlichingen is performed in its courtyard. A similarly appropriate event takes place at Rothen burg, on the Tauber, which, with its well-preserved me dieval houses, is a great tour ist attraction at any time of year. There, a play entitled Der Meistertrunk (The Mas ter-Draught), recalling an event of the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648), is perform ed. History has it that Rothen burg’s burgomaster saved his town from being ravaged by accepting a challenge. He managed to drink at one draught a beaker of wine so 84 Panorama large as to confound his chal lenger Field Marshal Tilly. The Flemish strategist had stipulated the successful downing of the “master draught” as the condition on which the town might be saved—and, in expecting the burgomaster to fail, un derestimated a Rothenbur ger’s capacities under stress of patriotism. Every summer, too, the courtyard of Nuremberg Cas tle serves as a stage for folk plays by Hans Sachs. This 16th-century shoemaker and poet of Nuremberg was later immortalised by Richard Wagner in his Meistersinger. Cloisters and Town Walls as Backdrops Besides courtyards, a great number of other venerable settings are used as stages for summertime theatre fes tivals, whether or not they happen to have any historic links with the subject-mat ter of the plays performed. One of the most striking examples of such setting is the thousand year old cathe dral church in Bad Hersfeld, which has been a singularly picturesque, roofless ruin ever since it was war-damaged in 1761. It is the scene of an annual theatre festival that is under the patronage of the Federal President. Not long ago, the producer Wil liam Dieterle—of Hollywood fame —was put in charge of the Hersfeld festivals. This year, the plays he staged there included works by Aes chylus, Shakespeare and the contemporary American play-wright Archibald MacI.eish. And Hugo von Hof mannsthal’s Das grosse Welt theater—ideally suited as it is for outdoor presentation—is performed every year at Bad Hersfeld. Another place where this Austrian author’s works are a familiar part of every sum mer is the small Wurttemberg town of SchwabischHall. There, on the broad steps of St. Michael’s church, one or another of his plays is performed year after year. Among the more notable outdoor festivals, one with an entirely “classical” reper toire. is a summertime event at Luisenburg (Franconia). In the same “classical” cate gory are the performances in the cloister of the monastry at Feuchtwangen (Franco nia). So are those at Augs burg (Swabia), which take place in front of a particular ly beautiful gate in the old town wall. Along Rhine and Ruhr Even places as world-fam ed as the Rhine and its Lo Octobe* 1961 8S relei are recruited as theatre settings in summer. On the waters of the Rhine at Koblenz there is a floating, anchored stage where comic opera performances are of fered. In an open-air theatre on -the Lorelei Rock, high above those same waters, well-known actors and actres ses interpret the classics of German dramatic art: the plays of Goethe and Schil ler. An especially lively even ing is promised by a visit to the open-air theatre of Bad Segeberg, in the northern province of Holstein. This theatre is devoted to drama tic versions of the works of Karl May, whose . romantic adventure stories about Am erican Indians have fired the imaginations of several gen erations of German boys and girls—and their parents. Special mention is due the Ruhr Festival at Recklingha usen. It stands out not only for its scope and quality but also for the. fact that it is organised in particular for miners and steel workers of West Germany’s chief.indus trial area. Music in Baroque Castle Gardens Not only dramatic art, however, comes into •'its suirimertime splendour in out door settings replete with his torical reminiscences. Music goes outdoors, too. Favourite settings for summer concerts are Germany’s Baroque pa laces, with their spacious parks and terraces. Concerts and operas are presented at the Hanoverian Schloss Herrenhausen (which has one of the loveliest gardens of its kind‘in all of Europe), Sch loss Pommersfelden (Franco nia); Schloss Nymphenburg (Munich); Schloss Bruhl (be tween Cologne and Bonn); Schloss Schwetzingen (near Mannheim); Schloss Eutin (Holstein) and Schloss Ans bach (Franconia). Nor does the Heidelberg Schloss, dear est of all to the hearts of countless tourists, fait to pro vide music in its courtyard on summer nights. But for music, as for works of the theatre, other types of outdoor settings are also chosen; Then concerts that take place in the Gothic cloister of the former Monestry Alprisbach (Black Forest) are particularly po pular events of the German summer. The International Level Another category of sum mer festivals devoted1 to the arts , is that nf the big, inter national; often world-famous Panorama. events. Some of these take place not in borrowed set tings but in their own thea tre buildings. First among them, no doubt, is the Ri chard Wagner Festival in the theatre that has been special ly built for it at Bayreuth. This year, as every year, well-known Wagner operas will be performed there — Tannhauser, Der fliegende Hollander, Parsifal, Die Meis tersinger von Nurnberg, Ring der Nibelungen. Summer festivals are also sponsored by the opera house of Munich in the old Residenztheater and the Prinzregententheater, both of which look back on a long stage tradition. This year, the pro gramme includes a contem porary opera—by Hans Wer ner Henze — and Wagner, Strauss and Mozart operas. Towns that regularly devote their summer festivals to a single composer are Wurz burg, with its Mozart Festi val, and Stuttgart, with “Bee thoven Days”. Hitzacker, a small town situated on the western bank of the Elbe River, directly on the de marcation line that separates West Germany from the So viet Zone, initiated its “Sum mer Days of Music” shortly after the end of the war; they are devoted chiefly to chamber music, and have be come increasingly popular year by year. Only the most significant theatrical summer events have been mentioned here. The visitor to Germany at this season will, however, find many another place throughout the country where artists and audiences are making the most of the long twilights and mild wea ther of the Central European summer. Many of the less famous events have the same ele ments of charm that charac terize the outdoor festivals for which people make reser vations weeks—or months— in advance. For example, the visitor to Bonn during the warm time of the year might do well to learn if a chamber music concert happens to be scheduled in the circular court, open to the sky, of the Poppelsdorf Schlob, which is on the outskirts of the Fe deral Republic’s capital. Whether world-known, or merely “local” and casual, these outdoor events in the German cultural calendar all have pleasing elements in common. They blend the mu sic of instruments or the hu man voice with the forms of time-mellowed architecture, under a ceiling of summer skies. October 1961 87
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