The refugee

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Data
Title: The refugee
Genus: Folk piece with singing
Original language: German
Author: Editor: Vinzenz Chiavacci , Ludwig Ganghofer
Literary source: The old man with the young woman from Johann Nestroy
Publishing year: 1890
Premiere: October 24, 1890
Place of premiere: German Volkstheater
people

no playbill handed down, see Nestroy's original play

The Refugee is an adaptation of Johann Nestroy's play The Old Man with the Young Woman from 1849, which he did not have performed. The editors were Vinzenz Chiavacci and Ludwig Ganghofer , the premiere took place on October 24, 1890 in the Deutsches Volkstheater .

content

In contrast to Nestroy's original, the play is not set in post-revolutionary Vienna of 1850, but at the time of the French invasion in 1809. The characters remain largely the same, and the two parallel and loosely connected acts are the same as in Nestroy's .

Therese, the wife of the landlord Anton Frankner, is harassed by a French officer. Anton, who vigorously defends the honor of his house, has to flee, is captured and is able to escape again. Anton's property is expropriated and his wife and mother are evicted. The rich Theodor Kern takes care of the helpless women and employs Therese as a servant in order to deceive any persecutors. With the help of the host Holler, he also hides Anton, who fled, in an alpine pasture.

Kern's marriage to his much younger wife Regine is not without problems: Regine loves her husband, but out of boredom and on the advice of her stupid mother, Mrs. Strunk, she accepts the homage of Baron Rehfeld. The servant Gabriel reveals the matter to Kern and despite a clarifying discussion between the spouses, Kern remains suspicious.

At a meeting of Therese and Anton on the Alm, arranged by Kern, Countess Steinheim, Rehberg's sister, ensures that Regine and her brother also meet there. Regine firmly rejects Rehfeld's advances, the core stepping in between confronts the seducer, who turns out to be a pathetic coward. Therese has long since regretted her adventure, but when she sees how Kern treats Therese in a friendly manner - she is not privy to the context - she becomes jealous. But it is precisely because of this that Kern is convinced of her affection for him. This resolves both storylines in a positive way: Kern and Regine find each other again and the withdrawal of the French allows Anton to return to Therese, who has since become the mother of his son.

Factory history

Vinzenz Chiavacci (1847–1916) and Ludwig Ganghofer (1855–1920) were the rediscoverers of Nestroy's long-lost play The Old Man with the Young Woman and they decided to bring it to the stage. A major revision seemed necessary to them, as the censorship of the time around 1890 would not have accepted the original under any circumstances. In addition, they wanted to "improve" the work in the direction of a folk piece with vocal interludes - which they rather failed - in order to generate considerable income. With the heirs of Nestroy, who could also no longer expect any financial success from the original piece, because the standard protection period had expired, they concluded a contract on the basis of a tenancy sharing . A third of the proceeds should go to the heirs, to Chiavacci and to Ganghofer, but despite this clear regulation, the settlement almost resulted in civil litigation.

The censorship act for the work with a detailed description of the contents was sent on March 3, 1890 by the kk  police department Vienna to the kk Niederösterreichische Lieutenancy Presidium as the responsible higher authority and turned out to be positive, apart from minimal deletions. On March 16, the Lieutenancy Presidium's decree, which was also positive, was no longer in the way of the premiere.

In order to ensure the success of the audience, the arrangement was not presented with the note "after Nestroy" , but "by Nestroy" . Nonetheless, the play was canceled after 13 performances, and a second (uncertainly documented) production in Linz was also unsuccessful. Ganghofer wrote to one of the heiresses, Mrs. Stefanie Nestroy-Bene, on December 28, 1891:

“Unfortunately, the expectations we placed on doing business with the theater were not fulfilled. 'The Refugee' was not accepted for performance anywhere in Germany. [...] and so it unfortunately seems unalterable that my publisher must suffer very, very serious damage - over 15,000 marks. "

Contemporary reception

Because of the (intentionally?) Unclear announcements, all critics assumed that the refugee must be the original work of Nestroy.

On October 25, 1890, a review by the librettist Alexander Landesberg appeared in the Wiener Sonn- und Mondags-Zeitung (No. 294, pp. 1 f.), Who strongly promoted his two editorial colleagues Chiavacci and Ganghofer. Contrary to reality, he wrote of “an almost unbelievable great success” and blended fiction and truth in the detailed genesis.

The Illustrirte Wiener Extrablatt of October 25th (No. 294, p. 5) came up with a criticism written by the late Nestroy personally from the afterlife as an original idea (his body was in an honorary grave on September 22nd, 1890 from the Währing local cemetery Vienna Central Cemetery was transferred):

“The exhumation is still in all my limbs. […] Why do I talk so much about my excavation? Because I was exhumed again yesterday, mentally exhumed. "

This is followed by a humorous review of the piece, in which it is noted positively that it has apparently not been completely forgotten by his Viennese and the performance and the actors are also praised.

The Deutsche Rundschau wrote on October 26th (No. 50, p. 7) rather critically:

"The gentlemen editors have taken something original Nestroy by his witness some G'stanzeln 'and couplets anflickten."

The foreign newspaper reported fundamental reservations about wanting to revitalize the old Viennese Volkstheater with this piece, as the modern one was superior.

"The stereotyped characters of a long dead and overcome theater era come before us again, we smile at them but not laugh at them, and the crudest of jokes and fun has to help out in order to intensify the dubious effect."

The humorous-satirical magazine Der Junge Kikeriki wrote on November 2nd (Volume X, No. 662, p. 4):

"This time two living poets, Ganghofer and Chiavacci, have attacked a dead one, Nestroy, and they actually found more of Nestroy than the Exhumation Commission recently."

The Vaterland and the Oesterreichische Volks-Zeitung reacted consistently from critical to negative to the new production, while the Extrapost and the Wiener Theaterzeitung found the performance of the two editors quite remarkable.

Speculations in various magazines after the first performance of the revised piece that Nestroy's original was "verifiably" written in July and August 1849 lack precisely this evidence.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Contract and letter in the manuscript collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall , call number IN 138.746
  2. ↑ Niederösterreichisches Landesarchiv , signature: Deutsches Volkstheater 1890 523/14; 36, 36a; Censorship act 1561 H, 1890.
  3. ↑ Helmensdorfer: Johann Nestroy, pieces 27 / I. Pp. 152-154. (for the entire chapter "factory history")
  4. ↑ Helmensdorfer: Johann Nestroy, pieces 27 / I. Pp. 156-177. (for the entire chapter "Contemporary Reception")