Talk
Elegance and staging: fashion and theatre in letters by noble women in early 19th century Vienna
Talk as part of the ERC project ‘Opera and the Politics of Empire in Habsburg Europe, 1815-1914’ and the Colloquium Modern Cultural and Intellectual History in winter term 2024/25. Comments: Ulrike Langbein (Leipzig)
![[Translate to English:] Bildnachweis: Wilhelm Böhm, Carl Mahlknecht, Der Ladendiener. (Illustration aus „Wien und die Wiener, in Bildern aus dem Leben“, hrsg. von Adalbert Stifter, Pest 1844), 1840–1844, Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 97544/2.](/fileadmin/_processed_/4/c/csm_Wien_Museum_Online_Sammlung_97544_2_1-2-min_9450cf94f7.jpg "[Translate to English:] Bildnachweis: Wilhelm Böhm, Carl Mahlknecht, Der Ladendiener. (Illustration aus „Wien und die Wiener, in Bildern aus dem Leben“, hrsg. von Adalbert Stifter, Pest 1844), 1840–1844, Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 97544/2, CC0 (https://sammlung.wienmuseum.at/objekt/524542/)")
The letters of the Hoyos-Sprinzenstein sisters from the 1820s and 1830s provide an insight into the consumer habits and practices of amateur theatre, also known as ‘house theatre’. The purchase of goods in the imperial capital, so-called ‘commissions’, communicated the affection between the siblings and gave the younger, as yet unmarried women in the family room for manoeuvre. In some cases, the origin of the goods can be reconstructed and shows aristocratic fashion consumption as a social space for encounters and interaction between people from different social classes. In contrast, theatre performances functioned as a medium of demarcation from other social circles. The lecture examines contemporary trends and preferences and sheds light on the role of the aristocracy in shaping consumer cultures and theatre practices.