The Troublesome (Hofmannsthal)
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| Title: | The annoying ones |
| Genus: | Comedy in one act |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Hugo von Hofmannsthal |
| Literary source: | Les Fâcheux by Molière |
| Publishing year: | 1917 |
| Premiere: | April 26, 1917 |
| Place of premiere: | Chamber plays of the German theater |
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The annoying ones. Comedy in one act based on Molière is a comedy that Hugo von Hofmannsthal edited and rewritten based on Molière's Comédie-ballet Les Fâcheux . The one-act play was premiered on April 26, 1917 as a prelude to the ballet "The Green Flute" in the Kammerspiele of the German Theater under the direction of Max Reinhardt .
The piece was with Leopoldine Konstantin , Orphise; Paul Hartmann , Alcest; Fritz Delius , Philinth; Camilla Eibenschütz, Dorimene; Friedrich Kühne , Alcidor; Josef Danegger , Damon; Max Pallenberg Ergast; Max Gülstorff , Helianth and Johanna Terwin , newspaper sellers with a high-class staff. The set and costumes were by Ernst Stern , the technical direction was by Rudolf Dworsky . The piece, which Hofmannsthal sketched in one go in five days and which was available in its final version within only fourteen days, had 30 performances and was on the program until June 1, 1917. After that, Max Reinhardt stopped staging “The Troublesome”.
After Molière
Hofmannsthal shortened Molière's three-act act to one act, omitted the musical interludes, reduced the number of people from 15 to 8 and invented the figure of the newspaper seller, and he moved the plot from the street to the vestibule of the palace. He also changed some names. While he kept the name Orphise called her admirer now - based on Molière's Misanthrope - Alcest . Helianth reappears as a name and character, while other names have been modified or characters have disappeared entirely. He also expanded the role of Orphise, which Moliere only appears in the first and last scenes of the play and therefore has little text to speak. She gets more text and additional appearances with Alcest in scenes 3 and 5.
content
The setting is the vestibule in the Palais des Monsieur N. in Paris, where a party has gathered in anticipation of fireworks and a ballet. Alcest is an outsider in society, he is called a "werewolf" (French Loup Garou ). To be seen with him can only compromise a woman.
Alcest has secretly followed his adored Orphise to the soirée in order to speak to her - he indicates that he would like to marry her - which, however, is rather difficult: In scenes 2, 4 and 6, Orphise is intrigued by intrusive and scheming people Conversation drawn, in scenes 3 and 5 the two meet, but hardly manage to talk to each other, as a new troublemaker immediately appears, which Alcest tries to escape in scenes 7 to 9. The piece ends with Alcest turning his back on all the self-satisfied egoists, Orphise can now tell him what a difficult person he is, that you cannot “go into the world” with him, that she is in a bad mood because she is “Have to make a decision”, namely: “I will marry you - as soon as you want”. The two leave the soirée, which Dorimene, the intriguer, comments with the sentence: "... one should never disturb a woman when she makes her futile attempts to hold on to someone who does not want to be held on". The guests go to the ballet.
Press reactions
"By the way, completely in confidence: Reinhardt played a Molière every evening for the last 6 weeks, the" annoying "one, of which there was no line from Molière apart from the title, but every word from the first to the last by your devoted librettist, without the criticism› Mau ‹Said."
Stefan Großmann , the critic of the Vossische Zeitung , wrote “The editor threw out some of the Molièr types [...] and used others, the annoying ones of today. Molière's harmless work has been infused with a certain amount of poison and a great deal of intellect. The editor gives an elegant company of possessed I-people, a more vicious comedy than his sentimental neighbor Schnitzler ever succeeded in doing, it is a bitter social experience that here comes the word [...] ”.
expenditure
The text was first published in 1917 in issue 2 of the short-lived Marsyas magazine with 6 etchings by Hans Meid .
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Comedies . Yesterday, the white fan, Silvia in the star, Florindo and the unknown, Cristian's journey home, the annoying, the difficult, the incorruptible. Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer 1974.
- The annoying ones . Comedy in one file after Molière.
- Complete Works. Critical edition. XVII. Dramas 15. Ed. By Gudrun Kortheimer u. Ingeborg Beyer-Ahlert. Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer 2006.
- Text: pp. 171–208. Sources and commentary: pp. 693–801.
literature
- Norbert Altenhofer: Free from Molière. To Hofmannsthal's society comedy ›The Troublesome‹ . [1967]. In: Norbert Altenhofer: The irony of things. To the late Hofmannsthal . Edited by Leonhard M. Fiedler. Frankfurt: Lang 1995. (Analyzes and Documents. 30.) ISBN 3-631-47359-1
- Judd David Hubert: Molière & The Comedy of Intellect. Berkeley: University of California Press 1962. ISBN 0-520-02520-2 S. Chapter: The Plot's the Thing. Pp. 59-65. ISBN 0-84621583-7
- Leonhard M. Fiedler: Hofmannsthal's Molière arrangements. The renewal of the comédie-ballet on Max Reinhardt's stages . Darmstadt 1974.
- Elsbeth Dangel-Pelloquin: ›The Little Falsificat‹. A game of original and forgery in Hofmannsthal's ›The Troublesome‹. Comedy in one act based on Molière . In: Hofmannsthal yearbook. 10. 2002. pp. 59-88.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Hofmannsthal. Complete Works. Critical edition. XVII. Dramas 15. 2006. p. 774.
- ↑ N. is probably an allusion to Nicolas Fouquet , the organizer of the festival, for whom Molière wrote his play.
- ↑ Quoted from Dangel-Pelloquin 2002. p. 1
- ↑ Hofmannsthal. Complete Works. Critical edition. XVII. Dramas 15. Frankfurt a. M. 2006.S. 775.
- ↑ Marsyas. Issue 2. 1917. pp. 91-120.