Maria Pospischil
Maria Pospischil, was one of the great stage actresses of the 19th century, active on German and Czech stage. She was also a writer and theatre director with several appearances in the German silent films in 1918.
Early life and career
She was born in Karlín, at that time a working class suburb of Prague. She had two sisters but not much is known about their lives.Pospischil's career began at the age of fourteen in Prague's summer vaudeville theatres, which mostly presented undemanding trivial farces. She got no formal theatre education. In 1878, she became a member of František Pokorný's touring theatre company, one of the most respected Czech touring companies, where she achieved her first significant success in the role of Gretchen in Goethe's Faust. Pokorný was the first one to mould her talent and her cast her in her fist major role. Here she met her stage mother Terezie, an old, experienced actress whose name has been forgotten. At this time in her career, Pospischil had a brief love affair with her colleague, the young actor Eduard Vojan. Both of them became major theatre stars in their later career.
In 1879 Pokorný recommended her to the Czech Provisional Theatre. There was a vacancy in the "character type" of a young romantic lead after the actress Ludovika Rottová left.
There, her talent was soon recognized by the director Antonín Pulda. He, a very intelligent and experienced teacher, brought out the performing skills of Pospischil in surprising depths. The first role he coated her in was the role of Louisa in Friedrich Schiller's drama Intrigue and Love and she rose to become one of the leading actresses of the Provisional Theatre. What was particularly praised was her sonorous voice. Pulda continued guiding her artistically for many years, they became lovers and eventually partners and Pulda left his wife and son in Prague to accompany her during her engagements abroad as her impresario. It is surmised he was also her lover. Her whole career, she spoke of him as her mentor, and she even went so far as to pay for his grave when he died in 1894.
Pospischil also won many admirers and patrons, including Bohemian Governor Alfred Kraus, who gifted her a three-story house in the centre of Prague in admiration of her talent. Being supported by rich patrons was a common practice in German theater, less common in Czech society. This earned Pospischil a dubious reputation.
In 1881, she became a member of the newly opened National Theatre in Prague. Acting at that time was divided into "characters", i.e. sets of roles requiring similar physical appearance, voice, temperament, sensitivity, and similar characteristics, and actors were hired and cast according to their character type. Pospischil started as a young romantic female lead but from the very beginning, she strove for a position of tragic heroine, occupied by Otilie Sklenářová-Malá and Marie Bittnerová at that time. Both held their jobs tightly, and Pospischil was kept in the field of naive lovers.
Her greatest opportunities were the role of courtesan Marion in Victor Hugo's drama Marion de Lorme and her originating of the role of Queen Elizabeth of Pomerania in Jaroslav Vrchlický's comedy A Night at Karlstein, a role that later became iconic in Czech culture, especially due to the film version. Shakespeare's Beatrice and Emma Králíčková, the female lead of Czech comedy The Eleventh Commandment are worth noting.
Although she was accused of "devouring" all the female leads of the repertoire, the rest of her thirty roles at the National Theatre were mainly supporting parts and breeches roles, as e.g. Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and still she impressed both the audience and the critics. Also, many of the shows did not stay in the repertoire for long. Julius Zeyer's Sulamit, where Pospischil played Lilith, was performed only twice, Josef Jiří Kolár's historical drama Smiřičtí, where she played a minor role of Salomena Smirziczky, also twice.
However, her talent was widely recognized. When visiting Prague, Ludwig Chronegk, theatre director and head of the Meiningen Ensemble advised her to pursue career in Germany. Viennese comedian Alexander Girardi offered her tutoring in the rank of operetta soubrette if she decided to move to Vienna.
Conflict with the National Theatre director
According to many accounts, Pospischil was very stubborn, self-centered and difficult to work with. She often had the impression that she was entitled to more significant roles. The dramaturge of the theatre Ladislav Stroupežnický, who kept notes on the actors of the ensemble, noted about Pospischil: "Mercury, passion, spoiled child."Both Pospischil and Pulda were not content with the authoritative leadership of the National Theatre director František Šubert who often prioritized his own protege, actress Marie Bittnerová over Pospischil.
Šubert resented her diva-like attitude and demanded discipline and obedience. Pospischil defied the authority of the director, who was known, among other things, for demanding sexual favors from actresses in exchange for casting opportunities or a salary increase. Whether Bittnerová was Šubert's lover is questionable, but not impossible. Since scandals of this kind rarely appeared in the media of that day, Prague theatre circles were amused by the information, true or fake, about Pospischil slapping Šubert.
Bittnerová was also said to be self-centered and ambitious as Pospischil, and she vilified her younger colleagues, left the troupe twice when her expectations had not been met, and Šubert excused her exclusive demands: "Mrs. Bittner was given the opportunity by the National Theater to achieve great artistic goals, but it was not possible to satisfy her claim that she would be the only one for all the first roles as she expected."Ladislav Novák, Stará garda Národního divadla. P. 21
In the winter of 1884, Pospischil had fierce disputes with the director over his casting decisions in the highly expected new French melodrama, Ohnet's The Ironmaster. Šubert assigned the role of Claire, the female lead to Bittnerová. Pospischil, who also wanted the role of Claire, refused to submit to him any longer and published her critical opinion on conditions at the theatre: "The systematic killing of my talent and my health by the director of the National Theatre, Mr. František Šubert, pushed me to resign immediately. I will explain the details of the behind-the-scenes intrigues and love affairs of which I am the victim to my beloved audience later, when I am of a cooler mind. God knows I hate to say goodbye to an audience that has always treated me so kindly and dearly, and I assure here on my honor that I would serve this national institution until my last breath if it were led by a man who values the sacred purpose of the National Theatre more highly than his appetites." This quote was both published in newspapers and handed out in the National Theatre on the day of Bittnerová's performance. Pospischil, who refused to submit to Šubert's demands, was the first and only one to speak publicly about Šubert's sexual relationships with actresses. Some newspapers hinted at his sexual misconduct, e.g. that "theatre directors are trying their luck in love, but they hit Miss Pospíšil's heart hard." Several newspapers mentioned "mysterious incidents behind the curtain making the return of previously very obedient and respected Pospischil hardly possible." Most of the newspapers were silent about the incident. Some accused Pospischil of a calculated move, having planned to start a career on the German stage and looking for an excuse. Most newspaper articles passed over the reasons for her departure and the protest in silence.
Both, she and Pulda, were dismissed. They tried to reconcile with Šubert, but in vain. Šubert did not accept their apology and he never forgave Pospischil for her media insult. A number of Czech politicians tried to soften the director's harshness and lobbied for Pospischil, but in vain as well. Pospischil, although later she was repeatedly asked about the reasons for her actions and choice of words, never commented on this topic.
Discussions about her possible return were going on for more than ten years. In 1890, for example, František Ladislav Rieger said: "Miss Pospischil left the National Theatre in a disgraceful way that can never be forgiven." Later, however, he reduced his sentence and left the decision on her return to the management of the theatre.
Polish tour and Prague German Theatre
After being dismissed, Pospischil appeared as a guest star on Polish stages from January to May 1885. Unemployed actress took the opportunity.Pospischil performed in Czech, which was found a nice gesture of Pan-Slavism and easy to understand due to the proximity of both languages. Her repertoire was very wide, and she performed a number of new roles in Poland, probably boosted by her very enthusiastic reception. Her Polish audience could not fully understand her, so she was forced to focus on the physical means of acting.
She toured Warsaw, Poznań, Lublin and Kraków and presented Gretchen in Goethe's Faust and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro from her older repertoire, but the status of a freelance artist gave her the opportunity to choose her own Rollenfach and roles. She started to work on her French repertoire and played Marcelina de Targy in Octave Feuillet's Parisian Romance, Ciprienne in Divorçons by Victorien Sardou and Émile de Najac, Frou-Frou by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy or Victorien Sardou's Fédora. These were popular show-off roles - a part of the regular repertoire of all the most outstanding actresses of salon comedies in Europe. Usually impressive, but also dangerous because it gave opportunities for comparison. The Polish audience was aware of work of Sarah Bernhard and the famous countrywoman Helena Modjeska. To honor the Polish hosts, she also staged the comedy Fat Fish by Michał Bałucki.
Her success was all the more astonishing because she played many of these roles for the first time. In addition, the acquisition of more than a dozen expensive period costumes, including several months without work, required a large financial and time investment that she could afford.
She was an enormous success and was received very favorably and even enthusiastically. Not only a great artist was welcomed, but also a "representative of her fellow nation", as Ludwik Kozłowski stated in his review: "It was a true manifestation of cordiality: – Miss Pospiszilówna, when she first appeared on the stage, was greeted by a veritable hurricane of applause and thousands of shouts: "Na zdar! Cheers!... Long live the Czechs!..." The orchestra wrapped up the performance playing the Czech national song Kde domov můj. It was not just the panslav feelings in the audience. The Polish audiences were truly amazed by Pospischil. In the same review, Kozłowski concluded: "However, we can rightly conclude that such a cordial reception of the artist and passionate celebrations of her and our brother nation was bestowed upon its worthy representative."
She could move audience to tears. But some critics also mentioned "spots in the sun" in her acting style, that were to be overcome later in Vienna, "excessive facial expressions that tire the audience's attention, overuse of dramatic tones in places requiring calmer diction, and movements - sometimes too violent - for a set of a parlour. The artist's playing lacks peace and concentration.
In Kraków candies called "Sleczna Pospiszilówna" appeared in the confectionery shop of Mr. Hendrich and Rehman.
At that time, the National Theatre was the only Czech theatre in the territory of Bohemia. All other theatre companies did not have a permanent building and traveled around Czech-speaking regions, or they were German theatre houses in the German-speaking regions of Bohemia. She, not willing to be a touring actress, was forced to pursue a career on the German stage. Her first performance in German took place at the Prague German theatre in the summer of 1895, being invited by director Angelo Neumann. She starred in Schiller's The Maid of Orleans. Pospischil did not speak German well and had to memorize all the German roles phonetically. Later in her career she became fluent in German and minimized her Czech accent.
After her Polish tour, where, next to the role of Gretchen in Faust, she mainly performed French salon repertoire, Pospischil started with a new set of roles, this time German classics in the original version.
Other roles she performed in German in Prague, also by Schiller, were Princess Eboli in Don Carlos and the title role of Maria Stuart. She continued to play these roles throughout her career, both in Vienna and Berlin. Her first German success must undoubtedly be credited to her tutor Pulda, as the certainly undeniably talented actress did not have enough experience to portray new leading roles in a foreign language she did not fully master.
Her Prague German appearances caused very negative reactions and feelings in Czech patriotic circles, because it was customary for Czech actresses to play only in Czech in the territory of Bohemia. If they played in German, it was outside the territory of the Bohemian Kingdom. The worst attack came from the Czech journalist Emanuel Bozděch, who partly made a living by writing for Prague's German newspapers. In a German-written feuilleton he questioned the choice of Pospischil for this great Schiller figure - because she - as was a common knowledge - was neither German nor a virgin. Otokar Fischer, Činohra Národního divadla do r. 1900. p. 108.