Eduard Devrient

Philipp Eduard Devrient ( born August 11, 1801 in Berlin, † October 4, 1877 in Karlsruhe ) was a German actor, singer and theater director.

Life

The family Devrient originates from the Lower Rhine and has Flemish roots ( " De Devrient "). Eduard Devrient was the son of the merchant Tobias Philipp Devrient and his wife Marie Charlotte Prittschow; the actor Karl August Devrient and Gustav Emil Devrient were his brothers.

Devrient learned a commercial profession, but gave this 1819 again. By acting fame of his uncle Ludwig Devrient dressed, he turned - against the fierce protest of the parents - the acting profession to. Musically trained in singing and thorough bass by musician Carl Friedrich Zelter, sang Devrient in 1819, the title role in Carl Heinrich Graun's " Tod Jesu" in the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin and made ​​her debut as a bass player at the Royal Opera in Berlin, where he remained from 1819 to 1831. Abruptly Devrient was known when he brought about in Berlin on 11 March 1829 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy the revival of the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin. Felix Mendelssohn conducted the performance and Devrient sang "Jesus." Member, and later an honorary member of the Sing-Akademie, he was from 1818 to 1851.

1824 married Therese Devrient, a daughter of businessman Simon Schlesinger; with her he had one daughter and four sons, including the later director Otto Devrient.

After a serious illness that cost him from overexertion his singing voice, gave Devrient 1831 his career as a singer. He went to Berlin as an actor and 1844 to the court theater in Dresden, where he worked until 1852 as the successor of Ludwig Tieck. Devrient presented at the theater in part today noticed rules for the " historical costume " on. The now generally accepted sequence of rehearsals (from the excerpt to the dress rehearsal ) is also largely due to Devrient.

During this time Devrient also started his own plays for his theater to write; in addition, he worked with colleagues, among others, with Richard Wagner, who was court music director in Dresden at the same time. The libretto by Heinrich Marschner's opera Hans Heiling comes from Devrient spring. Following the example of the Conservatoire de Paris Devrient wanted to establish a training center for actors in Germany. He led the theories of the " fathers of the Dramatic Arts" Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg and Conrad Ekhof on.

Devrient's theses on this topic can be found in his work History of the German drama and some are still valid today. 1848 could be the Standing Adalbert of store mountain detail from Devrient informed.

In the fall of 1852 Devrient accepted an appointment as director of the Court Theatre in Karlsruhe, where he was appointed Director General later. He had to carry out the reorganization of the outwardly and inwardly torn court theater there and succeeded, all to be delivered in a more than 17 - year leadership the proof of the feasibility of what he had put in his dramaturgical writings as the task of acting. The correct and vivid Total effect of the representations he secured through tireless care and doctrinal influence, with him came his already in Berlin, Dresden, Karlsruhe and Mannheim proven art of dramatic reading aloud to help.

After he had in 1869 celebrated its 50th anniversary artist, he put in the following year, the directorate of health reasons. He died on 4 October 1877 in Karlsruhe. Devrient has acquired as a writer for the stage significant merit.

Works

• The fair
• The Gypsy
• The gray little man
• The favor of the moment
• Aberrations
• True love
• Hans Heiling ( libretto, Composer: Heinrich Marschner )
• Who am I? Leipzig 1846
• Letters from Paris (2nd edition, Berl. 1846)
• About theater schools. Berlin 1840
• The National Theatre of the new Germany. Berlin 1848 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive )
• About the Passion Play of Oberammergau. Berlin 3rd edition 1880
• History of the German drama (Leipzig 1848-74, 5 vols ).
• My memories of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his letters to me. Leipzig 1872
• German stage and Family Shakespeare. Leipzig 1873 et seq ( along with his son Otto )
• A complete edition of his writings was published in Leipzig in 1846-74, (11 vols ).