The Miracle (play)
The Miracle (German: Das Mirakel) is a 1911 wordless play written by Karl Vollmöller,[1] from which three movie versions were adapted. The play launched the career of the author's wife Maria Carmi, who went on to star in 25 silent films.
Plot
Vollmöller's play wordlessly tells the story of a wayward nun who deserts her convent with a knight, influenced by the music of an evil minstrel. A statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and takes the physical place of the nun (as a type of Doppelgängerin), who makes her way through the world and its many vicissitudes. She is eventually accused of witchcraft, but escapes. Finally, the nun returns to the convent with her dying infant, and is forgiven as the statue of the Madonna resumes its place.
History
Charles B. Cochran, writing about Max Reinhardt in his autobiography, Showman Looks On: "Our first close association was with the creation of The Miracle, which arose from a suggestion made to him by me in the café at Budapest that he should produce for me a mystery play of the Middle Ages.... At the café table Reinhardt gave me a letter of introduction to Karl Vollmoller who, on my suggestion, prepared a scenario. It was accepted, and I worked in close collaboration with Max Reinhardt, Ernst Stern and Engelbert Humperdinck, until it was produced at Olympia in 1911."
The play first appeared as a vast spectacle-
Thereafter the production toured continental Europe, ending in Berlin at the Zirkus Busch on 13 May 1914.[a]
The play was revived on
Spanish versions
The play has its origins in a 12th-century legend which
Film versions
The play was adapted into film three times. The original authorized version was a British financed, full-length, hand-colored, black-and-white film
See also
- The Miracle (1912 film)
- Das Mirakel (1912 film)
- The Miracle (1959 film)
References
- Notes
- ^ List of initial European performances of The Miracle (play) (source: Styan 1982, pp. 136–150):
- 1912: 15 September – Vienna Rotunde; October – Elberfeld, Breslau, Cologne
- 1913: January – Prague; February – Vienna Volksoper; September – Leipzig, Dresden, Elberfeld, Breslau, Cologne, Prague; 23 December – Festhalle Frankfurt am Main
- 1914: January – Hamburg, Karlsruhe; 30 April – 13 May Circus/Zirkus Busch, Berlin.</ref> Two days later the authorised film of the play, The Miracle, received its German première (as Das Mirakel) at the Palast am Zoo cinema (later Ufa-Palast am Zoo), Charlottenburg, Berlin, on Monday, 15 May 1914.[2]
- Citations
- ^ "Karl Gustav Vollmoeller | AustriaWiki im Austria-Forum". austria-forum.org. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
- ^ Lichtbild-Bühne, Nr. 26, 16 May 1914 (in German) at filmportal.de
- ^ New York Times, January 24, 1924.
- ^ "Milagro de amor (1946)". IMDb. 12 December 1946.
Bibliography
- Styan, J. L. (1982). Max Reinhardt. Cambridge: CUP Archive. pp. 136–150. ISBN 978-0-521-29504-8.