Welcome Helga Dostal
President of the International Theatre Institute of the UNESCO / Centrum Österreich

Greetings Selim Yenel
Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Austria

Emil Brix
Ambassador, Austrian Foreign Ministry / Cultural Section

Wolfgang Greisenegger
University of Vienna; Department for Theater- Film- and Mediastudies

Opening Michael Hüttler
Don Juan Archiv Wien

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Session I (Opening Session)
“ Opera & Diplomacy ”
Chair: Gabriele C. Pfeiffer (Vienna)

Speakers:                   Suna Suner                                                 (Vienna)
Günsel Renda                                           (Istanbul)
Frank Huss                                                 (Vienna)

1. Suna Suner (Vienna)
The earliest Opera Performances in the Ottoman World and Ambassadors’ role.

What could be said about performance in the Ottoman Seraglio in the eighteenth century especially during the era of Sultan Selim III (1761-1808, r.1789-1807), who was a contemporary of Mozart? In Ottoman history, the eighteenth century is an era characterized by ‘westernization’ and a movement towards modernization (Mustafa Cezar in “Ottoman Cultural Scene in 18^th Century”, Association of Art History Pub. 3, Istanbul 1998: 44-5). But was it composed of and represented by acrobats, comedians, magicians, and shadow-theatre players belonging to the Sultan’s subjects performing in presence of the Sultan only for the mere sake of his entertainment? Could opera be talked about in the Ottoman world as early as the eighteenth century? What could be said about Ottoman Sultans engaging in and indulging themselves with opera as a form of entertainment or even as a form of performing art?

This paper, a constituent of a research project run by the Don Juan Archiv Wien since February 2007, provides a prelude to the series of symposia entitled Ottoman Empire & European Theatre – From the Beginnings to 1800. It will serve as background for the contributions to follow, potentially giving way to a productive exchange and discussion platform by portraying the earliest traces (1524) and evidence (1786) of the beginning of opera performances in the Ottoman world. Related to this issue, the paper endeavours also to present exploration of the relations of diplomacy and culture of the Ottoman Empire and the European States mainly in the eighteenth century.

The alluring and thought-provoking subject of the Ottoman Empire and European theatre undeniably deserves special attention not only in terms of theatre and cultural studies, but it is also consistent with the contemporary agenda of relations between Turkey and the European Union.

2. Günsel Renda (Istanbul)
European Ambassadors at the Ottoman Court: The Imperial Protocol in Late 18^th Century

In the Ottoman State, the reception of ambassadors was governed by an imperial protocol that was followed without change until the mid 19th Century. The ambassador would first visit the residence of the grand vizier where a date would be given to him for the official reception by the sultan. On the morning of the reception the ambassador and his retinue would proceed to the Topkapı Palace on horseback with a military escort. The procession would first pass through, Bâb-ı Hümâyûn (The Imperial Gate) and the Bâb-üs Selâm (“The Gate of Salutation) and then ushered into a chamber near the imperial council chamber where the grand vizier would serve the guests a dinner. The delegation would then observe a meeting of the council conducted by the grand vizier and subsequently be admitted to an adjoining room where the ambassador and his retinue were given fur-lined kaftans. Wearing these, they were admitted to the throne room. The sultan’s reception in the throne room followed strict rules of protocol.

With the increase in European diplomatic relations in the 18^th Century, the receptions of the ambassadors were documented in literary works and illustrated by several artists.

The paper will discuss the receptions of European ambassadors in the late 18^th Century using historical records, literary works and illustrations.

3. Frank Huss (Vienna)
AUF TÜRKISCHE ART PRÄCHTIG AUFGEPUTZT - The visit to Vienna by the extraordinary Ottoman Envoy, Chaddi Mustafa Effendi, in the year 1748

Chaddi Mustafa Effendi, the extraordinary envoy of the Ottoman ruler, Mahmud I (1696-1754, r. 1730-1754), set off from Constantinople for Vienna at the end of January, 1748. The reason for the envoy’s trip was primarily to confirm the peace treaty of Belgrade which had been concluded after the last war between the houses of Austria and Ottoman in 1739, with the new Holy Roman Emperor, Francis Stephen I (*1708-1765, r.1745-1765). In addition, the visit served to communicate the congratulations of the Ottoman ruler on the coronations of Francis Stephen as Emperor (1745) and of his wife, Maria Theresia (*1717-1780), as Queen of Hungary (1741), and to improve trade relations between the two countries.

However, the population of Vienna must have been more than a little astonished as Chaddi Mustafa rode through the outskirts of the city on May 15, 1748: his camp-followers consisted of approximately a hundred people, including trumpeters, a ‘‘stable attendant’ (Achor-Kihajasi), an equerry together with grooms, an Imam, the ‘‘Ceremoniarius’ (Capitschiler Kihajasi), the ‘Divan Effendi” (Legation Secretary), in addition to treasurers, chefs, water carriers, servants, slaves, military personnel and much more, as well as approximately fifty valuable horses and wagons, all draped in red.

The ‘diplomatic’ part of the visit consisted of audiences with the President of the Court Council of War, Count Johann Joseph Philipp von Harrach (on May 27, 1748), and with their imperial and royal majesties in the Wiener Burg, the main imperial residence (June 6 and June 10, 1748). After the second audience with the imperial majesties had been enjoyed, Chaddi Mustafa’s official work seemed to have been done and he could devote himself completely to pleasure. The program included, among other things, a visit to the Imperial Treasury and the gallery, a ‘kleine Jagd’ (‘small hunt’) in the Prater, a visit to the ‘so genannten Kahlenberg’ (‘so-called Kahlenberg’) to enjoy the pleasant ‘Sommer=Luft’ (summer air) there, a visit to the ‘Neu=Gebäu’, of the ‘Collegium der Gesellschaft Jesu’ (‘College of the Society of Jesus”), and ‘die aldasige Mathematische Kunst=Sammlung’ (‘mathematical art collection’); and as the highlight, four visits to the opera.

On July 14, the envoy and some of his retinue visited the ‘the theatre adjoining the castle, which was built under an imperial privilege’, in order to attend an ‘Italian musical opera’ (La Finta Pazzia di Diana).

On July 17, Chaddi Mustafa visited the Burgtheater once again, this time in the presence of the imperial family. On that evening, he attended the premiere of the most recent opera by the poet, Cesareo Pietro Metstasio (1698-1782) Alessandro nell’Indie with music by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777), featuring the alto, Vittoria Tesi (1700-1775), well-known all over Europe as Cleofide, and the castrato Angelo Amorevoli (1716-1798), known as Alexander, in the main roles. In the course of this performance, Chaddi Mustafa was also ‘treated again to confections and various sumptuous refreshments at the expense of the Imperial and Royal Court’. On Monday, the 29th of July, 1748, he attended a German comedy in the Kärntnertortheater. His fourth visit to the theatre was to the one adjacent to the castle for a performance of the opera, Orazio by Antonio Palomba (1705-1769), with music by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736).

The Wienerische Diarium mentioned in its edition of September 14, 1748, that the ‘Turkish extraordinary envoy Chaddi Mustafa Efendi had had his farewell audience with both reigning imperial majesties and in a few days had set out on his return journey to Constantinople’.

The peace treaties of Belgrade dating from the year 1739 were renewed because of the visit of the envoy and were to remain in effect for forty years. It was only in 1788 that Kaiser Josef II of Austria (*1741, r.1765-1790) took Russia’s side in a renewed war against the ‘Porte’ which was only ended by his brother and successor Leopold II (*1747, r.1790-1792) with the Treaty of Sistova (currently Svishtov, Bulgaria) of August 4, 1791. At that time, the Ottoman Sultan was the ‘Reform sultan’, Selim III (1761-1808, r. 1789-1807), who, in the course of his reforms, established in 1791 the first permanent diplomatic representation of the Ottoman Empire at the Imperial Court.

12:30-14:30 Lunch Break (AAI-Café, Türkenstr. 3, 1090 Vienna)

14:30-17:30 Session II
“ Cross Europe I – Besieging Vienna / Conquering London ”

Chair: Helga Dostal (Vienna)

Speakers:                   Memo G. Schachiner                                (Vienna)
Thomas Betzwieser                               (Bayreuth)
Emre Araci                                                (Kent)

1. Memo G. Schachiner (Vienna)
Janissary Music? Turkish Music? Great Confusion Everywhere!

Everybody knows what the Janissary Music is: This is the Turkish Music! What kind of music is it? Nobody knows!

The Ottomans called the Christians Kafir which stands for ‘ungodly’. And the Europeans called the Ottomans Turk, which also stands for ‘ungodly, main enemy of Christendom’. The Ottoman Empire was a multi-ethnical state and ‘Turk’ was neither a national nor an ethnical term. There has never been any ‘Turkish music’ in history.

Janissaries were the slave-soldiers in the private army of Ottoman Sultans. Their job was murdering, but not playing music.

However, there were not fewer books published about the Janissary Music in 20^th Century than about W. A. Mozart. Not about the music, but about the musical instruments of the Janissaries.

It is true, that there was a musical trend in German speaking countries in 18^th Century, called ‘Janissary Music’ or ‘Turkish Music’. In this music some new percussion Instruments were used, which were not known in the Ottoman Empire.

Another truth is, that the Ottoman Sultans had a very big field-(not only military-) music band that never used any ‘Turkish Crescent’ or ‘Triangle’. This kind of band was called as Mihterhane (“House of the Higher Officials”). But – except some Turkish journalists – nobody researched it scientifically till I did it.

The ‘nostalgia bands’ called Mehter Team in Turkey today are only a product of the fantasy of some European authors. In the martial spirit of the 1930s, beginning with Henry George Farmer (1882-1965), a lot of European authors created legends about the ‘Janissary Music’. These legends had been the ‘dogmas’ of musicology. I will report on the historical realities and compare them with those legends.

2. Thomas Betzwieser (Bayreuth)
Ottoman Representation and Musical “alla turca”: Visiting an unknown Viennese Theatre Source

In 1925, in his book Gluck und Durazzo im Burgtheater, Robert Haas mentioned a musical manuscript related to the ‘Turkish’ vogue in opera and ballet of the 1750s and 1760s. Since then, this document has remained unexplored by scholars, although it seems to be highly important in relation to musical and theatrical “exoticism” in Vienna. The manuscript entitled Airs et intermèdes de la Tragédie (A-Wn Cod. 17874) can be identified as incidental music (“Schauspielmusik”), a genre~~form~~ mostly ~~that was~~ uncommon in Viennese theatres at that time.

In the first instance, the paper tries to identify the Oriental play (i.e. tragedy), in which these intermèdes may have been inserted (e.g. Voltaire’s Zaire). In a second step, it investigates the character of the source, since the manuscript presents, habits and customs of the Ottoman society. The intermèdes are divided into several sections related to , specific official and religious ceremonies: La visite des Turcs, Le repas, L’audience, La priere, and Pratique de dévotion des Derviches.

The most interesting issue, however, is the music. The manuscript consists of thirteen pieces which seem to be a compilation of ‘Turkish’ music known to that date. Some could be identified as Austrian pieces (e.g. by Johann Joseph Fux, 1660-1741); others, surprisingly, as French ‘Oriental’ pieces that were composed in relation to a political Ottoman-French encounter in 1742. The manuscript also includes pieces that present entirely new ‘Turkish’ features that were not common in the Viennese ‘alla turca’ repertoire, leading to the assumption that the intermèdes were designed and composed for an official, political Austrian-Ottoman event at that time, which could explain their extraordinary theatrical and musical character.

3. Emre Araci (London)
Investigating Ottoman Musical Representations in Britain from Late Late Eighteenth to Mid-nineteenth Century

The first permanent Ottoman Ambassador to the Court of St James, Yusuf Agâh Efendi (1744-1823/24), arrived in London in December 1793 as the representative of Sultan Selim III (1761-1808, r.1789-1807). The ambassador’s arrival in the city seems to have sparked a series of Ottoman-themed musical and stage performances and the creation of a number of grand Turkish ambassadorial marches by British composers.

This paper looks at different representations of ‘Turks’ and Ottoman related subjects in British musical life from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, from stage works to military music, from fashionable balls in London to the fierce battles of Crimea, finally culminating in the celebrated visit of Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876, r.1861-1876) to London in 1867, which was marked by a grand choral hymn sung in the Ottoman language by sixteen hundred British singers at Crystal Palace.

18:00 Closing of the First Day

19:30 Concert and Reception at the Turkish Embassy (by Invitation)

Welcome: Selim Yenel
Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Austria

Concert / Recital: Nadja Kayali (Concept and Presentation), Christopher Hinterhuber (Piano), Jennifer Davison (Soprano), Brigitte Pekarek (Reading)

Turkish Embassy, Prinz Eugen Straße 40, 1040 Vienna

26^th April 2008, Saturday

09:00-11:00 Session III
“ Italian Reflections ”

Chair: Michael Hüttler (Vienna)

Speakers:                   Derek Weber                                             (Vienna)
Marianne Traven                                     (Uppsala)
Erich Duda                                                  (Vienna)

1. Derek Weber (Vienna)
From Zaide to Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Mozart on his Oriental Way to German Opera

Mozart has written two ‘Turkish’ operas: The first, and unfinished Zaide (composed in Salzburg at the turn of 1779/80; KV 344), and some years later, better known, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”, composed in Vienna 1781/82; KV 384).

Zaide was composed in Salzburg, at a time determined by different musical experiments in the realm of symphony as well as music for the stage, for instance the revision of the music to Thamos König von Egypten (“Thamos, King of Egypt“; KV 345). Not withstanding the music’s beauty, Zaide has received attention only during the last decades. The main reason: the opera not only remained unfinished; it stops at a crucial dramaturgic point (when two of the protagonists have been sentenced to death and no ‘good’ solution is in sight). Moreover, the original spoken dialogs have been lost and had to be supplemented (in the middle of the 19^th century) by the text of the presumed model to the libretto – a Türkenstück of a certain Franz Josef Sebastiani († p. 1778), with music composed by Joseph Frieberth (1724-1799) Das Serail. Oder: Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft in der Sclaverey zwischen Vater, Tochter und Sohn (“The Seraglio. Or: The Unexpected Encounter in Slavery from Father, Daughter, and Son”), printed in Bozen 1779.

Although Zaide lacks the dramatic unity of Idomeneo, which was completed only one year later (premiered Munich, jan. 29^th 1781), it is Mozart´s most tragic opera and represents the important first step on the way to his ‘German’ operas, the Entführung (Vienna, July 16^th 1782) and Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”, Vienna, September 30^th 1791).

Zaide contains two melologs. In the opera Mozart hits – quasi in the first run – the tone he later exposes in Entführung and in Zauberflöte, and introduces subjects and characters (the harem overseer Osmin, falling in love with a portrait), to which he comes back in his later ‘German’ stage works. It is in this sense, that Zaide was maybe more decisive for Mozart’s further development than Idomeneo.

Mozart’s esteem of the music can be seen (or better: heard) by the fact, that he implemented a Zaide melody into the Entführung: In Constanza´s aria second aria “Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose”, the flutes strike up a phrase from the last number of the Zaide music, the Quartet, which is then taken over by the singing voice with the words “Selbst der Luft darf ich nicht sagen meiner Seele bittern Schmerz”.

However, there is a big difference between Zaide and Constanze: Zaide is a naive young girl in love, who seems to act instinctively. Constanze is a women with a ‘past’. She is much more determined in her decisions, but also more melancholic. Even if she is young, she seems to be a mature woman in conflict with herself after she has encountered Bassa Selim (who in fact is not an oriental character, but a ‘renegade’, which in Mozart’s time meant a European Christian, converted to Islam). The Bassa (Pasha) is the opposite of one Sultan Soliman, a patient admirer of Constanze, even when he threatens to use drastic measures, if he should not be heard. His particular character is underlined by the fact that he is not a singer, but an actor.

But not only are the characters more developed and less schematic in the Entführung. In this second of his ‘German’ operas Mozart also finds to a new equilibrium between the comic and the tragic. Here, the humor refers to all things people in Mozart’s times would think to know about the ‘Orient’: that Moslems were forbidden to drink alcohol, that rulers used to keep women in harems, and that they were uncultured and bloodthirsty. Another aspect of this concession to the public taste was the use of ‘Turkish’ elements in music, whereas Zaide does not contain one single ‘oriental’ piece of music.

If one can mark Entführung the key work for Mozart’s dramaturgic development, Zaide appears as the necessary first step in that direction

2. Marianne Traven (Uppsala)
Getting Emotional – Mozart’s ‘Turkish’ Operas and The Emotive Aspect of Slavery

This paper explores the emotive aspect and rhetoric of slavery as depicted by Mozart in the operas Zaide (unfinished; composed 1779/80; KV 344), and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (composed 1781/82; KV 384) and L’oca del Cairo (draft; 1783; KV 422). Mozart’s compositional process rested on traditional musical rhetoric, combined with para- and extralinguistic material as well as musical gesture, all merged through harmonic structure. In Mozart’s ‘Turkish’ operas emotional prosody and musical gesture create the very image of slavery. This image reappears in other operassuch as Don Giovanni (1787), creating a kind of hypertext that often eludes even experienced listeners

3. Erich Duda (Vienna)
Franz Xaver Süßmayer’s Sinfonia Turchesca (Vienna 1784/87), Il Turco in Italia (Prague 1794), and Soliman II (Vienna 1799)

Franz Xaver Süßmayr (1766 Schwanenstadt – 1803 Vienna) and his works are little known, apart from the fact that he was a student and a personal friend of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, and that after Mozart’s death Süßmayr completed Mozart’s Requiem. In this paper, three pieces with ‘Turkish’ themes composed by Süßmayr will be presented and analyzed: the Sinfonia Turchesca, and the operas Il Turco in Italia, and Soliman II.

“Sinfonia turchesca in C” might be the first of Süßmayr’s ‘Turkish’ works. Only one apograph copy exists of this work so the period of composition can only be estimated as between 1784 and 1787, although some stylistic elements suggest that it may have been composed after 1800. A representative part of an audio recording of the work performed by the Concentus Musicus Wien and conducted by Paul Angerer will be discussed.

Süßmayer wrote his first stagework in the ‘Turkish’ genre not for a libretto specifically written for him, but for an existing one: Il Turco in Italia, by Caterino Mazzolà (1745-1806), set to music by the Saxon Franz Seydelmann (1748-1806). It premiered in 1788 in Dresden, and was also presented ten times in 1789 in the Vienna Nationaltheater. Süßmayer composed his music for the Prague Italian Opera Company whose impresario, Domenico Guardasoni (1731-1806), is known for having staged the Prague premiere of Don Giovanni (Da Ponte/Mozart, October 29, 1787) and La Clemenza di Tito (Metastasio rev. Mazzolà/Mozart, 06.09.1791), for the latter of which, Mozart had taken Süßmayer to Prague.

The adaptor of Mazzolà’s Turco in Italia is unknown, but he changed the title, so the opera premiered as Il Musulmano a Napoli in the Prague Landständische Theater on February 12, 1794. Süßmayer’s opera was still in Guardasoni’s repertoire in autumn Ocotber 1, 1794. Whether there were performances of the opera in other towns is not known.

Süßmayer’s last work with a ‘Turkish’ theme is the opera Soliman der Zweite, based on Charles Simon Favart’s (1710-1792) Soliman II ou Les trois Sultanes (Paris 1761). The libretto was prepared by Franz Xaver Huber (1755-1814), and premiered on October 1, 1799 in the Kärntnerthor-Theater, Vienna. Because it appealed to the fashion of the era, this opera became very popular and was presented sixty times at various theatres in Vienna, as well as in Budapest, Salzburg, Baden near Vienna, Prague, and Bremen. An aria from this opera performed by Ms. Ildikó Raimondi and recorded on CD, will be discussed.

The ‘Turkish flair’ of these works is achieved with percussion instruments and piccolo flutes, and also through the “exotic” flavours of the melody and harmony. At the time, this kind of music was fashionable and it brought some success to Süßmayr.

11:00-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-13:00 Session IV
“ Center On The Edge – The Habsburg Monarchy ”

Chair: Ulf Birbaumer (Vienna)

Speakers: Matthias Pernerstorfer (Vienna)
Gabriele Pfeiffer (Vienna)

1. Matthias J. Pernerstorfer (Vienna)
The Second Turkish Siege of Vienna (1683) Reflected in Its First Centenary: “Anniversary Plays” in the Pálffy Theatre-Library

A project by the Don Juan Archiv Wien is dedicated to the cataloguing of the “Theater-Bibliothek Pálffy” (Pálffy Theatre Library, abbrv. as BP), a collection of more than 2,300 plays in 706 volumes from the years 1741 through 1845. The collection owes its genesis to several members of the Pálffy family which had a distinct role in Mozart’s reception in Vienna as early as 1762. The plays offer a cross-section of the repertoire of the Viennese stages during the time of Sultan Selim III (1761-1808, r.1789-1807) and Mozart (1756-1791), allowing valuable insight into the diversity of ‘Turkish’ topics that were brought to the stage. In addition to a description of the project and general evaluation of the almost unknown collection, the presentation focuses on two plays by Paul Weidmann (1744-1801) and Friedrich Gensicke (1750-1784) that are interesting in relation to the centenary celebration of the end of the second Turkish siege held September 12, 1783.

Paul Weidmann had already written an original drama in five acts Das befreyte Wien (“Vienna Liberated”, BP Vol. 206) in 1775, which was restaged in September 1783. The second Turkish siege of Vienna therefore offers a historical background for discussing the issue of patriotism and honour, as well as the individual’s duty towards his or her threatened homeland. This enlightened discourse - in which the besiegers appear simply as the enemy or “the Turks” - is studded by scenes in which the comical figure Kolschüzki rudely describes activities in the Turkish camp, and the unpatriotic Baroness von Schwindheim is unflatteringly portrayed adopting inappropriately unenlightened ideas that are unbefitting of her position as she volunteers her poor opinion of the Turks. Even though the siege and liberation of Vienna was not interpreted as a religious war, the victors are ultimately celebrated as “heroes of Christianity” (V/6, p. 75) in the last act.

Friedrich Gensicke’s drama in three acts, Die belohnte Treue der Wiener Bürger oder: der 12te September 1683 (“The Rewarded Loyalty of Vienna’s Citizens, Or: The 12^th of September 1683”, BP, Vol. 56) was explicitly written, printed and staged “to celebrate the 100-year anniversary” of Vienna’s liberation from the second Turkish siege. The drama stages both the besieged city and the Turkish camp, showing on both sides people placing hopes in their respective gods. With the appearance of the allegorical figures Peace, Hope, and Rumour, as well as Vienna’s guardian angel, the play receives a metaphysical superstructure. As these figures talk about events in the world, they do not assume a superior Christian God: they view the course of history as determined by fate, which is not defined by one religion. This interesting concept is only sacrificed in the last scene of the play for a patriotic final tableau, when the (partisan) guardian angel of Vienna declares that its city’s victory is also a victory for Christianity. Consequently, even though it is a play of strict patriotism, the battle for Vienna is constructed as a religious war almost exclusively to the human figures.

2. Gabriele C. Pfeiffer (Vienna)
Freemason, Mozart’s Contemporary, Theatre-Director on the Edge: Franz Kratter and Der Friede am Pruth (“The Treaty of Prut”, 1799). Cataloguing “Komplex Mauerbach”, Vienna

“Komplex Mauerbach” is an inventory of mostly German language theatre texts from the mid-eighteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century. The volumes in the collection represent cultural assets that had formerly been Jewish property, were confiscated in Austria by the Nazi administration (1938-1945) and, after the end of that period, could not be restored to the their owners or heirs. From 1955 the books, together with other non-restituted objects, were collected and saved at a Charterhouse on the outskirts of Vienna, Kartause Mauerbach, hence the name “Mauerbach Collection”. The entire Mauerbach Collection was auctioned at the Mauerbach Benefit Sale by Christie's Auction House during the Austrian millennium year of 1996 to benefit the victims of the Holocaust. The twelve lots of theatre texts are comprised of about 2,900 small books with about 3,600 plays. The purchaser and current owner defines the property not as a “collection” in the strict sense, but as a “complex of multiple origin”. Therefore the ensemble of booklets is called the “Komplex Mauerbach”. In 2007, the Don Juan Archiv Wien was entrusted with the task of cataloguing and editing this “Komplex”.

The inventory includes eighty-six identifiable “Oriental plays,” (representing about 2.4%of the inventory catalogued as of January 31, 2008) , which were produced between 1751 and 1909. The series starts with Mahomed der Vierte (“Mahomed the Fourth”; Vienna 1751, Mauerbach No. [MB] 1435), who was Sultan III Selim’s great-grandfather (1642-1693, r.1648-1687), and closes with Die Geschichte des Alî Inb Bekkâr mit Schams An Nahâr (“The Story of Alî Inb Bekkâr with Schams An Nahâr”; Vienna/Leipzig 1909, MB 0001). It contains mostly plays, but also libretti, such as one which was composed by Mozart’s last student, Franz Xaver Süßmayer (1766-1803), Solimann der Zweite oder Die drei Sultaninen (“Solimann the Second or The Three Sultanas”; Vienna 1799, MB 1000).

The titles of the plays may refer to specific character types such as ‘the Moor’ in the Mohr von Demegonda (“Moor of Demegonda”; Vienna 1805, MB 0560-61), and to historic figures such as this symposion’s Sultan, Selim der Dritte (“Selim The Third”; Vienna 1872, MB 1766), written by an Ottoman diplomat, the Austrian renegade Murat Effendi (1839-1881). A series of diplomats is represented, starting with Mädchenfreundschaft oder Der türkische Gesandte (“Girl’s amity or The Turkish Envoy”; Vienna 1811, MB 1380/05); as well as the host cities for this symposium, in Die Wäringer in Konstantinopel (“The Warings in Constantinople”; Berlin 1828, MB 1813), for example, or Die Türken vor Wien (”The Turks Outside Vienna”; s.l. 1883, MB 0308); as are places such as Der Harem (”The Harem”; s.l. 1811, MB 1387). This inventory presents the possibility of establishing thematic groups within the ‘Oriental plays’ such as sultan dramas and comedies, magical and magical-harems plays, diplomat plays, and heroic-historical plays.

Among the many aspects (only some of which have been mentioned here), the plays by the Bavarian Franz Kratter (1758-1830), one of Mozart's contemporaries who also was a fellow Freemason in Vienna, focus on a special group: three dramas with Czar Peter I of Russia (*1672, r.1682-1725†); the third of which, Der Friede am Pruth (“The Treaty of Prut”; Frankfurt 1799, MB 1422), touches upon a special part of Ottoman history that was well known in the late eighteenth century. Since 1700, the Czar of Russia was engaged in a war against King of Sweden Carl XII (*1682, r.1697-1718) and emerged as the victor in 1709. The Swedish king then fled to Constantinople, where he was received and protected by Sultan Ahmed III (1673-1736, r.1703-1730, grandfather of Selim III). A certain episode of that situation is told in Carl XII. Bey Bender (“Carl XII^th Bey Bender”, Grätz 1800, MB 2486) by Christian August Vulpius (1762-1827), who was, after 1806, brother-in-law of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832).

Is it possible that the sultan began a war with Russia on behalf of his highborn protégé? On July 23, 1711, as a result of the historical Treaty of Prut, the Czar was obligated to guarantee the King of Sweden a safe journey home. (Prut is a tributary stream of the Danube, rising in what is now the Ukraine, and flowing through Rumania and Moldova.) Eighty-eight years later, in 1799, Kratter’s play Der Friede am Pruth was printed (Grätz, MB 1419; Frankfurt, MB 1422). In the spring of that year, the play was already in the repertoire of the Weimar court theatre. “The idea of making a drama out of this material” also appealed to Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), as he wrote, on June 11, 1799, from Jena to his friend Goethe, then the Weimar court theatre’s director: “But the play may not be that special since you did not say anything about it,” Schiller presumed.

Among other things, this contribution explores the question of what the subject was on which Goethe remained silent..

13:00-14:30             Lunch Break (AAI-Café, Türkenstr. 3, 1090 Vienna)

14:30-16:45             Session V (Closing Session)
“ Cross Europe II – From Denmark to The Sublime Porte ”

Chair:                         Stefan Hulfeld                                            (Vienna)

Speakers:                   Bent Holm                                         (Copenhagen)
Annemarie Bönsch                                     (Vienna)
Käthe Springer                                           (Vienna)

1.       Bent Holm (Copenhagen)
The ‘Turk’ on Stage in Danish 18^th Century Theatre

In eighteenth-century Denmark the ‘Turk' appears in various performative contexts: in non-theatrical stagings, such as royal or popular festivities; on stage as a character in translated plays such as Voltaire’s (1694-1778) tragedy Zaira (Copenhagen 1757) or Charles Simon Favart’s (1710-1792) opéra comique Soliman Second ou Les Trois Sultanes (Copenhagen 1770); and on stage in comic or dramatic plays written by Danish playwrights and produced for the Danish theatre. These various depictions refer to historical-religious contexts, to fascination and fashion, and to actual political events.

The paper will specifically focus on two performances: the tragicomedy Melampe (1724) by Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), and the opera Holger Danske (“Holger the Dane”, 1789) by Jens Baggesen (1764-1826) and Fl.L.Ae Kunzen (1761-1817). Melampe takes place in southern Italy in the late 1690s. Part of the plot is related to confrontations with the Osmanli Empire, and considered in light of contemporary texts such as Luther’s treatises, Melampe presents the Turk in an apocalyptical perspective. Holger Danske deals with the eponymous legendary Danish national hero. Holger arrives to the Sultan’s court as an envoy from Charlemagne. The opera depicts the Osmanli conduct and mentality in a significant contrast to those of the chivalrous Nordic hero. At the time (1788-1789), Denmark was at war with Sweden as a consequence of the Swedish-Russian conflict. Sweden shared interests with the Osmanli Empire in that connection. As we will see, the image of the ‘Turk’ had complex implications.

2. Annemarie Bönsch (Vienna)
‘Turkish’ and ‘Exotic’ References in the Fashion of the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

The pan-European character of the Enlightenment presented itself without a consciousness of nationalities, but also without a sense of history. This meant there was no demand for historical or national authenticity in fashion and the theatre. The idea of tolerance probably resulted from this attitude (Voltaire: L'Orphelin de la Chine, Paris 1755; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Nathan der Weise, Berlin 1779; W. A. Mozart/Johann Gottlieb Stephanie according to Christoph Friedrich Bretzner: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Wien 1782). Superficial, global enthusiasm for ‘exotic’ themes emerged, as evident in the famous example of Marie Antoinette’s Creole shirt of 1783. Without any regard of losses, aristocrats availed themselves of everything in the world. Time and again, they dressed à la turque, à la circassienne, à la polonaise, or even according to native models such as à la cauchoise, evoking he style of Caux in Normandy. But these were frequently merely designations, with concrete signals that are no longer discernible today. At the time, they presumably glossed over these considerations by placing the “à la” in front of the words. They did not have the intention of confronting the feigned authenticity, but hid behind it.

As a result, nations encountered each other without difficulties at the masked balls of the court. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, for example, the emperor and empress acted in “hostels” (“Wirtschaft”) as innkeepers and the guests appeared as farmers from all four corners of the earth, representing nations that were enemies at the time.

In late eighteenth century the supranational search for a common “European” fashion model ultimately ended in antiquity, and Hellenistic clothing gave rise to Empire fashion.

3. Käthe Springer (Vienna)
Mozart Goes Constantinople! The Real Conditions of a Fictitious Journey

In August of 1791, Mozart received an invitation to Constantinopel (usually called Konstantiniyye by the Ottomans, Istanbul since 1930) or “Constantinopl”, as his father called that city in a letter from Vienna, dated 10 December 1762, to Johann Lorenz Hagenauer (1712-1792) in Salzburg. The Treaty of Sistova (today Svishtov, Bulgaria) of 4 August 1791 had just ended the last war between the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires (1788-1791), making possible a journey from Vienna to Constantinople. Indeed, such travel was even desirable because the consequences of the war were bitter for Mozart who found himself with a falling-off in commissions. Trips to Berlin (1789) and Frankfurt am Main (1790) had not brought the desired professional results and he had rejected an invitation to the metropolis of London in November 1790. On top of this all, the new empress disliked La clemenza di Tito (“Titus’ Mildness”), the opera for the new emperor that was staged in Prague, September 6, 1791. It was then that Mozart received a summons to the other “imperial city”, to the court of the Sultan, Selim III (ruled 1789-1807), who was barely thirty years old at the time. Mozart, in his thirty-sixth year, accepted the invitation with alacrity. In October, following the premiere of the “great romantic opera” Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”) in Vienna on September 30, 1791, Mozart headed off. To pass the time during the journey, he composed his final work, Kleine Freimaurer-Kantate (“Little Freemason Cantata”), in a spirit of optimism and with the hope of performing it at the lodges of Smyrna (Izmir, since 1930) or Constantinople. Or was it the composer’s gift to his host in Hermannstadt?

It was to be Mozart’s last journey. His wife Konstanze (1762-1842), who was taking a cure in Baden near Vienna because of a leg ailment, remained behind in the company of Mozart’s student, Franz Xaver Süßmayr (1766-1803). She did not expect that she would never again see Wolfgang alive but he died on December 5, 1791 in Constantinople. - Or did he?

This fictitious journey gives us the opportunity to demonstrate how people travelled during Mozart’s lifetime in the second half of the eighteenth century, and to consider the requirements and conditions of such a journey, the type of infrastructure that existed, the modes of transportation and routes that were taken, etc. The presentation will comment on how this period fits into the history of travel, and give a sense of Mozart as a traveller. But first and foremost, it will describe the possible journey made by the composer into the Ottoman Empire: for him, an artistic experiment to put to the test the ‘Oriental’ fantasies that were popular on European stages in the eighteenth century. These fantasies themselves are to be analyzed during the course of this symposium at the relevant locations: Vienna and Istanbul. For some of the conference participants, both of these cities are connected by real travel; for others, their journeys will be imaginary expeditions like Mozart’s. May all of us have a pleasant journey and new scholarly insights as we depart into the unknown.

16:45-17:00 Coffee Break

17:00-18:00 Roundtable Discussion
Comments, Reflections (Free Speech)

19:30 Symposium Closing Evening:

Dinner at Summerstage, Roßauer Lände, 1090 Vienna

27^th April 2008, Sunday

10:00-12:00 Coffee Meeting at Don Juan Archiv, Goethegasse 1/4/1, 1010 Vienna

Preview:

(Act II) ISTANBUL

5^th June 2008, Thursday

09:30-10:30 Istanbul Symposium Opening Ceremony

11:00-13:15 Session I (Opening Session) “ Cultural Interferences ”

Chair: Aysin Candan (Istanbul)

1. Walter Puchner (Athens): Earliest Performances of European Drama in 17^th Century Istanbul

2. William F. Parmentier (Istanbul): The mehter: Cultural Perceptions and Interpretations of Turkish Drum and Bugle Music through History

3. Babür Turna (Ankara): The Watcher and The Watched: 18^th Century Ottoman diplomatic Visitors in Europe as Spectators and ‘Performers’

14:30-16:45 Session II “ Sultan Selim III ”

Chair: Suraiya Faroqhi (Istanbul)

1. Günsel Renda (Istanbul): Sultan III Selim – A Reformer’s Life

2. Aysin Candan (Istanbul): Sultan Selim III and His Play World

3. Mustafa Fatih Salgar: Sultan Selim III as A Man of Letters and Art

6^th June 2008, Friday

09:00-11:15 Session III “‘Turkish’ Sujets in 18^th Century German Language Theatre”

Chair: Gertrude Durusoy (Izmir)

1. Ulf Birbaumer (Vienna): ‘Exotism’ and ‘Turqueries’ in the Parisian Théâtre de la Foire of the Early 18^th Century and in the Viennese Bernardoniades of the Mid-18^th Century

2. Lale Babaoglu (Istanbul): “Summa Turcica” - The Image of the ‘Turk’ in 18^th Century’s German Language Drama

3. Michael Hüttler (Vienna): Representation of ‘Turks’ on the Late 18^th Century Vienna Stage – ‘Oriental’ Fantasies or Political Reality ?

11:30-13:00 Session IV “ Mozart and Turkishness ”

Chair: Michael Hüttler (Vienna)

1. Matthew Head (London) “In the Orient of Vienna”: Mozart’s Turkish Music (1771-1791) and the Theatrical Self

2. Nadja Kayali (Vienna): Mozart’s ‘Orient’ on Stage

14:30-16:00 Session V “ Hero In Sultan’s Harem ”

Chair: Gertrude Durusoy (Izmir)

1. Hans-Peter Kellner (Copenhagen): From the Prince of Denmark in the Sultan’s Harem to Don Juan in the Royal Danish Chambers : The forgotten Composer Friedrich Ludwig Aemilius Kunzen (1761-1817)

2. Hans Ernst Weidinger (Vienna): “In Turchia novantuna” – Don Juan Crossing The Ottoman World

16:30-17:30 Roundtable Discussion

19:30 Symposium Closing Program
Concert at the Austrian Cultural Forum

11:00-12:30 Session I (Opening Session) “ Opera & Diplomacy ” Chair: Gabriele C. Pfeiffer (Vienna)

14:30-17:30 Session II “ Cross Europe I – Besieging Vienna / Conquering London ”

09:00-11:00 Session III “ Italian Reflections ”

27th April 2008, Sunday

11:00-12:30 Session I (Opening Session)
“ Opera & Diplomacy ”
Chair: Gabriele C. Pfeiffer (Vienna)

14:30-17:30 Session II
“ Cross Europe I – Besieging Vienna / Conquering London ”

09:00-11:00 Session III
“ Italian Reflections ”

27^th April 2008, Sunday