The Landestheater Altenburg is a multi-partstheatre in Altenburg and part of the . The venues used are the Großes Haus with 500 seats as well as the Heizhaus and the Theater unterm Dach. The general director and managing director since 2011 is .
History
The theatre years before 1871
After the death of Friedrich III, Altenburg came to Duke Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. In the former Schlossgartentheater, operas and melodramas by the Gotha Hofkapellmeister Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Georg Anton Benda were performed, e.g. Benda's melodramas Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea in 1775. In terms of actors, Friederike Caroline Neuber made guest appearances here for a long time around 1742 with her theatre company, and Konrad Ekhof from Gotha in 1775. In addition to plays by the young Lessing, plays by Diderot were also performed. When the theatre in the castle park was closed in 1779, there was an upsurge of civic initiatives: The stage in Pauritzer Gasse (1783-1842), later called "Altes Komödienhaus" (Old Comedy House), was converted by citizens of Altenburg from a barn into a "municipal theatre" with about 700 seats, including new types of stage equipment. Due to strong demand, mainly plays by Schiller were performed here. It was regularly visited by acting groups, e.g. in about 1818-1824 the company under theatre manager Sophie Walther and in 1820-1826 that of Carl Gerlach. The actor Carl Theodor Müller describes several engagements in Altenburg in his memoirs.
Among the most important musical performances were, for example. 1792 Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and 1812 Die Zauberflöte, 1822 Weber's Freischütz, 1825 Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Weber's Oberon, 1832 Auber's Fra Diavolo and 1843, under the conduct of the composer, Lortzing's play operas Zar und Zimmermann and Der Wildschütz (the young Albert Lortzing, born in 1801, had already appeared with his parents in Altenburg for the first time in the "Old Comedy House"), and the actress Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient gave guest performances in 1842 as Norma, among others. Norma in the opera of the same name by Bellini. Among the most prominent guests at the time was Marie Seebach. A significant phase of development was initiated in 1860 by the court conductor , who was a friend of Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz. In 1849, the "Privat- und Familientheater-Gesellschaft zu Altenburg" was founded (dissolved in 1857) as the successor to the "Liebhaber-Theater-Gesellschaft" (1794-1802) and the "Privat-Theater-Gesellschaft" (1802-1822). In 1864, Shakespeare's Hamlet opened the last season in this theatre.
The "Ducal Court Theatre" 1871-1914
In the middle of the 19th century, the Altenburg venues no longer met the demands of the public: in 1868, Duke Ernst I advocated the construction of a theatre in Altenburg. Thus, from 1869 to 1871, the "New Ducal Court Theatre" by architect Otto Brückwald, a pupil of Gottfried Semper, was built in the style of the Neo-Renaissance with three tiers (matroneum, balcony) and prosceniums and Mittellogen as well as a round ceiling mantle, whose allegorical paintings were created by the painter Höffemeyer from Munich. Including decoration and machinery, the construction costs amounted to approximately 350,000 marks. On 16 April 1871 the inauguration took place with Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber under the direction of Wilhelm Stade, who was the musical director until 1874. The first season began on 24 September 1871 with Heinrich Laube's Die Karlsschüler In addition to Bellini, Donizetti, Mozart, Lortzing, Schiller, Kotzebue and Scribe, the repertoire also included plays by Birch-Pfeiffer. Stade left rehearsals to the 2nd Kapellmeister , under whose directinon the celebrated Altenburg premiere of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser took place in 1873. In 1875, under the musical direction of Kapellmeister H. Heynke Wagner's Lohengrin and in 1876 Der fliegende Holländer. In 1886, Altenburg saw the first performances of Bizet's Carmen and Wagner's Meistersinger.
Operetta was also increasingly popular in these years with Jacques Offenbach's works and classical such as Carl Millöcker's Der Bettelstudent and Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss.