The funny Fritz

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Data
Title: The funny Fritz
Original title: Funny Fritz or sleep, dream, get up, dress and get better!
A recent fairy tale in two acts
Genus: Local posse in two elevators
Original language: German
Author: Karl Meisl
Literary source: Carl Franz van der Velde (work name unknown)
Publishing year: 1818
Place of premiere: Theater in the Leopoldstadt
people
  • Mr. Steigerl , a former second-hand dealer
  • Mrs. Steigerl
  • Fritz , her son
  • Bacon, lard , friends of the Steiger family
  • Poros , a magician
  • Marie, Malchen, Lottchen , Fritzen's lover
  • Jean , Fritzen's servant
  • a master tailor, a shoemaker, a coachman, a salami man, a fruit maker
  • Believers, Fritzen's cousins, Godeln and Mahmen of the Steiger family

Allegorical characters of the dream in the second act

  • The satire, the fashion, the shame, the vice, the madness, the desire, the luxury, the compliment, the hope, the caprice, the poverty, the coquetry
    The castles in the air     (personified)
    The debts     (personified)
    Genii, masks

The funny Fritz is a local posse in two acts by Karl Meisl . The first performance took place in 1818 in the Vienna Theater in the Leopoldstadt .

content

Fritz Steigerl's perplexed parents consult with friends of the house on how to cure his uninhibited extravagance. But the mother always countered the reasonable suggestions of Mr. Schmalz with the objection:

"But remember that it is a weak fellow and that it is my only child." (First act, first appearance)

Finally, Speck suggests that Fritz be healed by a magician who can show his patients their future in a dream and thereby heal them.

Fritz is reminded of his written marriage promises by his lovers and of the debts by his creditors. But he sees himself as a victim:

“It's a cross, if you are as amiable as I am, the girls have enough sense and taste to see that; but unfortunately the debtors have no sense for it ... " (First act, sixth appearance)
At Magier's, Fritz gets a sleeping potion, begins to dream and the parents can watch. Ms. Steigerl is very impressed:
"If you could watch all your dreams like that, there would be something to look at, you would see a lot of hypocrisy in strange circumstances." (Second act, first appearance)

In the dream, Fritz has been married to Lottchen for 20 years and is completely impoverished. The satire offers itself as a savior, leads the two into the palace of the Lord of Luxury, where the steward greets Vices and introduces them to the house owner. He apparently takes a liking to Lottchen and showered them with precious gifts. Other allegorical figures, such as Kaprice, Mode, Compliment and Coquetry, also take care of them. But when luxury offends them and they are handed over to vice, poverty and madness, Fritz finally realizes his mistakes. Hope leads him back to real life and he promises to be good from now on:

“How good I am now, that's a spectacle! - I want to work and then be so funny and sing ... " (Second act, twenty-second appearance)

reception

"The funny Fritz" was created by Karl Meisl at a time when the moral piece was beginning to develop into a new magic piece. This work is nevertheless a piece of improvement with no emotional depth - the change of the hero takes place purely mechanically through magic. What is new at Meisl is the personification of allegorical concepts (luxury, vice, desire, etc.) and the use of these figures not only in a framework, but in the play itself as a moralizing appearance. Such an appearance of personified allegories was a matter of course for the audience at the time, even if it seems strange today.

The play was Meisl's first and greatest success - it was performed 97 times in the Leopoldstadt Theater alone. The main role, Fritz, was played by Ferdinand Raimund , who had replaced Ignaz Schuster as the most popular comedian in Vienna.

In the finale, Meisl lets everyone sing several stanzas of a popular folk song together:

“Anyone who has a money can go to the theater. - And if you don't have one - stay outside at the gate.
It's all one to us, it's all one to us, whether we have money or none. "

literature

  • Gerhard Helbig (ed.): The Viennese Volkstheater in its most beautiful pieces , Dieterich Collection Volume 253 (Bäuerle, Gleich, Meisl, Raimund, Nestroy), Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung in Leipzig 1960.
  • Martina Müller: Old Viennese joke authors invite you to the table , master's thesis, Graz 2009, pp. 27–29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ caprice = French for mood
  2. ↑ Helbig: The Vienna People's Theater in its Most Beautiful Plays, p. 109.
  3. ↑ Helbig: The Vienna People's Theater in its Most Beautiful Plays, p. 118.
  4. ↑ Helbig: The Vienna People's Theater in its Most Beautiful Plays, p. 130.
  5. ↑ a b Helbig: The Vienna People's Theater in its Most Beautiful Plays, p. 157.
  6. ↑ George W. Forcht: Frank Wedekind and the popular play tradition: base and sustainability of his work. Centaurus Verlag & Media KG, Freiburg 2012, p. 14, ISBN 978-3-86226-154-3 .
  7. ^ Helbig: The Vienna People's Theater in its Most Beautiful Plays pp. XXIX – XXX. (for the entire "Reception" chapter)