October 19 Tuesday – In the afternoon, Dr. Max Burckhardt, general manager of the relatively new Burgtheater gave Sam a private tour of the house. Sam looked the place over from top to bottom. (See Oct. entry for news article relating this). The special effects capabilities of the theater were the most advanced in Europe. Sam studied portraits of the “legendary tragedienne Charlotte Wolter, recently dead and of the celebrated Adolf von Sonnenthal, whose acting he was often to admire in the months ahead.” After his tour Sam pronounced it the most beautiful theater in the world and “worth the trouble of a trip to Vienna” [Dolmetsch 113].
The New York Times p. 24 article of Nov. 14, 1897 “Austria in the Balance,” datelined Vienna, Oct. 31 highlighted political affairs in Austria-Hungary and Sam’s reception in Vienna, including an undated incident in Sam’s tour of the Burgtheater, not mentioned in Dolmetsch.
Mark Twain is meeting with the greatest respect in Vienna. The utmost attention is being paid him by the press, the “Jewish press,” of course, as the big Vienna dailies are called. The anti-Semitic papers have hardly taken any notice of his visit, which, however, as a matter of fact, has created quite a sensation. His movements are chronicled at length, and he is besieged by interviewers. …
The other day when he was inspecting the new Imperial Court Theatre orders were given to light up the whole of the magnificent building for the benefit of the visitor. He went all over it from the roof to the machinery under the stage, and said the splendor of the whole far surpassed his boldest expectations. To surprise the guest from over the seas, the inspector of machinery improvised a sea storm with thunder and lightning.
In order to take another look at the auditorium, lighted as bright as day, Mark Twain bent down over the front of the imperial box, in which he happened to be at the moment. Suddenly a loud cry of “Back!” unpleasantly disturbed his contemplation. A photographer was just seizing the favorable moment to take the inside of the building, and well nigh succeeded in sending down to posterity a picture showing the illustrious representative of democratic America in the Emperor of Austria’s box. Mark Twain, being asked by the gentlemen taking him over the theatre whether he had written anything for the stage, rejoined: “I made a play, but it would not play.”