Edmund Kean was one of the greatest English tragic actors of the 19th century, known for his portrayals of Shakespearean villains. By innovating the style of acting then in vogue, which was artificial and declamatory, Kean created sensational performances through his forceful personality and sudden transitions. Technically his performances were carefully planned. He excelled at villainous roles but struggled with parts requiring nobility. Though hugely popular, his fame and ambition led to displays of jealousy, and he died young while performing Othello. His son Charles also had success as an actor and pioneer of realistic staging influenced by the Meiningen Ensemble, led by Duke Georg II, which toured Europe developing detailed, historically accurate

1. Edmund Kean, (born March 17?, 1789, London,
England—died May 15, 1833, London) one of the
greatest of English tragic actors, a turbulent genius
noted as much for his megalomaniaand ungovernable
behaviour as for his portrayals of villains in
Shakespearean plays.
addiction to alcohol,
By the standards of the time, he was unsuited to the
great tragic roles. The style then in vogue was artificial,
declamatory, and statuesque, and its leading exponent,
John Philip Kemble, was an actor of classic good looks,
imposing figure, and vocal eloquence. Though Kean had
handsome features, notably unusually expressive eyes,
he was small, with a voice that was harsh, forceful, and
commanding rather than melodious. He could never
have hoped to compete with Kemble on Kemble’s terms,
so he had to become an innovator as well as a virtuoso.
On January 26, 1814, when he made his Drury Lane
debut as Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of
Venice, the measure of his triumph was not to outshine
Kemble but to outmode him.
In his portrayal of Shylock, Kean donned a black
beard instead of the traditional comic red beard and
wig and played the Jewish moneylender as a frenzied
and embittered monster of evil armed with a butcher
knife. His performance created a sensation, and Kean
quickly brought forward a succession of
Shakespearean villains, most notably Richard III,

2. Iago, and Macbeth. He also excelled at playing
Othello and Hamlet. His great non-Shakespearean
roles were as Sir Giles Overreach in Philip
Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts and as
Barabas in Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.
As an actor Kean relied on his own forceful and
turbulentpersonality and on sudden transitions of
voice and facial expression. There was nothing
improvised about his performances, however.
Technically they were carefully planned, and it was
said of his portrayal of Othello that, with its unvarying
tones and semitones, rests and breaks, forte and
piano, crescendo and diminuendo, it might have been
read from a musical score. His range was limited,
however. He excelled at malign roles but usually
failed at parts calling for nobility, virtue,
Though Kean remained a passionately admired actor, as
a public figure he became increasingly unpopular.
Haunted by his fear of losing his position as head of the
British stage, he was betrayed into displays of jealousy
against potential rivals. At the same time, his fame and
fortune (he earned, on the average, £10,000 a year)
were insufficient to satisfy his ambitions.
At Covent Garden on March 25, 1833, playing Othello to
his son Charles’s Iago, he collapsed during the
performance—his last. A few weeks later he died at his
house at Richmond, Surrey, leaving his son only his
name. The name proved to be a valuable asset, however,

3. for Charles Kean, who established a reputation as the
pioneer of representational realism and who in this
sense is considered the forerunner of Sir Henry Irving.
Charles Kean the son of the famed actor Edmund Kean,
he was educated at Eton and made his debut as Young
Norval in Douglas in London in 1827. He toured the
provinces extensively but first won general acceptance
during an Americantour in 1830. Returning to England,
he steadily gained in reputation with well-honed
performances,
Although handicapped by poor vocal projectionand an
unprepossessing physical appearance, Kean
compensated by perfecting the details of each
performance.

4. The productions of the Kean’s influence staging in
Europe. Of particular interest to us is The Duke of Saxe
Meiningen.
Meiningen Ensemble[edit]
After the Franco-Prussian War, Georg devoted himself to theatre. He
was one of the greatestintellectuals among the higher nobility during
the Second German Empire. He is particularly known for developing
the Meiningen Ensemble using his court theatre. Using his knowledge
of art history and his drawing skills, he designed highly detailed,
historically accurate scenery, costumes,and properties.In addition,
he choreographed large crowd scenes that stunned audiences across
Europe. He and his ensemble toured Europe extensively, and had a
profound effecton theatre productionacross the continent. There is
no doubt that Realism saw the developmentof the director as a
separate entity, someone with an eye to oversee,someone
responsible forthe overall conception,interpretation, style and detail
of the theatrical performance.The Meiningen Ensemble from its roots
in the late 1830s under the directorships of Georg II (Duke of Sax-
Meiningen) and Ludwig Chronegk, proceeded to develop a theatre
company bereftof theatre-managers and the star system. A system
centered on realistic acting and staging and well-developed 'unified'
productions.The Ensemble which began as a court theatre but
started touring in 1874,used detailed research of people,locations,
costumes and set, along with highly choreographed and individually
detailed crowd scenes,to create productions which were esthetically
unified and realistic in their presentations.
Georg II
Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

5. He in turn had an influence of Richard Wagner. Total
theatre and a great innovator in stage matters.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (/ˈvɑːɡnər/; German: [ˈʁiçaʁt ˈvaːɡnɐ]; 22
May 1813 – 13 February 1883)was a German composer,theatre
director, polemicist,and conductor who is primarily known for his
operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, "music
dramas"). Unlike mostopera composers,Wagnerwrote both the
libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing
his reputation as a composerof works in the romantic vein of Weber
and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his conceptof
the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to
synthesise the poetic,visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music
subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays
published between 1849 and 1852.Wagnerrealised these ideas
most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des
Nibelungen (TheRing of the Nibelung).
His compositions,particularly those of his later period,are notable for
their complextextures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the
elaborate use of leitmotifs—musicalphrases associated with

6. individual characters, places,ideas or plot elements.His advances in
musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting
tonal centres,greatly influenced the developmentof classical music.
His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes describedas marking the start of
modern music.
Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus,
which embodiedmany novel designfeatures. The Ring and Parsifal
were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to
be performedat the annual Bayreuth Festival, run by his
descendants.His thoughts on the relative contributions of music and
drama in opera were to change again, and he reintroduced some
traditional forms into his last few stage works, including Die
Meistersingervon Nürnberg (TheMastersingers ofNuremberg).
Until his final years, Wagner's life was characterised by political exile,
turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors.
His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted
extensive comment,notably, since the late 20th century, where they
express antisemitic sentiments. The effectof his ideas can be traced
in many of the arts throughout the 20th century; his influence spread
beyond compositioninto conducting,philosophy, literature, the visual
arts and theatre.

7. Richard Wagner in 1871