The Carl Meyer Theatre Company in Maribor

Abstract

The theatre company of impresario Carl Meyer hired the Maribor theatre for the 1840/41 and 1841/42 seasons. This Carl Meyer is not to be confused with the famous comedian and theatre director Carl Meyer (1750–1830) who founded the Viennese Theater in der Josefstadt in 1788. Maribor in those days was a small provincial town which, because of the nearness of Graz, was in a different situation from Ljubljana, Klagenfurt and Zagreb. In spite of a certain provincial character these cities represented bigger cultural centres in which theatrical life could develop more intensively than in Maribor, which did not even have a suitable theatre building. Therefore when discussing the theatrical repertoire of Maribor we have to employ different standards from those applying to more important dramatic and operatic institutions. According to these facts the repertoire of Meyer's company surpassed the programmes of other guest theatre companies in the first half of the 19th century. It was relatively rich and extensive and comprised literarily and musically important works (Weber's Preciosa, W. Müller's operettas and singspiels, Shakespeare, Schiller and Kleist as well as Nestroy's and Raimund's works), which could be found on the programmes of greater contemporary European theatres.