Staging Hofmannsthal

January 31, 2024 until August 19, 2024

150 years of Hugo von Hofmannsthal – An exhibition in three acts and a prologue!

The exhibition Staging Hofmannsthal, on display at the Vienna Theatre Museum from January 2024, takes visitors on a tour of selected Hofmannsthal rooms that reveal the poet's work and way of thinking in all its complexity.

The function and design of rooms is one of the central issues addressed in the works of Austrian writer and playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929). To him, rooms were never just physical surroundings: they also represented emotional states. The stage as a space where the dramatic action becomes a reality lies at the crux of many of his deliberations.

Visitors are guided through the exhibition in a prologue and three acts. At its centre are Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier and the film Der Rosenkavalier. Even Hofmannsthal’s own apartment in the city of Vienna, only a few steps away from the Theatermuseum, is drawn into his appetite for staging. Fitted out by architect and set designer Oskar Strnad, these residential rooms were turned into an urban stage.

A collaboration between the Theatermuseum and the Freies Deutsches Hochstift in Frankfurt am Main.