Stockerau: Singspiel game for the 60th anniversary – noe.ORF.at

“This year we will travel with you to Venice with our piece,” wrote Christian Spatzik, director of the Stokero Festival, on the venue’s website. “The Servant of Two Masters” is the most famous play by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. It was first performed in Milan in 1746 and is considered a landmark of the commedia dell’arte.

Now it can be experienced as a Singspiel at the Stockerau Festival. “Goldoni’s play is 272 years old, but it is as fresh as a fiddle thanks to its quick wit and comic ingenuity,” the play continues. Peter Oeira is responsible for editing the material. This time the stage design on the revolving stage has been given a Venetian touch by Manfred Wappa. The costumes are by Barbara Langbein. Barbara Demuth designed the masks in the Commedia dell’arte style.

“What makes me especially happy: we play with masks.”

“I chose this piece because I love commedia dell'arte – going back to the origins of theatre! What makes me particularly happy is that we play with masks – a dream I have had since I came into contact with the Commedia dell'arte at the Heilbronn Festival,” Spatzik told noe.ORF.at.

Among others, Nadia Elmaleh, Anna-Sophie Krenn, Michelle Harley, Bernd Spitzer, Geza Turner, Kurt Hexmann, Christian Spatzik himself, Christoph Walpel and Peter Edelmann. The play runs from 1 to 25 August (Thursdays to Saturdays from 7:30 p.m., Sundays from 6:30 p.m., theatre at Dr. Karl-Reiner-Platz in Stockero).

Stockerau Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary

The Stockerau Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. On August 8, 1964, the open-air plays began in Stockerau on the square in front of the Baroque parish church. The program included the play “Jeanne or the Lark” by Jean Anouilh, directed by Otto Kroneder.

A year earlier, in 1963, the “Vienna Comedy” had made a guest appearance in the Stockerau Hubertus Halls on the occasion of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Stockerau's rise to the city and presented “Gajus Gracchus” by Bruno Kühnel. According to the broadcast, the idea of ​​staging a play in the square in front of the church came about.

Otto Kroneder was the director initially, Jürgen Wilke took over in 1971, followed by Alfons Haider in 1998, Zeno Stanek in 2013, and Christian Szpaczek has been director since 2019. Over the six decades, 500 actors and dancers have appeared on stage at the Stockero, including Ola Jacobson, Maxi Böhm, Barbara Wossow and Marianne Mendt.