A VIEW OF THE GERMAN STAGE.

To take a view of the German stage, we shall begin with

the four principal national theatres of Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort. And though at the former a general cry from pit, boxes, and gallery, has not yet called on the celebrated Kotzebue to stay, as once they called on the never forgotten Vigano, when she charmed the metropolis, for the last time, with her exquisite dancing, yet do the public already regret a loss which it is hardly possible should be compensated by any of his successors; for his place can never be adequately supplied. Messrs. von Retzer and von Eschrich have many other affairs of importance to attend to, and those who are placed under them have learnt that it is politic not to make too many innovations. Nor can any piece, since Ziegler's play of Magnanimity or the Storm in the Tirol, which was indebted for its success to its subject. and the patriotic temper of the public, boast of general applause. In Koch, and his daughter Betty, a lady of extensive powers and great talents, both of whom Kotzebue had engaged, the company has gained two of the first of German players. The lesser theatres in the suburbs also contribute by numerous lighter performances to the amusement of the metropolis.

At Berlin, the hope of seeing a new temple of Thalia erected, worthy of so magnificent a city, has vanished into a plan of enlargement for the present theatre. Iffland has made a theatrical tour to Dessau, Leipzig, and Breslau, in all which cities he has received the unbounded applause of crowded houses. This journey has been a triumph to the dramatic art. He was received and visited by the first society, and the inhabitants of Leipzig struck a silver medal in honour of him. Fleck, his amiable wife, and Madame Unzelmarn, have also shewn the surrounding provinces the excellence of the dramatic school of Berlin, during a theatrical tour. Yet the wellinformed and judicious minority are there overpowered by the ignorant multitude, nor has the depraved taste of the pit ever appeared more glaring than in their manner of bestowing their applause and censure on the Man-hater,and being thus accustomed to knock and stamp with their feet, they have lately given as bad a reception to Iffland's last piece, called the Artists, the first representation of which was for the author's

benefit;

benefit; while they only express a doubtful admiration of the new translation of Hamlet into iambic verse.

The pentarchs of the Hamburg theatre are constantly anxious to avail themselves of the criticisms as well of the inhabitants as of strangers, and the names of Stegman, Herzfeld, and Langerhaus, may vie with the most celebrated performers of other theatres. Yet in the tragedy of Johanna de Montfaucon, a theatrical alarm of fire taking place, the heroine comes running out in her night clothes, and a chevalier, who a short time before was a shopman, plays the part of the young and tender lover with the utmost vehemence and bombast, expecting by these means to obtain universal applause; while at the French theatre, which stands opposite, a constant cry is heard, of-Ah! c'est un grand talent ce Cosebule (Kotzebue) at every representation of the Misanthrope (the Stranger), which after having been performed at Paris, has been here reconciled to the original by Bursay, and repeated above a dozen times to crowded and undiminished houses.

This succeeds better than the new supply of female singers and dancers from Paris; for neither the voice of Madame Kichardi can compensate the never to be forgotten Chevalier, nor the more serious St. Romain the charming attitudes of the tender Rose Colinet. It is but in some particular plays that the French theatre excels, owing to a well compounded whole, to the manner in which they are supported, and their brilliant decorations, as for instance in the Guilty Mother of Beaumarchais, scarcely any German theatre being capable of representing it in so great perfection. Hence the inexorable critics chastise them for this mistake, not only by bissing and hooting, but by a newly invented method of continually yawning.

At Hamburg are three companies of German and one of French comedians, so that the amateur of theatrical amusements can only feel the want of an opera buffa. It is said, however, that a flight of Italian nightingales were on the road, when the low state of commerce made it evident that the times were too unfavourable to encourage them to proceed.

The eyes and ears of all the votaries of pleasure are continually turned towards the stage of Frankfort, which is conducted on a magnificent scale by seven managers. The exquisite Cannabich, formerly Miss Moraleb, unites the powers of acting and of voice with the most striking effect; and no one can avoid being moved at seeing her in the tragic part of Camilla, or in that of Myrrha. Neither can all the thea-.

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tres throughout Germany together produce three such singers as Messrs. Maurer and Schulz in tragedy, and Mr. Lux in comedy. In fact nothing is spared in the conduct of the theatre by the worthy manager Prand, and the scene-painter Fuentes, to render it attractive; besides which, very often after the first representation several of the decorations are improved and repainted. Nor can any piece be more charming than Mozart's last chef d'oeuvre of Titus, in which Schulz performs the part of Titus, and Cannabich that of Sextus. The capitol in flames, at the end of the first act, is a difficult but a most admirable scene. There are frequently 180 persons on the stage at once, and chorusses and processions alternately mingle together, and separate in the most perfect order. The music, as may be expected under such a master as Cannabich, and where one of the managers, Bernard of Offenbach, has a chapel and band of his own, is performed with the utmost precision, And besides, a regular school is erected adjoining the theatre, in which boys and girls, selected for the purpose, are brought up to sing, and employed at the theatre to make up the chorusses, which have the more extraordinary effect, as they are in general entirely neglected on every other stage. Great attention is also paid to the dresses. Titus, with his senators, lictors, and prætors, are habited according to the antique. But here Bardon, Lecs, and the characteristics of French taste, are somewhat too prominent.

In this and other objects of propriety, the best inten tions may fail. For small errors will sometimes unavoidably escape the strictest observer. Nor is the recitation at all neglected. Mesdames Botticher and Boudel played two parts which cannot be excelled. The naiveté displayed by Madame Cospers, of Manheim, afforded the surest pledge of success; and additional support was also expected from Cassel.

At Breslaw, Altona, Leipzig, Dessau, Manheim, Stutgard, Gratz, Prague, Saltzburg, Cassel, Weimar, Hanover, Magdeburg, and Brunswick, none but the offspring of Thalia are brought forward, and these are variously got up and supported. In this view we can only notice a few of the principal features they present. The theatre of Breslau, under the direction of some staunch friends to the stage, and with the assistance of a new and highly ornamental gallery, erected by order of the worthy manager Scholz, flourishes more and more; and that the audience may not be satiated with the usual performers of the place, those of other towns are from time to time engaged. Thus it is visited by Flek, Iffland, and Doebbelin, in summer, and the loss of Reinhard is not felt in the piece called Magne

tism. Since the audience may still laugh at Doebbelin's highly comic performance of the invalid Grundman.

Albrecht, the manager of the theatre at Altona, continues to awaken the often slumbering attention of the public by a variety of dramatic pieces. Sometimes a strolling company perform low comedy, sometimes actresses from Hamburg come over as if the public were satiated with the repeated performances of Sophia Albrecht and Eliza Burger, of whom the latter is now gone to Bremen. Sometimes Rose Colinet charms them with her exquisite dancing, and lately a whole troop of dancers are added to the usual company. Thus the dancing is at least properly attended to.

Leipzig is visited during the summer half of the year by the company belonging to the court of Dresden, at the head of which that excellent performer, Opitz, powerfully opposes musical pieces, although every where else they make their Besides these numerous foreign performers, the inhabitants of Leipzig also amuse themselves with short satires relative to players and play-writers, and other squibs, in which wit is by no means a striking feature, though they borrow the names of men of eminence. There have also been attempts at some of the fairs to bring out a few of Kotzebue's productions. A new curtain, full of figures, painted by Schnorr, who succeeds Oeserschen in this department, is considered as a happy, presage of improvement.

The little theatre of Dessau, which is not large enough for the place, and is built rather according to the rules of architecture than of acoustics, is constantly struggling to raise itself on the scale of perfection, by means of the support of a prince who is a lover of the arts; and from time to time M. von Lichtenstein, the manager, although a nobleman himself, appears upon the stage as a performer, and as a singer, and thus contributes to destroy the prejudices which poison in the bud so many germs of brilliant talents, while his Bathmendi, and his Bride of Stone, are permanent proofs of his talents as a writer. Hübsch, the bass singer, and Madame Somariva, are engaged to perform at the opera, which is still rapidly improving.

The stage of Manheim has lately lost its chief ornaments, Bek, and those excellent players Benner and Steetsch, who are gone to Munich. No Dalberg, No Dalberg, no Iffland, now give life to this theatre, which seems, as it were, devastated by war. It is said, however, there will be a new arrangement of the opera, for which purpose performers are coming from Stutgard and Munich. But who can reconcile the peaceful amusements of a theatre with the thunder of cannon, which contiE

VOL. II.

nually

nually surrounds and renews its approaches to this unfortunate city?

Many circumstances (fortunately of a temporary nature) also confine the progress of the dramatic art at the theatre of Stutgard, and many unemployed, though distinguished talents in music and decorations, as well in the performers themselves as in the public at large, lie dormant in the high cultivated city of Stutgard.

Of the new, or rather new-modelled theatre of Munich and Saltzburgh, time will shew the effect of the regulations adopted.

At Cassel, where the stage is threatened with total dissolution, every open sign of approbation is declared to be a crime, and punished with imprisonment. That excellent composer Kirchmayer, and Madame Hasslich the vocal performer, would, however, be ornaments to the best of theatres.

The city of Weimar, during the summer months, foregoes the amusements of the stage to enjoy them with the greater delight in the beginning of the autumn. Besides those excellent performers, Vochs and his wife, and the exquisite voice of Madame Jagemann, this stage has several other good performers, and is very successful in getting up the pieces it exhibits. But what may we not expect from a theatre where a Göthe and a Schiller improve and superintend every performance by their immediate presence, and where Göthe himself has honoured the too soon departed talent of a celebrated actress with a monument, representing the figure of Euphrosyne, in the ducal park?

The stage of Hanover, the native city of Iffland, is since the beginning of the present year firmly established, and supported by the court, under the management of Messrs. Walter and Reinike. The company play during only a few months at Zell and Hildesheim, and report says, very excellent rules and maxims are there practised.

The decorations of the theatre at Magdeburg, are by Breysig, and the director is Schmidt, who received his king this last summer with a representation of a patriotic rising of the peasantry.

In Madame Tilly Brunswick has lost its old manager, and the company is now dissolved. It continued, however, till the arrival of Joseph Seconda's company, which drew the public away, although the opera, under the direction of that excellent master of music, Birei, evidently improved, and gained daily more and more of the public favour.

Nor are the theatres of Prague, Brünn, Gratz, Ratisbon, or Bremen, by any means inconsiderable, or less deserving of a place here than many of the foregoing. At Prague, besides

the