Idealistic and Natural Stage Speech Styles in the Period from Goethe to Reinhardt. Director Intentions and Actor Speech Melodies in Theater Critics' Perception

The history of trends in stage actors' speech in German theater is outlined, discussing (1) the French Baroque tragedy as a model for German & European performers in the 17th & 18th centuries; (2) the training of actors as orators & singers; (3) Johan Wolfgang von Goethe's Weimar court theater & its idealistic declamatory style based on meter & melody; (4) realistic speech orientations in the 19th century opposing Weimar theater mannerisms; (5) the revival of the musical style in productions by Hermann Bahr, Max Reinhardt, & Alfred Kerr; (6) theater critics' language used to describe the actors' speech; & (7) the end of the "singing" actors in the expressionist dramas of the first quarter of the 20th century. 60 References. Z. Dubiel