Adolf von Sonnenthal

* 21.12.1834 in Budapest (Hungary); ✝ 04.04.1909 in Prague

Actor

Biography

Raised in a Jewish family in Budapest, Sonnenthal began his acting career in Temesvar in 1851. After several engagements elsewhere, in 1856 he joined the Vienna Burgtheater, to which he would remain loyal for the rest of his life. Sonnenthal was extremely popular in heroic and amorous roles, and was ennobled in 1881 as a result.

In line with the casting policies of the time, his repertoire included a number of Shakespeare roles alongside other classical and contemporary ones. Due to his guest performances, Sonnenthal was known and well-regarded beyond his theatrical home in Vienna. 

Shakespeare Roles

• Hamlet / Horatio (Hamlet)
• Octavius Caesar (Julius Caesar)
• Henry VI (Henry VI)
• Macbeth / Malcolm / Macduff (Macbeth)
• Bassanio (The Merchant of Venice)
• Prince Henry / Henry IV (Henry IV)
• Lear / Edgar (King Lear)
• Richard II / Aumerle / Bolingbroke (Richard II)
• Cassius (Othello)
• Duke von Clarence / Ghost of Heinrich VI (Richard III)
• Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
• Claudio (Much Ado About Nothing)
• Duke Orsino (Twelfth Night)
• Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
• Florizel (The Winter's Tale)
• Marcus Antony (Antony and Cleopatra)
• Ulysses (Troilus and Cressida)

Literature

Primary Literature

• Fünfzig Jahre im Wiener Burgtheater. 1856 - 1906. Vienna, 1906.

Secondary Literature

• Eisenberg, Ludwig: Adolf Sonnenthal. Eine Künstlerlaufbahn als Beitrag zur Geschichte des modernen Burgtheaters. Dresden, 1896.
• Sonnenthal, Hermine von (ed.): Adolf von Sonnenthals Briefwechsel. Nach den Originalen herausgegeben. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1912.

Album pages with this person

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