The sorcerer Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus
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| Title: | The sorcerer Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus |
| Original title: |
[Robert der Teuxel] The magician Sulphurelectrimagneticophosphoratus and the fairy Walpurgiblocksbergiseptemtrionalis or The adventures in the Sclaverey or Asiatic punishment for European offenses or The unpredictable Mr. Son's life, deeds and opinions, as well as his punishment in the Sclaverey and what further happened to him there |
| Genus: | Magic posse with singing in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | "Robert the Devil" by Ernst Raupach |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1833 (original manuscript) |
| Premiere: | January 17, 1834 (stage version) |
| Place of premiere: | Theater an der Wien |
| Place and time of the action: | The action takes place partly in Europe, partly in Asia, and is recent |
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The sorcerer Sulphurelectrimagneticophosphoratus and the fairy Walpurgiblocksbergiseptemtrionalis or The adventures in the Sclaverey or Asiatic punishment for European offenses or The unpredictable Herr Sohn's life deeds and opinions, as well as his punishment in the Sclaverey and whatever else happened to him there is a magic farce with singing three acts by Johann Nestroy . The play was written in 1833 and was performed on January 17, 1834 as a "benefit evening" for Nestroy's partner Marie Weiler in the Theater an der Wien .
Originally the piece was entitled Robert der Teuxel , but this was changed for the performances due to the likelihood of confusion with Nestroy's parody of the same name on Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable (see work history).
content
The table of contents follows the original version from 1833.
Since they fear social exposure because of the insubordination of their son Robert, Mr. and Mrs. Pastetenberg ask the powerful fairy Walpurgiblocksbergiseptemtrionalis for help.
- The only thing I ask, if you correct him, is that it doesn't happen too hard to him, because he is a hideous Pursch, but still our best son, because we have no other than him. (I. Act, 10 th Scene)
The fairy conjures up Robert and his runner Sebastian Plumpsack as a penance on an East Indian slave market.
It is a reflection of the customs of the Viennese Naschmarkt and the society of East India consists only of masters and slaves. Sebastian has more value in this market than his Mr. Robert. Sebastian is sold to the rich Alib-Memeck, who knows a single recipe for everything, namely "Hundred mitn Bambusröhrl" , and he knows how to become his body slave and advisor through swindles. Robert comes to the house of the tyrannical Indigo, where he immediately falls in love with his daughter Emma. But the fairy turns all his attempts to win it through courageous deeds and to gain freedom into the opposite. He even has to serve his former servant at the table. Only when he regrets his previous life in deep despair, the two are conjured back home with Emma.
- Your judgment is fulfilled, your punishment ended; now you should enjoy the most beautiful happiness better. (III. Act, 19 th Scene)
The title character Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus only plays an insignificant role in the play as the simple-minded husband of the all-guiding fairy.
Factory history
Nestroy's source was “Robert the Devil. Romantic drama in five acts ” by Ernst Raupach , which was premiered on March 12, 1833 in the Vienna Burgtheater without much success . After three performances it was removed from the program again. Nestroy's parody was announced in April and again in May of the same year, but it did not come on stage until 1834. The reason was the success of Meyerbeer's opera “Robert le diable” in Vienna in 1833, to which director Carl Carl wanted to quickly attach himself to. He therefore preferred Nestroy's Meyerbeer parody " Robert the Teuxel " and left the Raupach parody of the same name for the time being. That was also the reason for the title change to "Der Zauberer Sulphurelectrimagneticophosphoratus" and even the main character was renamed Heinrich in the stage version that was ultimately used. Any reference to the original was also avoided on the theater bill.
Nestroy's parody of Raupach's already weak work was also a very mediocre piece, which was also performed far too late - almost a year after the first performance of the original. From the maudlin story of the Duke of Normandy and the cleansing of his wild son, Nestroy made a bourgeois farce that mockingly deals with Raupach's romantic text. The holy hermit was replaced by the bizarre fairy Walpurgiblocksbergiseptemtrionalis, from Rauppach's Italy a very Viennese drawn East India. Everything is doubled by the newly invented person of Lauffers Plumpsack, who has to share the punishment with his master Robert, but cunningly and lyingly puts himself in a better position. Nestroy also used parts of his own unrecorded magical posse “ Genius, Schuster and Marqueur ” from 1832 for this work.
In the performances of 1834 Johann Nestroy played the Alib-Memeck, Wenzel Scholz played Sebastian Plumpsack, director Carl played the main character Heinrich (Robert the Devil), Friedrich Hopp played Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus, Eleonore Condorussi played the housemaid Lisette and Marie Weiler played the slave Fatime.
Five years later, in 1839, Carl dared to perform again, which Wenzel Scholz used as a benefit evening. This time Raupach's play was given as a template on the theater bill.
The theater manuscript from the original possession of the Carltheater is in the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library , the original score by Adolf Müller in the Vienna Library in the City Hall .
Contemporary reception
Both the audience and the critics vehemently and decidedly rejected the piece. In the Viennese theater newspaper Adolf Bäuerles on January 20, 1834 one could read:
- "The first two acts and the larger half of the third passed by with constant frenzy and the reluctance of the audience almost led to the fact that the comedy would not have been played to the end."
The theater critic Franz Wiest, who was already unbalanced by Nestroy, wrote on January 23 in the Collector , alluding to the name of the title hero:
- "The magic posse has nothing sulphurous about it - sheer bad luck - nothing electrical - only numbing - nothing magnetic - only repulsive - and so much phosphorus that the author burned his hand."
The music of Adolf Müller was also criticized by the same with "goes home completely numb from the Turkish discord" . Only the transformation scenes of Carl into a French and a French woman met with applause from the audience and critics.
Later interpretations
Otto Rommel places the work in the category of those parodies “that use the magical apparatus” (quote). He also counted Nagerl and Glove , The soulful Kerckermeister , Zampa the Tagdieb and Robert the Teuxel .
In Brukner / Rommel, however, a ranking among the parodies is already rejected because the piece lacks the essence. It belongs to the intermediate form peculiar to the old Viennese Volkstheater , which “maintains the framework of a serious play, but dresses it with the cheerful life of the local magic farce without intending to criticize the original” (quote).
Barbara Rita Krebs states that The Magician Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus is one of the five worst failed plays of Nestroy, the other four would be An apartment for rent in the city (1837), Just rest! (1843), Die liebe Anverwandten (1848) and Secret money, secret love (1853).
As the reason for this, Krebs names the stage version, which was cut by the censors and provided with "drolleries" by director Carl, possibly also by Wenzel Scholz , which was quite different from the (better?) Nestroy original version. The audience was, however, overwhelmed by Nestroy himself with the new form of social satire - directed directly against the feudal-class understanding of society of the upper part of this audience. The completely unfamiliar new role of Nestroy himself, combined with his astonishingly late appearance, was also disturbing. A funny, eloquent figure was expected from his audience favorite and instead a simple-minded, lethargic, platitudes babbling oriental was put in front of him.
literature
- Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition, second volume, Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1924.
- Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroy's Failures: Aesthetic and Social Conditions. Diploma thesis at the humanities faculty of the University of Vienna, Vienna 1989.
- Friedrich Walla (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 6. In: Jürgen Hein / Johann Hüttner : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, Historical-Critical Edition. Jugend und Volk, Vienna / Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7141-6965-2 ; Pp. 1-70, 151-246.
- Jeanne Benay: L'opérette viennoise, Publication Univ Rouen Havre, 1998, ISBN 978-2-87775-806-2 ; Pp. 15-16. ( Preview in the Google book search, on the music of the work; German; accessed on February 18, 2014)
Individual evidence
- ↑ named Heinrich in the final stage version
- ↑ composite tongue twister from Walpurgis (night) , Blocksberg and septemtrionalis = north (Lat.)
- ↑ composite tongue twister made of sulfur (sulfur), electricity, magnetism and phosphorus
- ^ Original manuscript of Robert der Texel in the manuscript collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall , IN 36.763
- ^ Friedrich Walla (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 6. S. 19.
- ^ Friedrich Walla (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 6. p. 68.
- ↑ Music collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall, signature M 683.
- ↑ Helmut Ahrens : I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Johann Nestroy, his life. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7973-0389-0 ; P. 143.
- ^ Friedrich Walla (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 6. p. 171.
- ^ Otto Rommel: Nestroy's works, selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908, pp. XXVI, XXX.
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 698.
- ↑ Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroys Failures , pp. 9-10.
- ↑ Drolerie = from the French drôle , funny / funny / funny; meant here as harmless joking on stage; for further meanings see Drolerie
- ↑ Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroys Failures , pp. 32–33.