Friederike Sophie Seyler[a] (1738, Dresden 22 November 1789,
Schleswig; ne Sparmann, formerly married Hensel) was a German actress,
playwright and librettist. Alongside Friederike Caroline Neuber, she
was widely considered Germany's greatest actress of the 18th century;
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing described her in his Hamburg Dramaturgy as
"incontestably one of the best actresses that German theatre has ever
seen."The granddaughter of the famous architect Matthus Daniel
Pppelmann, she ran away from an abusive uncle under the threat of a
forced marriage to join the theatre at the age of sixteen in 1754. She
established herself as one of Germany's leading actresses in the 1760s
and was acclaimed for her portrayal of passionate, majestic, tragic
heroines. From 1767 she was professionally and personally associated
with the theatre director Abel Seyler, whom she married in 1772, as
the leading actress of the Hamburg National Theatre and later of the
Seyler Theatre Company. With Seyler she led an itinerant life until
her death, performing widely across the German-speaking realm. She
also stayed for several periods at the Vienna Burgtheater between 1757
and 1772. She was associated with all the leading theatres of her era:
Hamburg, Vienna, Weimar, Gotha and Mannheim.She is regarded as one of
the most important female playwrights of the 18th century, and her
renown as an actress contributed to the popularity of her plays. Her
libretto for the opera Oberon (originally titled Huon and Amanda) was
a major inspiration for Emanuel Schikaneder's libretto for the opera
The Magic Flute; a lightly adapted version of Seyler's opera was the
first opera performed by Schikaneder's troupe at their new theatre,
the Theater auf der Wieden, and established a tradition within the
Schikaneder company of fairy-tale operas that was to culminate two
years later in The Magic Flute, which shared several plots,
characters, and singers with Seyler's Oberon.She was born as
Friederike Sophie Sparmann in Dresden as the only child of the doctor
Johann Wilhelm Sparmann and Luise Catharina Pppelmann; her grandfather
was the famous architect Matthus Daniel Pppelmann. She came from a
broken home; her parents divorced when she was eleven years old, and
her mother joined a convent. At the age of twelve she was sent to live
with an abusive maternal uncle, who treated her so badly that she ran
away to another relative, who died already in 1753. In order to escape
an arranged marriage that her uncle had set up, she ran away from him
to join the theatre at the age of sixteen in 1754.
Schleswig; ne Sparmann, formerly married Hensel) was a German actress,
playwright and librettist. Alongside Friederike Caroline Neuber, she
was widely considered Germany's greatest actress of the 18th century;
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing described her in his Hamburg Dramaturgy as
"incontestably one of the best actresses that German theatre has ever
seen."The granddaughter of the famous architect Matthus Daniel
Pppelmann, she ran away from an abusive uncle under the threat of a
forced marriage to join the theatre at the age of sixteen in 1754. She
established herself as one of Germany's leading actresses in the 1760s
and was acclaimed for her portrayal of passionate, majestic, tragic
heroines. From 1767 she was professionally and personally associated
with the theatre director Abel Seyler, whom she married in 1772, as
the leading actress of the Hamburg National Theatre and later of the
Seyler Theatre Company. With Seyler she led an itinerant life until
her death, performing widely across the German-speaking realm. She
also stayed for several periods at the Vienna Burgtheater between 1757
and 1772. She was associated with all the leading theatres of her era:
Hamburg, Vienna, Weimar, Gotha and Mannheim.She is regarded as one of
the most important female playwrights of the 18th century, and her
renown as an actress contributed to the popularity of her plays. Her
libretto for the opera Oberon (originally titled Huon and Amanda) was
a major inspiration for Emanuel Schikaneder's libretto for the opera
The Magic Flute; a lightly adapted version of Seyler's opera was the
first opera performed by Schikaneder's troupe at their new theatre,
the Theater auf der Wieden, and established a tradition within the
Schikaneder company of fairy-tale operas that was to culminate two
years later in The Magic Flute, which shared several plots,
characters, and singers with Seyler's Oberon.She was born as
Friederike Sophie Sparmann in Dresden as the only child of the doctor
Johann Wilhelm Sparmann and Luise Catharina Pppelmann; her grandfather
was the famous architect Matthus Daniel Pppelmann. She came from a
broken home; her parents divorced when she was eleven years old, and
her mother joined a convent. At the age of twelve she was sent to live
with an abusive maternal uncle, who treated her so badly that she ran
away to another relative, who died already in 1753. In order to escape
an arranged marriage that her uncle had set up, she ran away from him
to join the theatre at the age of sixteen in 1754.
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