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Servandoni at Württemberg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Bert O. States
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Extract

On June 15, 1763, Jean Nicholas Servandoni was hired for one year at a salary of 15,000 marks (7,500 gulden), travel expenses, free lodging, and a carriage to work at the court of Herzog Karl Eugen in Württemberg. Thanks to the industry of Joseph Uriot, the Duke's librarian, we have brief but invaluable descriptions of the fifteen decorations which he produced for the spectacles of February 11, 1764, the magnificent festival in honor of the Duke's birthday.

Not at the opera, nor at any time in his career, was Servandoni's genius challenged as it was here, for he was in the company of Europe's most celebrated theatre personalities and perhaps its most sophisticated audience. His colleague for the occasion was Innocenz Colomba (1717–1793), an Italian designer of wide reputation, who had worked for the Duke since 1761. The operas were in the charge of Niccolo Jommelli, the chapel master there, and the ballets of Jean-Georges Noverre and his company of one hundred dancers, not including twenty principal performers each of whom had been first, dancer at one of Italy's chief theatres. The costumes were designed by Louis Boquet who spent a month each year at Württemberg.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , November 1964 , pp. 87 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1964

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References

NOTES

1 Krauss, Rudolf and Abert, Hermann, Herzog Karl Eugen von Württemberg und seine zeit (Esslingen, 1907), p. 515.Google Scholar Servandoni had to hire his own workers. When his contract ran out, it was prolonged from June 15 to September 5 under the same conditions (for 83 days he received 3,402 marks).

2 Colomba's contract, despite his longer relation with the Duke's court, was not as good as Servandoni's. He was required to produce four decors at his own expense. He waited until the end of the festivities for his pay of 5,000 gulden. See Sittard, Joseph, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Württembergischen Hofe, II (Stuttgart, 1890), pp. 61–62.Google Scholar

3 Noverre, Charles E., The Life and Works of the Chevalier Noverre (London, 1882), p. 22.Google Scholar

4 Herzog Karl Eugen, p. 518. Boquet's salary was 2,500 gulden.

5 Seingalt, Jacques Casanova de, Mémoires, IV (Paris, n.d.), 250.Google Scholar

6 Ganz, , Lettres Virtembergeoises ou La Vérité sans fard oposée à la pure vérité et la vérité telle qu'elle est. Ouvrage traduit de l'Allemand et enrichi de remarques (Vraibourg, 1766), p. 111.Google Scholar

7 Sittard, II, 62.

8 Ganz, p. 108.

9 Uriot, Joseph, Descriptions des Fêtes données à l'occasion du jour de naissance de son altesse… le Duc …de Wiirttemberg (Stuttgart, 1764), p. 33.Google Scholar

10 Saintenoy, , “Servandoni: sa vie et son séjour en Belgique,” p. 42.Google Scholar

11 Uriot, pp. 33–34.

12 Quinault's Alceste was probably Servandoni's main source.

13 Ganz, p. 109. “Depuis son séjour dans cette cour il a mis en pratique les preceptes qu'il avoit publié alors. Dans les derniers Ballets [Ganz is writing in 1766] les Danseurs ont sçu par leurs mouvemens exprimer toutes les passions d'une manière admirable. Ce ne sont proprement plus des Danses; ce sont de grands Evenemens représentez purement par les mouvemens du corps, sans y emploier la parole, et cependant très-differens des Pantomimes ordinaires.”

14 Spindler was the machinist, perhaps assisted by Christian Keim who had been in charge since 1751.