Ernst von Possart
Ernst Heinrich Possart, from 1897 Bavarian nobility staff Ernst Ritter von Possart, ( born May 11, 1841 in Berlin, † April 8, 1921 ) was a German actor and stage director.
Life
Possart was the son of the Berlin merchant Johann Christian Possart and his wife Wilhelmine Angelica Göhren. The later painters Prof. Felix Possart was his brother.
He completed a three -year apprenticeship as a bookseller and then was a pupil of the Berlin court actor William Kaiser. Already twenty years Possart debuted in 1861 successfully on Urania Theatre in Wroclaw in the role of " Siegfried von Mörner " in The Prince of Homburg ( Heinrich von Kleist ). His first engagement in Breslau he began in 1861 with the second character roles, and he could change already in the following year to Berlin, where he played until 1863 leading roles.
In 1863 he was appointed as a replacement for Karl August Gorner as a director of the Hamburg Stadttheater. Beginning in 1864, he served as the first character actors at the court theater in Munich and had his artistic breakthrough as " Franz Moor " in The Robbers ( Friedrich Schiller). , Where he learned the later Kammersängerin appointed Anna Deinet, whom he married in 1868. With her he had four children, including Anna, later known under the pseudonym of singer Ernesta Delsarta. 1883 Possart and Deinet divorced to marry then five years later in New York again.
Since 1873 he was a senior director at the Court Theatre at Munich, and in 1878 he was promoted to Acting Director. Parallel to this promotion is appointed Possart also to Prof.. Numerous guest performances, also in Munich in 1880 it held total guest performances made his name known in wider circles. In 1887 he took his release from the Association of the Munich Court Theatre to give in America guest roles; From 1888 he was director of the Berlin Lessing theater.
1893 Possart returned back to Munich and became general manager and artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, which one of the most brilliant periods of this stage began. He went there to continue as an actor and director on. In recognition of his in the press judged very positive activity, he was raised to the peerage. In addition, he wrote a modern drama "Law of the Heart", which was performed in the end of 1898 and beginning of 1899 in Cologne, Nuremberg. 1897 began an intensive and very successful collaboration with Richard Strauss as a reciter of the melodrama " Enoch Arden ", which both on several concert tours in Germany gave in this and the next few years for the best, from March 1899 and the second melodrama of Strauss ' The Castle the sea " 1). Between 1900 and 1901 he was involved with its intensive public relations instrumental in the implementation of rules devised by the architect Max Littmann construction of the Prince Regent Theatre. With 64 years Possart moved back in 1905 from his offices at the Court Theatre, but was still very active as a reciter. When in 1919 his wife died, Possart settled down in his hometown of Berlin in the same year. There he died at the age of nearly eighty years on April 8, 1921.
As a character actor were his best roles, " Hamlet ", " Jago ", " Mephisto ", " Franz Moor ", " Nathan ", " Richard III. ", " Shylock " and many others From Possart some phonograph recordings in the German Broadcasting Archive in Wiesbaden are available.
Possart is considered one of the most influential theater officials in the 19th century and as a typical representative of the Hofbühnenwesens in Germany. Among other things, he was instrumental in the discovery and promotion of the famous actor Josef Kainz.
Also for the opera and musical life of his time Possart was a crucial figure. As general manager of the Munich court theaters he led in collaboration with the conductor Hermann Levi, and Richard Strauss on German re-translations of Mozart's operas. With sumptuously appointed performances of the works of Richard Wagner in Munich, he had very great success and made the young Bayreuth Festival under the direction of Cosima Wagner's great competition.
In addition Possart came again and again emerged as the reciter of melodramas. After 1868, the interpretation of the title role in Robert Schumann's Manfred melodrama had been an important landmark in Possart career, encouraged his musikalisierender recitation style in the fin de siècle to a number of other composers to compose melodramas. Both the melodramatic first version of the royal children of Engelbert Humperdinck (1897 ) and the melodrama The Witches Song by Max von Schillings ( 1902), which became one of the most popular works in Wilhelmine Germany, melodramatic preferences would not have arisen without Possart.
With the fellow actor Emil Rohde (1839-1913), who belonged to the personal circle of friends of King Ludwig II, Possart established a lifelong friendship.
Honors
- Honorary doctorate ( Dr. phil. Hc ) of the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich
- 1897 Bavarian Order of Merit
Works
- The art of speaking. (1907)
- Experiences and striven. (1916 )