The insignificant one
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| Title: | The insignificant one |
| Genus: | Farce with singing in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | Le grain de sable (The Grain of Sand) by Michel Masson (Michael Raymond) |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1846 |
| Premiere: | May 2, 1846 |
| Place of premiere: | Leopoldstädter Theater , Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | The action takes place on three consecutive days partly at the castle of the Baron von Massengold, partly in the little town of Kobelstadt, which belongs to his rule, partly on the bank of a river near his little castle Eschenau |
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The Insignificant is a farce with singing in three acts by Johann Nestroy . The play was written in 1846, two years before the revolution of 1848/49, and was premiered on May 2nd of this year at the Leopoldstädter Theater , later the Carl Theater , in Vienna as a “benefit performance” for the author.
content
Clara, the sister of the "insignificant" Peter Span, falls into disrepute due to a lie by the secretary Puffmann. Puffmann, who wants to cover up one of his intrigues carried out behind the back of the Baron von Massengold, claims to be her secret lover in order to have an alibi.
- “The alibi proof is established; Triumph of practical-casuistic ingenuity. " (First act, sixteenth appearance)
Since she is suspected of immoral relationships by the whole city and avoided and her fiancé Josef, the son of Thomas Pflöckl, no longer wants to hear from her, Peter tries to restore his sister's honor.
- "According to the description, it must be one of the gentlemen who are always with the gracious lord on visit, or the gracious lord baron himself." (Third act, second appearance)
Through a ruse and with the help of Mrs. Hussberger's son Hänschen, the real culprit in the rumors, Peter Span uncovered Puffmann's story of lies and thus achieved the complete rehabilitation of the innocent and happy Klara:
- "Being happy is a lot, but I stop being unhappy - that is much more." (Act three, thirty-fourth appearance)
Factory history
The material for Nestroy's piece comes from Michel Masson (Auguste-Michel-Benoit Gaudichot-Masson, 1800–1883, pseudonym Michel Raymond) from the III. Volume of the frame story Daniel le lapidaire ou les contes de l'atelier (Daniel the stone cutter or workshop tales), entitled Le grain de sable (The grain of sand), a story set in the first third of the 18th century. The story was translated by Lauritz Kruse (Leipzig 1833), dramatized by Karl Haffner as Der Fassbinder and premiered on May 13, 1842 in his version with moderate success in the Theater an der Wien .
The premiere was preceded by a break in writing of a year because Nestroy was very angry about sharp reviews from Moritz Saphir in his magazine Der Humorist . Adolf Bäuerle's Wiener Theaterzeitung wrote about this on January 24, 1846 (No. 21):
- “A rumor reports: Nestroy will not write another piece. He had put down his pen forever, he had lost all desire to write more and more a farce; yes, not once for his benefit he would like to understand this. [...] If this were to blame for mean and jealous criticism, Mr. Nestroy ignored them, just as such criticism in general has long since been subject to the most general contempt. "
From July to September 1845 Nestroy made a longer tour from Brno via Berlin , Prague and Munich to his beloved Graz . The new piece was not finished until May 1846 and was enthusiastically welcomed - also because of this long pause.
Nestroy himself referred to the play - in the draft still called The Unimportant - as "Posse", although from the point of view of his contemporaries it was more of a moral comedy or even a serious drama. The critics welcomed the insignificant as "the new educational folk piece" and as the beginning of a new phase in Austrian literary history. Two years before the outbreak of the revolution, the tendency of the work met the zeitgeist and the wishes of its audience. It is a politico-democratic piece that outlines the turning point of an era.
Otto Rommel states that the work is the “most important turning point in Nestroy's development” (quote) on the way from the farce to Ludwig Anzengruber's bourgeois morality. The focus is no longer on love adventures of wealthy good-for-nothing, withheld wills, inheritances and the like, but on a problem from petty bourgeois life.
The final punch summarizes the idea of the piece in one sentence:
- “If you come into contact with insignificant people again, then don't forget the lesson that even the most insignificant is honor is something very important." (Peter Span to Puffmann; third act, thirty-fourth appearance)
In the first performance, Johann Nestroy played the carpenter Peter Span, Wenzel Scholz the secretary Puffmann, Alois Grois the Thomas Pflöckl, Ignaz Stahl the master binder Kübler, Franz Gämmerler the master von Lockerfeld. After Wenzel Scholz's death in 1857, Alois Grois took over his role.
The play was on stage from 1846 to 1850 and then again in 1852, 1854 and 1857, and during Nestroy's lifetime it was performed a total of 92 times. Guest performances with the insignificant took place in Prague (1846, 1849), Brno (1846, 1847), Pest (1846), Berlin (1847), Graz (1846) and Lemberg (1850). According to newspaper reports, the piece "did not enjoy any particular successes abroad" . After Nestroy's death, it was only performed again on seven evenings in 1881 in the Carltheater and in 1892 in the Volkstheater (Vienna), which had opened a year earlier . Ludwig Martinelli played Peter Span on both stages, and in the Volkstheater he also took on the staging. More of the very rare performances took place in 1968 in the Akademietheater and in 1981 in a Volkstheater production in the Messepalast , the former court stables .
A handwritten manuscript by Nestroy is preserved in the Vienna City Hall , where the title page and the beginning (up to the beginning of the 3rd appearance) are missing. Nestroy's signature in red pen can be seen on the lower right of sheet I (list of persons). Other fragmentary manuscripts of a four-act version have also survived, as well as a manuscript of the couplet from III. Act .
Adolf Müller's handwritten score of the three-act version with the note of the first performance is kept in the music collection of the Vienna Library.
The two couplets by Peter Span ( “As often as I put a roof truss on a house” and “Yes, such a Krida would be something new” ) are the last to be printed during Nestroy's lifetime.
Contemporary reception
The criticism for Nestroy's new piece was consistently positive and the enthusiastic acceptance by the audience was also described (all magazine articles mentioned are from May 5, 1846).
The collector (No. 72, p. 285 f.) Wrote:
- "This 'insignificant one' is the most important dramatic poem of all stages this year!"
In the magazine Die Gegenwart (No. 103, p. 48 f.) Sigmund Engländer called the play "one of the best popular plays of recent times, and perhaps Nestroy's best performance" . In the Wiener Theaterzeitung (No. 107, p. 426) the editor Heinrich Joseph Adami wrote :
- "I've already seen a lot of enthusiasm in Nestroy's pieces, as I haven't seen on this evening."
The owner and editor of the humorist , Nestroy's counterpart Saphir - probably the reason for the poet's one year reticence - stated (No. 107, p. 435 f.):
- "Not without a little self-esteem we make the remark here that the continued admonitions which we issued to Mr. Nestroy not to degrade his talent by trivial direction and immoral coloring, that he had great talent enough to be on a worthy path to do so good, were taken to heart by him, and that this taking heed has not harmed him. "
In Vienna periodical for art, literature, theater and fashion from Friedrich Witt Hauer was "the new path of the People's poet Nestroy, which is very close come the true determination of the people of the piece in the noble sense of the word" , noted. The Wanderer (No. 107, p. 426 f.) Praised Nestroy and equated Ferdinand Raimund .
In the satirical magazine Komische Briefe ( Komische Briefe) from Hans-Jörgel von Gumpoldskirchen to his brother-in-law in Feselau about Vienna and his daily events , a fictitious correspondence, published by Josef Alois Gleich , on June 2, 1846 (15th year, issue 11, p . 17–23):
- “I saw a little bit there, my dear brother-in-law, where on my way back to Speising I kept shouting: Bravo Nestroy! Bravo!"
text
- Johann Nestroy: The Insignificant: Posse with singing in three acts. Verlag print by JB Wallishausser, 1849 (accessed on January 28, 2014)
literature
- Helmut Ahrens : I'm not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Johann Nestroy, his life. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7973-0389-0 .
- Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition, seventh volume, published by Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1926; Pp. 1-106 (text).
- Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition, eighth volume, published by Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1926; Pp. 275-355 (Notes).
- Jürgen Hein (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. In: Jürgen Hein / Johann Hüttner : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, Historical-Critical Edition. Youth and People, Vienna / Munich 1995, ISBN 3-224-16936-2 .
- Franz H. Mautner (Hrsg.): Johann Nestroys Komödien. Edition in 6 volumes, Insel Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1979, 2nd edition 1981, 5th volume. OCLC 7871586 .
- Otto Rommel: Nestroy's works, selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908, pp. LXV – LXVIII, 105–171, 365–366.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Span , sometimes also Span = either from (wood) chip or span (length)
- ↑ Binder Master = Cooper, Cooper
- ^ Greisler, Greißler = grocer
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 26.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 51.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 82.
- ^ Table of contents in Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. Pp. 95-101.
- ^ Table of contents in Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. Pp. 485-533.
- ^ A b Franz H. Mautner (ed.): Johann Nestroys Komödien. Volume 5, p. 277.
- ↑ Der Humorist, magazine for jokes and seriousness, art, theater, sociability and custom , editor Moritz Gottlieb Saphir from 1837 to 1862.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 121.
- ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 273-276.
- ^ Otto Rommel: Nestroys works. S. LXVII.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 83.
- ↑ Facsimile of the theater slip in Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. P. 551.
- ^ Viennese magazine for art, literature, theater and fashion , April 17, 1847, No. 77, p. 306.
- ↑ Manuscript collection in the Vienna City Hall, call numbers IN 29.846, 33.355 [1], 33.355 [2], 86.146, 86.147, 94.282, 33.355 [3].
- ↑ Music collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall, call number MH 878.
- ↑ Urs Helmensdorfer: The song is a Proteus. Volume 1 of Vienna - Music and Theater, LIT Verlag Münster, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8258-0742-9 ; P. 164.
- ↑ Facsimiles in Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. Pp. 555-560.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 23 / II. Pp. 202-241.
- ^ KK priv. Theater in the Leopoldstadt. In: Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode , No. 90, May 5, 1846, p. 359 (online at ANNO ).