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34-508: It is the oldest concert hall building in Berlin. The building was built on behalf of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , which was founded by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch in 1791. In the years between 1825 and 1827, under its former director Carl Friedrich Zelter , he set up his own concert hall and his own home. Design and execution were done by junior architect Carl Theodor Ottmer , using plans of

68-557: A fine keyboard player who had been taught by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach , played concerti by Bach and others in many Akademie concerts and at Zelter's "Ripienschule" in the period 1806–1815. Her large collection of manuscripts of music of the Bach family, together with many others acquired by Abraham Mendelssohn from the widow of C. P. E. Bach, were left to the Akademie. Zelter also had a fine collection of Bach and Bach family manuscripts which he gave to

102-505: A major milestone in re-establishing its composer's reputation as a founding father of European musical traditions. From November 1827 to April 1828, Alexander von Humboldt , Prussia's most famous naturalist and scholar, gave sixteen public lectures about nature's 'cosmos' at the Singakademie and earned much praise across social classes for his performance. In 1832 on the death of Zelter, Mendelssohn had some hopes of succeeding him, but in

136-408: A public institution. The Singakademie grew out of a small circle of singers who met regularly in the garden house of the privy councillor Milow. Their weekly meetings seemed to have resembled those of the then popular Singethees. Carl Friedrich Zelter describes them as rather informal meetings: "One gathered in the evening, drank tea, spoke, talked, in short entertained oneself; and the matter itself

170-466: A pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach's son C. P. E. Bach and instilled the devotion to Bach that has been a continuing feature of the Akademie. By the time of Fasch's death on 3 August 1800 the Akademie had about 100 members, and had received many notable visitors keen to experience its unique sound, including Beethoven who came in June 1796. After Fasch's death, his pupil Carl Friedrich Zelter became leader of

204-566: A schoolteacher and after school tutor for four years. Masha, middle sister and artist of the family (trained as a concert pianist), is married to Feodor Kulygin, a schoolteacher. Masha, younger than he, was enchanted by his wisdom but seven years later she sees through his pedantry and attempts to compensate for the emptiness between them. Irina, the youngest sister, is still full of expectation, speaking of going to Moscow and meeting her true love. The sisters grew up in Moscow, and they all long to return to

238-530: A sense of noble idealism , come together to celebrate it. At the close of the act, Andrei confesses his feelings to Natasha, and proposes. Almost a year later, Andrei and Natasha are married with their baby (offstage), a son named Bobik. Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov, Andrei's superior, who is never seen onstage. Masha comes home flushed from a night out, and it is clear that she and her companion, Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin, are giddy with their mutual love for one another. Natasha manipulatively quashes

272-539: Is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov . It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre . The play is often included on the shortlist of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard , The Seagull and Uncle Vanya . The play has several important characters who are talked about frequently, but never seen onstage. These include Protopopov, head of

306-468: Is taken. There is tension because Solyony has challenged Tuzenbach to a duel. Solyony had told Irina that he would kill any successful suitor for her hand, but she still agreed to marry Tuzenbach, notwithstanding which she confesses that she cannot love him. Tuzenbach, having left the Army, is under no obligation to agree to the duel but does so anyway, losing his life for what would have been a loveless marriage. As

340-471: The Berliner Singakademie , is a musical (originally choral ) society founded in Berlin in 1791 by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch , harpsichordist to the court of Prussia , on the model of the 18th-century London Academy of Ancient Music . The origins of the Singakademie are difficult to discern because the group was initially intended as a private gathering of music lovers and only later became

374-490: The Itzig family and descendants of Moses Mendelssohn . These families were to have a significant influence on the history of the Akademie. Moses Mendelssohn's son, Abraham joined the Akademie in 1793 and Itzig's granddaughter, Lea Salomon, in 1796. They were later to marry and their children Felix and Fanny were leading members of the Akademie in the 1820s. Itzig's daughter (and hence Felix's great-aunt) Sarah Levy (1761-1854),

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408-565: The Second World War , the building was badly damaged stopping performances of Sing-Akademie. After that, the Soviet occupying forces confiscated the building and used it in 1947 as a theater house of the neighboring "House(s) of the culture of the Soviet Union" (the present Palais am Festungsgraben ). After the reunification , between 1990 and 2012, a very complex legal dispute was fought between

442-486: The Akademie, continuing Fasch's ambitions and objectives. In 1807 he began an orchestra to accompany the Akademie, and in 1808 he founded a men's choir ('Liedertafel'), which became a model for similar choirs flourishing in the early nineteenth century and dedicated to German national music. The members of the Akademie were originally drawn from the wealthy bourgeois of Berlin. From early days they also included members of some of Berlin's wealthiest Jewish families, including

476-584: The Akademie. By these means it acquired one of the finest collections of Bachiana in the world. The collection was looted by the Red Army in 1945 and hidden in the Kyiv Conservatory , but was returned to Germany after its rediscovery in 2000. ( See link for the story ). Today, the collection is temporarily housed in the music section of the Berlin State Library . The success of the Akademie encouraged

510-714: The Sing-Akademie and the Land Berlin , both on administrative ( restitution ) and civil law (correction of the land register entry) around the building and its parcels. After the administrative court of Berlin had decided in favor of the choir in 2004. However, the dispute was not settled. On 7 July 2011, contrary to the previous opinion of the Administrative Court and the Landgericht , the Berlin Court of Appeal ruled that

544-686: The Sing-Akademie, so that the defendant country Berlin has to contribute to the correction of the Land Register and must agree that the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin is the owner in the land register as registered. As a result, the state of Berlin, the building official for the Maxim Gorki Theater and signed a ground lease agreement for 25 years, which provides for annual rent of each €315,000 euros . In response to Brecht 's Epic Theater in Berlin Ensemble Theater in 1949. Sing-Akademie in 1952

578-738: The State Art Commission. Instead, the building opened on 30 October 1952, with the German premiere of the Soviet piece Für die auf See (For those at sea) by Boris Lawrence. Then at the end of the 1950s (also under the impression of the uprisings in the GDR , in Poland and in Hungary) there were performances of such pieces as Alfred Matusche's Naked Grass and Heiner Müller 's Die Korrektur (The Correction) and Der Lohndrücker (The Scab) both in 1958. Heiner Müller

612-541: The architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the classical style. Between 1827 and 1828, Alexander von Humboldt gave his Cosmos lectures here. On March 11, 1829, the first performance of a revival of St Matthew Passion by JS Bach performed by the Sing Academy under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn . In the summer of 1848, the building was used as the venue of the Prussian National Assembly . During

646-420: The elderly woman from Natasha. Irina's fate is uncertain but, even in her grief at Tuzenbach's death, she wants to persevere as a teacher. Natasha remains as the chatelaine , in charge of everything. Andrei is stuck in his marriage with two children, unwilling and unable to do anything for his wife or himself. As the play closes, the three sisters stand in a desperate embrace, gazing off as the soldiers depart to

680-535: The event the post went to the older, mediocre, but 'safe pair of hands' of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen (1778–1851). Subsequent directors of the Akademie were: After the separation between East and West Berlin, the Berliner Singakademie was founded in 1963 in East Berlin. This other Berliner Singakademie is a leading oratory choir in the united Berlin today. Three Sisters (play) Three Sisters ( Russian : Три сeстры́ , romanized :  Tri sestry )

714-401: The founding of a new and permanent home. This was established in 1827 at a plaza near Unter den Linden and became a major Berlin concert hall, at which many famous musicians were to give concerts, including Paganini , Schumann , and Brahms . On 11 March 1829, the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, who was himself a pupil of Zelter, conducted here his famous revival of Bach's St Matthew Passion ,

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748-422: The happiness of that time. Andrei is the only young man in the family; his sisters adore him. He falls in love with Natalia Ivanovna ("Natasha"), who is rather "common" compared to the sisters and regarded by them with disdain. The play begins on the first anniversary of the death of their father, Sergei Prozorov. It is also Irina's name-day , and everyone, including the soldiers (led by Vershinin) bringing with them

782-543: The land was effectively expropriated, leaving the house initially owned by the State of Berlin. The Landgericht had expressly left open whether the Land of Berlin would have to return the land to the Sing-Akademie by way of restitution under Property Law , as it had nothing to decide about it. On 7 December 2012, its judgment decided Bundesgerichtshof that the building with the property was not effectively expropriated and thus still owned by

816-465: The life of a municipal worker, and rails at the folly of her aspirations. Supported by Olga's realistic outlook, Irina decides to accept Tuzenbach's offer of marriage although she does not love him. Andrei vents his self-hatred, acknowledges his awareness of his folly and his disappointment in Natasha, and begs his sisters' forgiveness for everything. The soldiers are preparing to leave the area. A photograph

850-505: The local Council and Natasha's lover; Vershinin's suicidal wife and two daughters; Kulygin's beloved superior the headmaster of the high school, and Natasha's children (Bobik and Sofia). JL Styan contends in his The Elements of Drama that in the last act Chekhov revised the text to show that Protopopov is the real father of Sofia: "The children are to be tended by their respective fathers" — Andrey pushes Bobik in his pram, and Protopopov sits with Sofia. Olga (the eldest sister) has worked as

884-400: The money to pay off his gambling debts and ceding all power over the household to Natasha. Natasha is cruel to the aged family retainer, Anfisa, but Olga's best efforts to counter this fail. Masha, alone with her sisters, tells them of her romance with Vershinin. At one point, Kulygin blunders into the room, doting foolishly on Masha, and she leaves. Irina despairs at the turn her life has taken,

918-603: The plans for a party in the home; the resultant quiet suggests that happiness is being quashed as well. Tuzenbach and Solyony both declare their love for Irina. About a year later in Olga and Irina's room—a clear sign that Natasha is taking over the household, as she asked them to share a room so that Bobik could have a separate room. There has been a fire in the town, and people are passing in and out, carrying materials to give aid. Olga, Masha and Irina are angry with Andrei for mortgaging their home without their knowledge or consent, keeping

952-433: The sisters were Olga Knipper (for whom Chekhov wrote the part of Masha), Margarita Savitskaya as Olga and Maria Andreyeva as Irina. Maria Lilina (Stanislavski's wife) was Natasha, Vsevolod Meyerhold appeared as Tusenbach, Mikhail Gromov as Solyony, Alexander Artyom as Artem Chebutykin, Ioasaf Tikhomirov as Fedotik, Ivan Moskvin as Rode, Vladimir Gribunin as Ferapont, and Maria Samarova as Anfisa. Reception

986-403: The soldiers are leaving, a shot is heard, and Tuzenbach's death in the duel is announced shortly before the end of the play. Masha has to be pulled, sobbing, from Vershinin's arms, but her husband compassionately asks that they start again. Olga has reluctantly accepted the position of permanent headmistress of the school where she teaches and is moving out. She is taking Anfisa with her, rescuing

1020-479: The sound of marching music. As Chebutykin sings Ta-ra-ra-boom-di-ay to himself, Olga's final lines seek an end to the confusion the sisters feel at life's sufferings and joy: "If we only knew... If we only knew." The play was written for the Moscow Art Theatre and it opened on 31 January 1901, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko . Stanislavski played Vershinin and

1054-472: Was employed at that time as a dramatist . The GDR premiere of Volker Braun 's Die Übergangsgesellschaft (The Transitional Society}, directed by Thomas Langhoff, caused a sensation in 1988. The 1980s also had performances by Thomas Langhoff's ( Chekhov 's Three Sisters ) and Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream . Sing-Akademie zu Berlin The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , also known as

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1088-467: Was mixed. Chekhov felt that Stanislavski's "exuberant" direction had masked the subtleties of the work and that only Knipper had shown her character developing in the manner the playwright had intended. In the directors' view, the point was to show the hopes, aspirations and dreams of the characters, but audiences were affected by the pathos of the sisters' loneliness and desperation and by their eventual, uncomplaining acceptance of their situation. Nonetheless

1122-525: Was only secondary." Singer and songwriter Charlotte Caroline Wilhelmine Bachmann was one of the original founding members. Until the early nineteenth century, most musical concert and opera performances consisted of the music of living composers. The Akademie was intended by Fasch to revive music of the past as well as to perform that of the present. In fact its first performance was a 16-part Mass by Fasch himself, but it also regularly performed music by J. S. Bach and other earlier masters. Fasch had been

1156-472: Was renamed the Maxim Gorki Theater , "as a place for the care of Russian and Soviet theater art". As a sozialistisches Modelltheater (a socialist model theatre). It was founded under its first director, a Stanislavsky student Maxim Vallentin, a committed socialist realist . The originally planned opening of the theater with Maxim Gorky's Night Asylum (also known as The Lower Depths ) was stopped by

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