Project Details
Projekt
Stage and Citizens: The Hamburg Stadttheater 1770-1850
Subject Area
German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
Musicology
Musicology
Term
from 2013 to 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 227075039
One of the most important German theatre companies in the period between 1770 and 1850 is in the centre of this project proposal: the Hamburg Stadttheater.The theatre¿s program combined both musical theatre as well as spoken theatre and developed a superregional impact beyond Hamburg¿s borders. This theatre can be regarded as a prototype of an urban theatre that is based on economical principles and organized by the citizens. Surprisingly, the independent and influential profile of the Hamburg Stadttheater in the stated period of time has yet not been object to extensive research. This project aims for closing this research gap. For the first time, this will be done by a thorough analysis of the great number of handed down sources by methods of literature studies, theatre studies as well as musicology.The main interest of research targets the relation of theatre and civic culture in the 18th and 19th century. The previous research has focused on theatre culture of court theatres in the stated period of time, only. This project, however, proposes that the Hamburg Stadttheater stood out due to its independent and superregional dimensions, and, therefore, managed to assert its position against the court stages due to its innovative impulses. In order to achieve the objectives, this project explores the specific modes of interaction between the city and its theatre in the following aspects: The individual theatre directors and their playing schedule profiles, the frame of the meta theatre, the integration of the Stadttheater within the press scene, exemplary performances, superregional effects and impacts of Hamburg¿s theatre culture, and the Reception of the German Classic. In the field of musical theatres there will be a main focus on the especially successful ¿Zauberoper¿; the implementation of instrumental music within the musical theatre and spoken theatre will be another area of research.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
