...the sources reveal a composer very much admired by his court, colleagues and contemporaries, and who was ready and willing to embrace changes and accept new challenges - all, it seems, with a minimum of fuss.
(Johannes Agustsson)
Zelenka came from Bohemia to Dresden in about 1710, when he was around 30 years old. Apart from a possible trip to Venice, a 2-year stay in Vienna studying counterpoint under J.J. Fux, and probably occasional trips to Prague, Zelenka was to spend the rest of his life in Dresden.
Zelenka's employer in Dresden was Elector Friedrich August I (August the Strong
) of Saxony, who had converted to Catholicism in order to become King of Poland in 1697. He had the theatre from the 1660s within the Dresden palace converted into a Catholic church in 1707-1708. This would have made it possible to hold Catholic services very much on home ground in a society that was predominantly Lutheran.
The building (built between 1664 and 1667) was joined on to the court buildings. In the conversion from an opera house/theatre to a church, the direction of the seating was reversed to face east so that the wider west end (originally the stage) became an entrance. The organ gallery with its large end-window was located above this entrance and accommodated most of the musicians. Some of the orchestra probably spilled over into the galleries running along the sides of the nave of the church. Thus, the music was usually performed from the west end of the church.
The Catholic Court Church is well portrayed, although only partially, in Bellotto's painting of the Zwinger (see below).
The building was re-converted to a Ballhaus
in 1755 when the new cathedral was finished and when the original Ballhaus
from 1589 (situated immediately south-west of the church) was to be closed.
The building was given a rectangular ground-plan and a classicist façade in 1802, and the shape of the roof was also changed, which meant that even the main features of the original theatre/church building (apart from its position) were difficult to recognize. It was used as an archive of the court during most of the 1800s.
The Catholic Court Church building was finally demolished in 1888-1889 to make way for the tramway which still runs past the court buildings – see the images below.