The first Hoftheater in Dresden, 1835--1941: Gottfried Semper and the problem of theater design

The first Dresden Hoftheater was the first of Semper's many designs for the theater and a work of European significance. Yet nowhere in the literature does one find a full documentary account or a balanced and nuanced appraisal of the building. In the process of filling a lacuna in Semper studies, this dissertation proposes major revision.;Analysis of the building is undertaken in a series of overlapping contexts that are at once documentary and interpretative. While traditional architectural issues are examined thoroughly, special emphasis is placed on the cultural context of opera and drama. By focusing on this single building project, one covers of the issue of theater for the whole of Semper's Dresden period: from 1835, when the architect first proposed his idea of a theater as part of a project to extend the royal Zwinger, to 1849, when he published a monograph on the completed Hoftheater from exile in Paris. With the building considered in careful chronological sequence, one gains insight into Semper's complex struggle with ideas on the theater. Following the process of layers accruing in phase after phase of revision, an account of the first Dresden Hoftheater provides a fascinating record of Semper's on-the-job apprenticeship as a theater architect. It also contributes to an understanding of the larger cultural moment.;Major components of this revision include: an explication of the Hoftheater as a design problem, a recognition of the importance of grand opera to the design of executed building, a clarification of the nature of Ludwig Tieck's influence on Semper, a clarification of the relationship between Semper and Richard Wagner in the Dresden period, an assessment of Semper's ambivalence with regard to issues of the theater, and an assessment of his status as proponent of a theater reform.;Conclusions drawn from this material provide a strong argument for this kind of integrated approach especially when the subject at hand is a cultural institution.