Philipp Eduard Devrient

Who was Philipp Eduard Devrient?

Eduard Devrient was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director, and theatre reformer and historian.

Devrient came from a theatrical family. His uncle was Ludwig Devrient and his brother Karl was the first husband of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.

He was born and studied in Berlin and performed in a number of German opera houses between 1819 and 1834, when he lost his singing voice and turned his attention to writing and acting. From 1844-6 he worked in Dresden as actor/director, and he directed the Hoftheater in Karlsruhe from 1852 until his retirement in 1870.

As a singer, he performed in works by Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and Weber, among others, and sang in the première of Marschner's Hans Heiling. He also sang in the 1831 Berlin premiere of Der Templer und die Jüdin.

He also took the part of Christ in the 1829 revival by his friend Felix Mendelssohn of J. S. Bach's St Matthew Passion, having previously sung the role of Carrasco in Mendelssohn's only publicly performed opera, Die Hochzeit des Camacho.

He wrote a number of plays and two other opera librettos, Die Kirmes and Der Zigeuner, both set by Wilhelm Taubert. In Karlsruhe, he initiated a number of theatre reforms and also wrote a number of works on the ideal of a national theatre.