Wiener Bühnenkünstler (Vienna Stage Actors)
Wien: Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, (1900s). First edition. Softcover. Octavo. xxxvi plates. Original string-bound gray wraps with brown lettering on cover.
Publication of portraits of stage actors and actresses in silver bromide reproductions, thumbnail size with twenty portraits to the page. Many of them in multiple takes, in costumes and/or stage settings. Includes Ferdinand Gregori, best known for Mephisto in Goethe's Faust, Mizzi Günther, Josef Kainz in forty-six roles, the coloratura soprano Selma Kurz, Lotte Medelsky, Franz Naval, Rosa Albach-Retty, Eric Schmedes, Irene Sironi, Leo Slezak, tenor best known for his title role in Verdi's Othello, Lotte Witt, actress at the Vienna Burgtheater for 30 years, the soprano Mizzi Zwerenz, Gustav Mahler, Franz Lehar, among many others plus numerous stage scenes at rear. Laid in magazine clip showing Alexander Girardi as shoemaker in "My Leopold."
The Burgtheater opened in 1741. It was established by empress Maria Theresa of Austria. In 1776 emperor Joseph II renamed it the German National Theater and in 1794 it was renamed "K. K. Theater nächst der Burg." Three of Mozart's operas premiered here between 1782 and 1790, one of his symphonies as well as Beethoven's 1st Symphony in 1800. The last performance at the theater was Goethe's "Iphigenie auf Tauris" in 1888. In the same year the theater was moved to the Ringstraße into a building designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer. In 1945 the US Air Force destroyed the building and after the war it was rebuilt between 1953 and 1956. It remained a traditional stage into the 1960s and became a venue for some of Europe's most important stage directors and designers. Text in German. Wraps lightly sunned along edges and spine. Few pencil marks not affecting images. Very good condition. Item #51618
Price: $500.00