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Standort Altes Theater / Site of Old Theatre (Music Trip station 2)

"Altes Theater" (Komödienhaus) around 1830

Until 1693, the city of Leipzig had no theatre of its own. In 1692, the Elector of Saxony, Georg IV, awarded the "privilege" of opera performances in Leipzig to the former deputy conductor of the Dresden Court, Nicolaus Adam Strungk. Strungk leased a plot - No. 495 - at the northwest end of the Brühl road (the site of the Ritterpassage today) and oversaw the erection of a wooden theatre, 40m x 15m, with an amphitheatrical auditorium. This theatre, following in the footsteps of that in Hamburg, was only the second civic opera house (i.e. not belonging to a royal court) in Germany. The theatre was inaugurated with a production of Strungk's opera Alceste on 8th May 1693.

Rather than running a continuous annual season, operas were only staged during Leipzig's three annual trade fairs, resulting in a total of approximately fifty performances per year. Due to the high rent for the site, it proved impossible to operate economically, leading to Strungk, his partners and his offspring falling into great debt. Georg Philipp Telemann played, sang and conducted at the house for three years, as well as composing more than two dozen operas for performance here. The enterprise was finally called to a halt in 1720, the theatre having fallen into a state of extreme disrepair; the building was eventually pulled down in 1729. The itinerant theatre troupes of the day were subsequently forced to perform either in a makeshift theatre at the Peterstor, in the stables at the Rannisches Tor, in the city's various baroque gardens or in Zotens Hof (now Oelßners Hof, Nikolaistraße 24).

In 1764, the engineer Georg Rudolf Fäsch and fellow freemason, Gottlieb Benedict Zemisch, announced their intention to erect a concert hall on the Ranstädter Bastei
(Ranstadt Bastion), the site having been donated by Prince Xaver. Zemisch, along with two fellow members of his lodge, Herr Schwabe and Herr Gleditsch, had been responsible for the instigation of the Großes Concert (Grand Concert) series in 1743 - the birth of the orchestra later to become the Gewandhausorchester. He had funded the conversion of a hall in the Drei Schwanen (Three Swans) inn in the Brühl road out of his own pocket; for the new venture on the Ranstädter Bastei, he decided on the construction of a theatre: the Komödienhaus (Comedy House). The theatre was opened during the Michaelmas trade fair on 10th October 1766 with a performance of Johann Elias Schlegel's tragedy "Hermann".

Gottlieb Benedict Zemisch, who had made his fortune in the tobacco trade, encumbered himself with such huge debts - due, in no small measure, to his philanthropy - that he was forced, in 1778, to give up his patronage of the arts, transferring ownership of the Komödienhaus to his wife and losing his house, Katharinenstraße 21. The same year also saw the temporary end to the Großes Concert, presumably for the same reasons.

The Komödienhaus staged almost all operatic and dramatic productions in Leipzig well into the 19th century. E.T.A. Hoffmann held the post of Musical Director of the Joseph Seconda Opera Company here for one year from 1813. Albert Lortzing (see Notenbogen Station 6) was also engaged at the theatre, appearing as actor, singer and conductor. His operetta Czaar und Zimmermann received its premiere here on 22nd December 1837, as did Hans Sachs and Der Wildschütz in 1840, to mention but three. August Heinrich Marschner (see Notenbogen Station 3) saw the first production of his romantic opera Der Vampyr (The Vampire) in the Komödienhaus in March 1829.

Richard Wagner's sister, Rosalie, was a soloist in the opera company at the Komödienhaus. He himself, however, was to make little positive impression in Leipzig with his early compositions. Wagner was to wait until 1853 for the first appearance of one of his stage works at the theatre: Tannhäuser. A production of Lohengrin followed the following year, then Der fliegende Holländer in 1862.

Wagner's father was a great theatre-lover himself, spending much of his time with the actors and singers of Leipzig's Komödienhaus (he was a good friend of E.T.A. Hoffmann) in the Grüne Linde inn at the Petersteinweg.

The Neues Theater (New Theatre) on Augustusplatz (see Notenspur Station 10) was opened in 1868, the Komödienhaus subsequently assuming the title Altes Theater (Old Theatre). Both theatres were destroyed by bombing in 1943.