Theatre
The Concert
Das Konzert
Hermann Bahr · 1909
Opening lines
Frau Fanny Mell
Fräulein!
Miss!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from projekt-gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Gustav Heink, a pianist and teacher adored by his pupils, tells his wife that a secret concert is calling him away. In reality he leaves for a mountain chalet with one of his pupils. Warned by another, the wife comes to an understanding with the young woman's husband, and the two of them go up to the chalet.
Context
The volume appeared on 1 August 1909 from Erich Reiss in Berlin, with a dedication to Richard Strauss, who refused to recognise himself in the main character: he said he saw in him Felix Weingartner, then director of the Vienna Opera. The premiere took place on 23 December of the same year in three cities at once, Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, the Berlin version being staged by Otto Brahm at the Lessingtheater, in the author's absence. In 1914 Pierre Veber and Maurice Rémon made a French adaptation of it, performed by Réjane.
Who it is for
A short text, three acts and a single plot, that reads quickly. It helps to know that the title refers to a concert that never takes place: it is the pretext given for leaving.
Prizes and reception
Its author's most frequently performed play. Revived on Broadway as early as 1910 in a version that erased everything that remained Austrian, it ran for two hundred and sixty-four evenings there.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.