Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Grossmann

Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Grossmann was a German actor, theatre manager, playwright and librettist, born in Berlin around 1746, although some sources suggest 1743 or 1744 as possible dates of birth, and died in Hanover in May 1796. His career is useful for understanding theatre life in late eighteenth-century Germany, when travelling companies spread the enlightened repertoire and the first comedies of manners.

Before devoting himself to the professional stage, he worked in the Prussian administration in Danzig. In 1774 he replaced an actor in Abel Seyler's company in Gotha, and his performance as Riccaut in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm was much acclaimed. He remained with Seyler until 1778, the year he founded his own company, with which he toured mainly north-western Germany, keeping his base at the theatre of the Elector of Cologne in Bonn. From 1784 he directed another troupe in Mainz and Frankfurt, while his wife, the actress Karoline Flittner, managed the Bonn theatre. His last work, Wer wird sie bekommen?, premiered in Hanover in 1795; by satirising local notables, it provoked a conflict that ended with his imprisonment. He was released on health grounds and died shortly afterwards.

As a playwright, he first made his name with Die Feuersbrunst, which tradition holds he wrote in three days in response to a challenge from Lessing, and for which Haydn later composed incidental music. He adapted Beaumarchais's Le barbier de Séville and translated Rousseau's Pygmalion. His volume of Singspiele, published in Frankfurt in 1783, included pieces popular in their day, such as Adelheid von Veltheim, and Nicht mehr als sechs Schüsseln, cited as an early and influential example of domestic comedy.

His legacy is linked to the dissemination of opera and the Singspiel in the German-speaking world. In 1788 his company staged one of the first productions of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in Lübeck and Frankfurt, and his repertoire also included Don Giovanni. Although he was highly valued while he worked, he is also remembered for a restless and, at times, difficult temperament.