Források és ritkaságok a Győri színjátszás történetéből a 17. század elejétől 1849-ig I. - Városi Levéltári Füzetek 9/2007 (Győr, 2007)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Theatrical Profession of Győr City from the Beginning of 17

th Century to 1849 The central location of the town of Győr and its nearness to Vienna, the imperial capital and the coronation town of Pozsony and also its rivers and roads made its theatrical profession important as well. The European intellectual trends, like the theatrical profession that was continuously renewing from the 16

th century, appeared in the town at the Rába River at a rather early period of time, (taking the Hungarian circumstances into consideration), already at the beginning of the 17

th century. The dwellers of Győr could first enjoy the performances of school dramas based on the productions of nearly 150 year long religious, intellectualcultural operations of the Jesuit order that settled down here in 1627. From the middle of the 18

th century secular theatrical profession was represented by German touring actors arriving from western areas. Most of the population of Győr was German-speaking at that time. Soon two temporary stages were built, the first in 1768 that was destroyed by a flood, and the next one in 1785. The first permanent theatre was brought into use at a very early period of time, namely in 1798. In Hungary it was the fourth building built for this purpose. Hungarian national acting gained an important part in Győr cultural life when the theatrical company led by József Benke introduced itself in the town. So the common, value creating work of the two nations could start then although sometimes there were rivalries, too. By the beginning of the 19

th century the socalled 'acting-routes' had been formed, that started from Vienna, went to Pozsony then to and across Győr. Due to the location of the town, it was often decided here at which stages they get the possibility of acting, either towards east or to the south. So Győr got a significant cultural part in distributing, accepting and reporting role. The badly damaged theatre - because of the occupying Napoleon troops in 1809 - was hardly repaired for decades. It was restored in 1839 with the help of handicraft and architectural operations so it could become a kind of jewel-case of Győr. Although it soon became small, the nicest Classicist theatre of the country served the theatrical profession until its pulling down in 1927. Numerous remarkable performances in the reform period made Győr known in the whole country. Popular theatre managers of Vienna and Pozsony like Ferdinand Kübler, Lorenz Gindl, Christoph Kuntz, Philipp Zölner, Franz Scherzer and Leopold Kattan worked in the town often for three or four seasons. Ferdinand Raimund, the Austrian dramatist and poet also started his career here.The librettist of the opera the 'Magic Flute', Emanuel Schikaneder acted here with his company with great success. Theatrical profession was also