Karl von Marinelli

Who was Karl von Marinelli?

Karl Edler von Marinelli was an actor, theatre manager and playwright.

From 1761 Marinelli was a travelling comedian in the "Schultz Company" in Baden, that was taken over a few years later by J. M. Menninger and played in Brno, Bratislava, Budapest and Vienna.

He was one of the founders of the genre of "Vienna Local Comedy";, and the author of several plays for the Schultz company. In 1780 he became head of the company, where J. J. La Roche performed most successfully as the "Punch". He opened the first permanent popular theatre of Vienna with this troupe in the Theater in der Leopoldstadt in 1781.

At the same year the composer Ferdinand Kauer joined his company as leader of the orchestra and as conductor. Kauer composed plenty of music for Marinelli's theatre, including more than a hundred singspiels and operas: also incidental music and songs, mostly to texts by the house poet Karl Friedrich Hensler. Their first major success was Das Faustrecht in Thüringen, which was eclipsed by the success of by Das Donauweibchen, premiered two years later.