Abel Seyler

• 1. Banking Origins And Bankruptcy

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  Abel Seyler was born on the 23rd of August 1730 in Liestal, a small town outside Basel. He grew up in a family that valued piety and learning, yet his early life took him far from the quiet Swiss countryside. As a young man, he moved to London before settling in Hamburg during the 1750s. There he established himself as a merchant banker alongside partners Johann Martin Tillemann and Edwin Müller. Their firms, Seyler & Tillemann and Müller & Seyler, engaged in complex speculation with financial instruments during the Seven Years' War. The companies leased a mint factory in Rethwisch in 1761 to produce debased coins for the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön. This venture marked the beginning of what critics would later call malicious speculation.

  The collapse came swiftly after the Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763. Seyler & Tillemann went bankrupt with debts ranging between three and four million Mark Banco. This sum represented an enormous loss for the era. Expansive civil litigation followed immediately, stretching from 1763 until 1773 when it reached the Imperial Cameral Tribunal. Creditors described their business practices as deceitful schemes involving bill-jobbing and windhandel, or windy trade. The partners had started with capital of only thirty-eight thousand Mark Banco, much of which was spent on furniture, clothes, jewels, and carriages rather than business operations. They were effectively insolvent by August 1762, yet continued trading worthless paper and buying silver on commission. When the house of De Neufville collapsed, so did Seyler's empire. Despite the ruin, Seyler retained his good humor and taste for light living, though he was viewed with suspicion by the conservative Hamburg bourgeoisie.

• 2. Founding The Hamburg National Theatre

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  Following his financial collapse, Abel Seyler devoted himself entirely to theatre starting in 1767. He used his remaining funds to become the main shareholder and effective leader of the idealistic Hamburg National Theatre. This institution aimed to establish a national theatre based on ideas from Ludvig Holberg. The theatre was owned by a consortium of twelve businessmen, including Seyler, Bubbers, and Johann Martin Tillemann. In practice, however, it functioned as a one-man affair where Seyler dominated all decisions. Nominally Johann Friedrich Löwen served as director, but he held little influence while Ekhof assumed artistic leadership.

  The company employed Gotthold Ephraim Lessing as the world's first dramaturg. Lessing wrote a collection of essays called Hamburg Dramaturgy that reflected on the theatre's efforts and defined the field of dramaturgy. The theatre attracted eminent actors such as Konrad Ekhof and Friedrich Ludwig Schröder. It also featured Friederike Sophie Hensel, who later became Seyler's second wife. She was regarded as a very fine actress but also a troublesome character at the center of intrigue. Seyler's admiration for Hensel led him to create a theatre where she could reign undisputed without rivalry. The new regime suited Ekhof well, making him a lifelong friend and collaborator. The theatre closed after two years when Seyler had spent his remaining fortune on it.

• 3. The Travelling Company Era

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  In 1769 Seyler founded the Seyler Theatre Company alongside Konrad Ekhof, Sophie Hensel, and other actors. This ensemble became one of the most famous theatre companies in Europe between 1769 and 1779. They were regarded as the best theatre company in Germany during that period. For most of its existence, the company comprised around sixty members including an orchestra, ballet troupe, house dramatists, and set designers. It was among the first theatre companies to maintain a permanent orchestra.

  Over the next decade the company traveled extensively across Europe. They stayed for longer periods at several courts including Hanover, Weimar, Gotha, Leipzig, Dresden, Frankfurt, Mainz, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Bonn. In Hanover from 1769 to 1771 they performed in cities like Lüneburg, Celle, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, and Wetzlar. Financial problems arose due to lack of public interest until Seyler's brother-in-law J.G.R. Andreae assumed all debts before impending ruin. The company then moved to Weimar in October 1771 where Duchess Anna Amalia warmly welcomed them. They performed three times weekly for select guests at the ducal court. Their arrival marked the infancy of Weimar Classicism when the Duchess invited eminent men like Herder, Goethe, and Schiller to her court.

• 4. Shaping German Opera And Drama

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  While the original National Theatre avoided musical theatre, Seyler appointed Anton Schweitzer as music director to add opera to the spoken repertory. The Seyler Company played a major role in developing a German opera tradition and promoting Sturm und Drang dramas. In 1773 their production of Schweitzer's Alceste with libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland became significant. Alceste was the first full-length serious opera in German.

  At the Gotha court between 1774 and 1775 Seyler commissioned Bohemian composer Georg Anton Benda to write several successful operas including Ariadne auf Naxos, Medea, and Pygmalion. At its debut in 1775, Ariadne auf Naxos received enthusiastic reviews throughout Germany and Europe. Music critics called attention to its originality, sweetness, and ingenious execution. It is widely considered Benda's best work and inspired Mozart. Later in Leipzig and Dresden from 1775 to 1777, Seyler employed Friedrich Maximilian Klinger as playwright and secretary. Klinger brought the manuscript of his play Sturm und Drang which was first performed on the 1st of April 1777 in Leipzig. That play gave its name to the artistic movement Sturm und Drang.

• 5. Mannheim Leadership And Departure

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  In October 1779 Seyler moved permanently to Mannheim with remaining members of his theatre company to become the first artistic director of the newly established Mannheim National Theatre. His formal title was Direktor though he was also referred to as Regisseur while Dalberg served as general administrator. Several actors who had worked under Konrad Ekhof at Gotha joined him since Ekhof himself had died the previous year. The theatre opened that month with Seyler directing several Shakespeare productions.

  Seyler directed a balance between natural style playing and nobility idealization in cooperation with Dalberg. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited the Mannheim theatre in 1778 where Dalberg asked him to write a duodrama for the Seyler company. However, Abel Seyler was forced to leave his position in 1781 after an unfortunate incident involving his wife's jealousy. During rehearsals, repeated insolent remarks from Elisabeth Toscani, a twenty-year-old actress, provoked the usually level-headed Seyler into losing his temper. He slapped her face in response. A report commissioned by Dalberg noted that Toscani belonged to the weaker sex and that Seyler should be held to higher standards. To restore peace, Dalberg decided to retire Seyler with a pension.

• 6. Legacy In Modern Theatre Direction

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  From 1781 to 1783 Seyler served as artistic director of the Schleswig Court Theatre performing in Flensburg, Husum, and Kiel. In 1783 he established his own troupe based in Altona near Hamburg. Between the 1st of September 1783 and Easter 1784 he again directed the Comödienhaus theatre in Hamburg. From 1787 to 1792 he returned as artistic director of the Schleswig Court Theatre. His wife Sophie died in 1789 having published the romantic Singspiel Huon and Amanda earlier that year. The play became a success in Hamburg with original music by Carl Hanke.

  A lightly adapted version of this opera with new music by Paul Wranitzky became the first opera performed by Emanuel Schikaneder's troupe at the Theater auf der Wieden. This established a tradition within Schikaneder's company of fairy-tale operas culminating two years later in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Sophie Seyler's Oberon is regarded as one of the primary influences on the plot and characters of The Magic Flute. Musicologist Thomas Bauman describes it as an important impulse for creating popular spectacles trading in magic and exotic elements. Abel Seyler retired with a pension from Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel in 1792. He lived until the 25th of April 1800 at age sixty-nine on the estate of his friend Friedrich Ludwig Schröder in Rellingen.