Jana Laslavíková
Muses on the Road: Theatre Director Emanuel Raul and his Work in Karlovy Vary, Pressburg and Timi?oara at the end of the 19th Century
The development of modern society, characterised by an expanding middle class with rising disposable incomes and a growing amount of leisure time, has brought about a boom of various forms of travel and tourism for a significant portion of the population. Thanks to the railways and ship transport, increased mobility and accelerated frequency of migration can also be observed among theatre directors and their artistic companies, while the travelling of artists to the farthest corners of the world contributed to the networking and interconnection of repertoire as well as theatrical technology. A similar movement is taking place in provinces (i.e. places outside the capital) of the German-speaking cultural space, where leading artistic personalities are taking the helm of theatres in a number of cities.
An interesting example of mobility between the border towns of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in connection with the theatre business is the theatre director Emanuel Raul (1843-1916), a native of Boskovice near Brno, who at the end of the 19th century was at the head of three municipal theatres in Pressburg, Timi?oara, and Karlovy Vary at the same time. He began as a singer in Austrian provincial theatres, later establishing his own artistic troupe with actors and singers, with whom, paradoxically, he achieved greater success in the Hungarian towns of Pressburg and Timi?oara than in the Bohemian towns of Olomouc or Liberec. Here the German local newspapers were critical of his work and he did not receive the necessary support from the town hall, which eventually led to financial problems and his early departure from the town. In the summer of 1880 he came to Karlovy Vary for the first time. There he launched work in the building of the first municipal theatre dating back to 1788, and in 1886 he became the first tenant of a new theatre. In 1890 he simultaneously leased the municipal theatres in Pressburg and Timi?oara, which had alternately German- and Hungarian-speaking directors. It was thanks to his successful business in Hungary that Raul was able to afford to offer 16,000 guldens for the annual lease of the theatre in Karlovy Vary in 1894, far outbidding the other bidders for the theatre. The cost of the long journey from Pressburg to Timi?oara and from there to Karlovy Vary within one calendar year proved to be profitable. In addition to financial stability, Raul thus acquired a good reputation and long-standing trust from the Karlovy Vary town hall.
The key to its success lay in well-staged opera and operetta performances, as well as in contacts with leading members of the town hall. In the town of Pressburg, where Raul had also established good relations with the owners of German-language daily newspapers, his troupe referred to itself as " domestic". In Timi?oara, he received awards for his quality opera performances and the theatre used to be sold out. His courage to travel to the southwestern border of the monarchy for business brought him not only financial gain but also moral success, for at the time of strong Hungarianization he was able to compete with the municipally subsidized Hungarian theatre and succeed where the Hungarian muse was at home.
Keywords: German-language theatre - municipal theatres- Pressburg - Timi?oara - Karlovy Vary - theatre directors and tenants - travelling theatre troupes
design by Bedřich Vémola
