Pages from the history of the Lugoj Theatre
PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF THE LUGOJ THEATRE*
The Opening of the City Theatre
“At long last, after much struggle, worry and thought, the inhabitants of our peaceful Lugoj have their own theatre, built following all the rules of the modern world. The great edifice stands proudly on the left bank of river Timiş, just by the State Middle School”,
wrote, without hiding his satisfaction, Lugoj schoolmaster George Joandrea in the newspaper Tribuna poporului (IV, November 25 /December 8 1900, 3-4) after having attended the festive opening of the institution on December 1, 1900. The old theatre, which had closed down two years earlier, had been built in 1835 on the initiative of rope maker, violinist and Lugoj music education pioneer Anton Liszka (together with Joseph Ranftl, Johann Sas, Nikolaus Schieszler, Liszkas’ son Johann was member of a male vocal quartet that would constitute the nucleus of the future Lugoscher Gesang- und Musikverein that conductor and composer Conrad Paul Wuschingl, future son-in-law to Liszka, established in 1852).
“This only show how ardently Lugojers had longed for, and how hard they worked for, a place to nourish their passion for the fine arts and in particular for cultivating singing and drama, which elevate the heart and the soul”,
continued the well-known educator, Ioan Vidu’s colleague at the Greek Orthodox Elementary School. Quite happy with the town’s effort to erect a temple to the muses of the arts, he also mentioned the god and goddess of medicine Asclepius and Hygieia, whom he served in his fellow citizen’s interest by founding his famous drugstore Vulturul [The Eagle], close by the new Theatre.
Many high-ranking officials attended the Theatre’s opening: Bishop Demetriu Radu of the Lugoj Greek-Catholic Diocese, diet deputy Béla Szende, Virgil Thomici, Ştefan Petrovici MD, Royal Notary Mihail Bejan (the latter, also a journalist, historian, novelist, amateur musician, author of the first Romanian translation of Cronica notarului anonim al regelui Béla [The Chronicles of King Béla’s Anonymous Notary]), had donated 1,000 of the 90,000 Crowns that the Theatre had cost).
After addressing the attendees in Hungarian, the official language, Mayor A. Marsovzky delivered a speech in Romanian underlining the importance of cultivating the arts and praising God in one’s own language:
“We will only be able to cultivate and elevate the heart and the soul by mutually understanding our cultures and the jewels of our respective literatures; by comprehending their spirit, reciprocal respect will strengthen, and our citizens will establish a close relationship”.
For the Romanian spoke Virgil Thomici, who opened his discourse with the meanings of an old Latin proverb from Sallust’s oeuvre: Concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur (“As concord makes small things grow, discord brings the greatest to ruin”).
After the solemn opening with Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture performed by the Lugoscher Gesang- und Musikverein, the local ethnic societies presented their own programmes. L. Ráttkay’s drama Árvalányhaj [Feather Grass] was given by Lugosi Magyar Dal- és Zeneegyesület. G. von Zeytz’s operetta Mannschaft an Bord [Crew on Board] was performed by the Lugoscher Gesang- und Musikverein. Reuniunea Română de Cântări şi Muzică’s theatre company staged Maria Baiulescu’s Idil la ţară [Country Idyl], starring law student Constantin Missits who, “with his perfect acting and facial expressions… stole the show and was received thunderous applause”, Silvia Iorga (Smărăndiţa), Caius Brediceanu, Tiberiu Brediceanu, Augustin Silvaşi, Constantin Ignea, V. Păscuţiu, Ioan Cimponeriu, Aurora Peştean and Ofelia Ianculescu. It received mixed reviews: “It may have had no sung parts, but the piece was nothing but a success”, wrote George Joandrea, while the reviewer for Familia (XXXVI, 49, 1900, 585) said that
“[t]he pieces in Hungarian and German both had a musical component; but the Romanians couldn’t find a like play in the whole of our dramatic literature, and presented a local-themed work with no musical moments, Idil la ţară, very good for amateurs, but below the standard of such a festivity which required something original”.
The opening ceremony ended with the W. Merkel’s Der Schatz [The Treasure] by the Lugoscher-Gewerbe Liederkranz.[1]
The Magic Flute in Lugoj (1811)
Late Professor Francisc László of the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca once wrote in the Hungarian-language Helikon newspaper (II, 30 (82), July 26, 1991, p. 11: Mozart, Lugos 1811) about a letter that he had found in the Cluj National Archives, addressed to countess Bánffi Györgyné (née Palm Jozefának) by her nephew Esterházy Lajos on August 22, 1811. The young Lugojer summarised his thoughts after having watched a performance with excerpts from Mozart’s masterpiece The Magic Flute. Obviously displeased with the poor state of Lugoj theatre at the time, with the amateurism and the foul air – both the female soloist, dressed inappropriately, and the spectators were nonchalantly smoking during the performance –, the young man nevertheless expressed his hope that the old theatre wouldn’t be closed down:
Dear Aunt,
About our Lugoj theatre I can only say that it is beneath contempt. Actors here run no risk of being envied, much less beaten, but upon seeing how they are dressed, even the greatest tightwad would feel compelled to get them some clean clothes at least.
We moreover had a performance of The Magic Flute with a diva that smoked (as did the audience) and accompanied by four gypsy fiddlers. I don’t think we can ask or hope for future performances with the diva singing better or knowing her part by heart, if possible.
I end my letter on an optimistic note, though, hoping that Theatre will not be closed down, but on the contrary, it will be better appreciated.
The First Theatrical Performances
The oldest documents attesting theatrical activity in Lugoj come from a diary by the chancellors of the Minorite Order Ephemerides five Diarium Ven. Conventus Lugossiensis, which states that in 1838 “the Theatrical Society under Augustin Strauss is discontinued after three years because of the general poverty, and the theatre remains unused”. The protocol covers two books of ordinations and inventories. The document is accompanied a Minorite monk’s diary (first entry, 1771) and which contains information on the history of Banat and Lugoj.[2]
The first theatrical performances in Romanian were initiated by the Societatea Românească Cântatoare Theatrale [Romanian Singing and Theatrical Society], a company founded by Arad actor Iosif Farkas in 1846.[3] The first mention of a performance in Romanian, by Farkas’ company, is featured on a poster for a show on February 18, 1847, the information copied down by Coriolan Brediceanu.[4]
Lugojers had the opportunity to see a play as early as 1824, thanks to Ioachim Vuici’s Serbian company. Theatre, one of the dominants of cultural life in the second half of the 19th century, was made by local societies and itinerant companies from Transylvania and the other Romanian principalities, led by Albini (1850-51), Fani Tardini (1863), M. Pascaly (1868 and1871), M. Millo (1870), I. D. Ionescu (1873) and George Augustin Petculescu, the director of the first Romanian itinerant theatrical company. Born in Reşiţa on October 11, 1852, Petculescu moved with his family to Lugoj, went to the local school, was disciple and apprentice of master bootmaker Pera and, after touring Wallachia with various theatrical companies, he made his Lugoj debut on July 1, 1877, in the play Cimpoiul dracului [The Devils’ Bagpipe] by Eugen Carada, with Constantin Petrescu’s company. Petculescu would establish his own company, Societatea Theatrală Română Ambulantă din Ungaria şi Transilvania [The Romanian Itinerant Theatrical Society from Hungary and Transylvania] with actors from Craiova and Turnu Severin. He presented its first Lugoj performance on July 28, 1878: Doi amploaiaţi în una pereche de cizme [Two Employees and a Single Pair of Boots], one-act comedy by N. Frunzescu, Liber şi independent [Free and Independent], one-act comedy with sung parts by G. Dumitrescu, and Zăpăciţii [Muddleheads], one-act comedy translated from French by Paul Georgescu.
Franz Liszt’s Recital in Lugoj
On November 15, 1846, none other than Franz Liszt played at the Lugoj Theatre.
Together with his impresario Gaetano Belloni, the great composer-pianist was visiting Banat, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia and Bucovina in his farewell tour. After the resounding successes in Arad (November 8-10) and Timişoara (November 2 and 4),[5] Liszt played at Liszka’s City Theatre in Lugoj, where he stayed between the 14th and the 16th of November 1846.
Arriving in Lugoj on the evening of the 14th of November in the company of a group of admirers, Liszt was welcomed, at the city gates, by the local notabilities and by a ceremonial procession composed of “several carts and of gentlemen on horseback”. The enthusiastic reception also included the offering of an English carriage and the organisation of a dancing soirée by Jakabfi, vice-prefect of Caraş County. There was even, according to journalist Petrichevich-Horváth Lázár’s detailed account (Honderü, Budapest, issue 24/December 15, 1846, pp. 469-70: Levelek Emiliához [Letters to Emilia]), a rather political side to the celebrated musician’s presence in Lugoj: “While we were walking around the carriage we had prepared for Liszt, several Romanian peasants approached, holding written complaints. They wouldn’t leave, claiming that they had long waited for a ‘high gentleman’ to come and help them with their rightful requests” (Ibidem, apud MISSIR 1961, 490-504; cf. BRAUN [1937], 34-41; LÁSZLÓ 1988). The “brilliant concert that charmed all present” was preceded by a festive dinner attended by seventy guests and followed a dancing party organised by baroness Ida Kiss and which lasted into the morning hours.
There was no periodical published in the town on the river Timiş in those years, and so we can’t know what Liszt played at the City Theatre, nor the impression he left on Lugoj audiences. Considering, however, the music he had performed in Timişoara – the first recital there was covered by Gottfried Feldinger in Temesvarer Wochenblatt –, we could deduce the likely programme: Andante from Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti–Liszt), Fantasia from Norma (Bellini–Liszt), Beethoven’s Andante and Variations, Schubert’s Ave Maria, Erlkönig, and The Trout, Liszt’s own Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies and the bravura variations on Bellini’s I Puritani from the Hexaméron, Radetzky March (Strauss II-Liszt), the overture to Wilhelm Tell (Rossini-Liszt), a mazurka and a polonaise by Chopin (MISSIR 1961, 490-504; BĂLAN TH. 1963, 349-351).[6]
Petrichevich-Horváth Lázár’s article also tells us that Liszt “was warmly and enthusiastically welcomed, and was thrilled with such reception”, and that the great musician kindly accepted the invitation of several local music lovers and gave some private concerts. Two and a half days later, Liszt, accompanied among others by his friend, politician Guido Karácsonyi (Aromanian Crăciunescu, owner of the Banloc domain that Liszt visited during those memorable days), left Lugoj for Timişoara, where he played his last concert, on November 17, dedicating it to a charitable cause.
Silvia Iorga plays Enescu
On the opening of the new Lugoj Theatre on December 1, 1900, between the amateur actors affirming themselves in Idil la ţară there was Silvia Iorga, member of the Societatea Domnișoarelor [The Young Ladies’ Society] founded by Elena Dobrin in 1887. The actress, who starred in various shows at the Lugoj theatre or in performances hosted by theatre-loving citizens,[7] was a talented violinist too, giving recitals at the Regele Ungariei Hotel (February 2/7, 1904, Vieuxtemps’ Ballade et Polonaise with Maria Branişte on the piano), Lloyd Palace in Pest (March 2, 1913, works by Wiest, Wieniawski and Artôt, on the occasion of the Music and Dancing Soirée of the local Romanian Church, with Hortenzia Birăuţ on the piano), at the Concordia Hotel (April 15, 1902, with soprano Irene Vlădaia from the Bucharest Opera, Ecaterina Iorga on the piano, Aureliu Iorga and actor Grigore Savu).
It was violinist Silvia Iorga and pianist Emilia Avramescu who first performed a work by Enescu in the Banat area, during an event which, according to my research so far, took place in Lugoj in 1904. A review in the local periodical Drapelul (IV, 149, 1904, 3) reports on a literary-musical evening organised, on December 18/31, 1904 by the Tinerimea Română [The Romanian Youth] and the Societatea Domnişoarelor at the Romanian Reading Club. After an opening speech by Valeriu Branişte, a musical program was given which included what may have been the first performance ever of Enescu’s arrangement for violin and piano of his trio Aubade for violin, viola and cello.
The Theatre, Twice Renamed
In October 1934, the City of Lugoj decided to rename the Theatre, and consequently it was called Mihai Eminescu in homage of our national poet – but only briefly, as on the occasion of the unveiling of Traian Grozăvescu’s bust erected by sculptor Radu Moga just across the Theatre on December 5, 1935 the local administration renamed it after the great tenor. The festive event reunited the main choral associations in Lugoj – Magyar Dalárda, Lugoscher Gewerbe-Liederkranz and the Ion Vidu Choir –, the Orchestra of the Philharmonic Society and the 17th Regiment Infantry for a concert at the Theatre (the Vienna Opera declined the invitation, without saying why, and the Romanian Opera in Cluj was represented by its manager, professor Victor Papilian).
Many well-known singers of the time took part in the festive concert: Silvia Secoşan-Humiţă, professor at the Timişoara Conservatory (Două poeme [Two Poems] on lyrics by H. Heine, Doină [Doina] and Cântec de leagăn [Lullaby] by Sabin Drăgoi), Gheorghe Dippon (an aria from Verdi’s Luisa Miller and the traditional Santa Lucia, accompanied on the piano by Miss Hedda Klöss, professor at the Lugoj Conservatory and graduate of the Musikhochschule Dresden), Francisc Balogh (aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute and Vereşan’s Icoană sfântă [Sacred Icon]). Gheorghe Dippon and Francisc Balogh, accompanied by M. Popovici, sang a duet (Ciprian Porumbescu’s A căzut o sară lină [A Tranquil Evening Fell]). Conducted by Friedrich Gerber, bandmaster of the 17th Regiment Infantry, the Orchestra of the Philharmonic Society played Schubert’s Eighth, and Ion Vidu Choir under Filaret Barbu proposed among others The Pilgrims’ Chorus from Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
On December 10, just days after the unveiling of Traian Grozăvescu’s bust and the renaming of the City Theatre, Zaharia Stancu protested, in an opinion piece published in the Bucharest press, Mayor Alexandru Bireescu’s decision to replace Eminescu’s name, “revived by the pens of such writers as George Călinescu, Cezar Petrescu and Eugen Lovinescu, […] with the name of some insignificant tenor”. After deploring the current state of affairs (“overweight individuals making themselves into ministers by their demagogy, tenors with funnel-like throats and fronts no larger than the nail’s width”), he concluded by saying that “not even stoning the Lugoj Mayor to death would be punishment enough”.[8] A heralder of the years of the Proletkult, whose obedient and zealous lieutenant he would become, Zaharia Stancu was unable to grasp the specificity of a town with a marked musical vocation, with century-old intercultural and plurilingual traditions.
* „Morisena”, Cenad, III, 1 (9)/2018, 42-47; compare with Actualitatea, Lugoj, XIX, 915-919, 2015, 4, XX, 960-961, 2016, 4; Stan, Constantin-Tufan.
[1] For a glimpse into Lugoj and its inhabitants around this momentous event in the town’s cultural history, here is an excerpt from geographer Johann Lehmann’s diary from his Banat travels in 1785:
“The country road to Lugoj is well-maintained. The town itself is quite large, with a neat square and beautiful houses accommodating Greek merchants’ stores. River Timiş divides it in two, and carriages must pay a fee to cross by the bridge. On the German side of the town there are other beautiful houses, restaurants, a pool café and a villa that belongs, together with some other properties, to the wife of the general commander, Count Soro of Timişoara – she herself is a cultivated woman. The eateries are good, spacious and neat. The town is surrounded by burgundy vineyards, and the wine is better than a Tokay or some French one. The town is nice, as are the people. […] Romanians are not a rough people. On the contrary, they hurt nobody, but if somebody hurts them, they will take their revenge. If gained, their friendship can be depended upon in hard or troubled times”.
[2] A 1750 notification mentions that the original papers were transferred to the Archives of the Minorite Order in Eperjes, probably around 1738, when Lugoj was temporarily under Ottoman occupation.
[3] Some of the Lugoj amateur actors, such as Vasile Maniu and George Seracin, would later be part of the company led by Costache Caragiale, uncle to future great playwright Ion Luca Caragiale.
[4] His parents Iuliana and Vasile would make their acting debut with the Lugoj Theatrical Society in January 1849, in a performance with the play Ciutura gâmfată sau opincăriţa făloasă [The Conceited Shoemaker]. It’s also worth mentioning that Vasile Brediceanu fought for introducing Romanian in the Orthodox liturgical practice and of Latin alphabet in Romanian writing.
[5] Two bits of information according to Nicolae Ivan (IVAN 2006, 93): the second Timişoara recital took place on November 3, the great pianist-composer expressing his appreciation for local piano builder Gabriel Papp’s instruments.
[6] An extensive article published in Honderü on December 8, 1846 rejected Temesvari Hetilap’s reviewer criticism on Liszt’s concerts in Timişoara.
[7] Visul poetului [The Poet’s Dream] (plays for children were given in the houses of former deputy prefect Leontin Simionescu, of former attorney Albini, and in the Grozdana House), alongside Alexandrina Ianculescu, Letiţia Tempea, Victoria Iorga and Maria Jurca; Trei doctori [Three Doctors] by Virginia A. Vlaicu, alongside I. Harambaşa, Emilia Avramescu, Dim. C. Lupea, D. Galiciu, G. Tiffa, Cornel Gându, performed on April 12 and 13, 1904, opening for the premiere of Ciprian Porumbescu’s masterpiece operetta Crai-Nou [New Moon].
[8] Stancu, Zaharia. Însemnările şi amintirile unui ziarist. Sarea e dulce [Notes and Memoirs of a Journalist. Salt Is Sweet]. Bucharest: Editura de Stat pentru Literatură şi Artă 1955, pp. 359-60