Theater in Böhmen

The encyclopedia Theater in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien. Von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts can be considered as the second German updated and enlarged edition of the Czech version Starš divadlo v ceskch zemch do konce 18. stolet - Osobnosti a dla (Prague 2007). Owing to this publication information on theatre history in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia from the beginnings to the end of the 18th century is also accessible to the non-Czech speaking public. The encyclopedia is not restricted to regional theatrical phenomena only, as the mentioning of the travel routes taken by the protagonists from Vienna via Prague and Leipzig to Denmark or from Mainz to Riga and St. Petersburg, proves. In addition, the encyclopedia places emphasis on covering supraregional theatre forms like the English comedians, Commedia dell`arte, the Italian Opera, the clerical theatre played in Latin, French and German plays and musical theatre as well as local religious theatre traditions and the secular amateur theatre. Hence, a wide variety of phenomena are comprised, thus proving the historically developed linguistic and formal heterogeneity of theatre spectacles in the area of today`s Czech Republic. Structure: In the preface the editors comment on the development of the two editions, followed by the initials of the 47 authors and a list of abbreviations of works cited ten times or more often in the encyclopedia. Moreover, additional details introducing the articles are given. The core of the encyclopedia is 383 articles on persons - playwrights, librettists, composers, actors, singers, dancers, puppeteers, artists, directors, patrons - and anonymous works. Among the persons chosen are those who especially influenced theatre at the time; who are to be held accountable for the change in style, genre or occupation image and/or whose creative and organizational activities are associated with a special event, an outstanding creative achievement or a certain era of theatre history. The encyclopedia includes mostly playwrights, composers and directors of theatre troupes, whereas actors are not always mentioned. It comprises artists from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, regardless of whether they worked in a theatre within or without the boundaries of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Moreover, it incorporates artists who were born outside these Lands, but are of great importance for Bohemian theatre history. In this context, many of the persons were for the first time biographically presented. Several indices help to orientate in the encyclopedia: a list of the articles gives a quick overview, an index of names; an index of places and an index of titles allow searching more accurately. Finally, a commented table of illustrations gives additional information on the 182 images.