The two gentlemen's sons
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| Title: | The two gentlemen's sons |
| Genus: | Posse with singing in five acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | L'Homme de la Nature et l'Homme Policé , novel by Paul de Kock , Vaudeville by Charles Dupeuty |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1845 |
| Premiere: | January 16, 1845 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater an der Wien |
| Place and time of the action: | The act takes place partly on Herr von Eckheim's and partly on Frau von Helmbach's property |
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The two gentlemen sons is a farce with singing in five acts by Johann Nestroy . The first performance took place on January 16, 1845 in the Theater an der Wien as a benefit performance for the poet.
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The two cousins, who are half-orphans, are brought up in completely opposite ways by their widowed parents: Mr. von Eckheim attaches great importance to education and obedience at Moritz, Ms. Helmbach does not want to impose any rules on her son Viktor and gives him a free hand. The two sons decide to kidnap their loved ones to town, as neither their own nor the girls' parents agree to the liaison. In contrast to Moritz, who is unhappy about disobedience, Vincent is the driving force out of a thirst for adventure and a spirit of contradiction:
- "To the work, everyone acts for himself, in the city we already find each other." (First act, eleventh scene)
In the city it soon turns out that the girls are by no means satisfied with the situation, they look for other acquaintances. The brat sent by Frau Helmbach to help her son turns out to be a parasite and lazy, Vinzenz once helps Moritz out of a financial embarrassment, but soon everything he gets from home is used up. Moritz, Vinzenz and Balg have to move into a miserable attic, only Moritz works for the common living because he feels responsible for the others. Vinzenz appreciates this, but does not take Moritz seriously:
- "Too much boy, Moritz, will never become something big." (Third act, thirteenth scene)
Moritz has fallen in love with Emilie, the daughter of the Oberforstrate Steinheim, Vinzenz's attempt to help him ends in a catastrophe and Steinheim forbids Moritz further contact with his daughter. Another stupid action by Vinzenz, who kidnaps Emilie and wants to bring her to Moritz, turns out for the better, since Steinheim recognizes Moritz's indignant reaction to his noble character. Eckheim is reconciled with Moritz and will in future support financially in place of his sister Vinzenz, who has become poor through her son:
- "I will secure you a small pension, the large pension that you give the children, education, I cannot give you." (Fifth act, thirteenth scene)
Factory history
Nestroy's original was a well-read educational novel by the French playwright Paul de Kock and the vaudeville of the same name by the librettist Charles Désiré Dupeuty , namely L'Homme de la Nature et l'Homme Policé (The natural man and the civilized man)
The core of Paul de Kock's novel is the juxtaposition of careful upbringing on the one hand and the misunderstood teaching of Rousseau's "Back to nature!" On the other. Despite similar fates, the “son of education” finally becomes a capable, successful and happy man, while the “son of nature” degenerates into an unstable, deeply sunk drunk.
Nestroy's adaptation of the novel was by its nature not an actual farce, but rather a picture of life that he wanted to present in a form unfamiliar to him - as a five-act act, which he had last done with happiness, abuse and return . In a simply structured form, the two fates were shown parallel to each other: the kidnapping of the loved one, disappointments, deep misery and only then the divergence of life paths in the success of one cousin and the fall of the other cousin.
A revision (shortening) of the text based on the theater manuscript, presumably under pressure from Director Carl Carl - instead of 68 only 50 scenes - was supposed to improve the humorous impact. This did not succeed, the course of the action was completely disrupted, because the life picture of the two protagonists, which was built up in five acts, was inevitably only hinted at rather than executed in four scenes, which did not increase the comedy. This four-act version was already shown at the premiere; a version that had been modified in detail because of the critical reception by the audience and reviewers was shown at the second performance on January 17th.
Johann Nestroy played Vincent, Wenzel Scholz the Schaffner Balg, Alois Grois the host Pumpfinger, Friedrich Hopp the peddler Lebl, Ignaz Stahl the Oberforstrat Steinheim.
An original manuscript by Nestroy The Two Gentlemen Sons. Posse with singing in 5 acts by J. Nestroy. 1844. has been preserved; in 1927 it was still privately owned by Paul Kalbeck . A concept sheet is in the Vienna Library in the City Hall , a censorship book No. 1212 in the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library , a second with No. 1213 there - with the personnel directory in the original line-up and some corrections.
The original score by Adolf Müller contains some couplet texts , a second preserved original score does not contain any texts.
Contemporary reception
The reception by the audience and critics was rather displeasing, which caused Nestroy to make changes that were no longer comprehensible for the second performance; the reactions were then a little friendlier.
In the Wiener Theater Zeitung of Adolf Bäuerle was noted to the fact that Nestroy "everything from what unpleasant touched on the first night, and so have the complaints into account which gave him the audience be given." Nevertheless, it was though convoluted something of Failure of the work stated:
- “But so the son of education became a perfectly ordinary person and the son of nature a heartless subject, and Nestroy had let the best slip from him. [...] The audience judged justly this time; it received the many excellent Calembourgs and witty, satirizing echoes [...] with true jubilation, but it has decidedly expressed its disapproval of the manifold weaknesses of this farce. "
The collector stated that Nestroy was the poet with whom the public was not stingy with lavish infestation, but that it judged just as strictly. The performers were praised:
- "Mr. Nestroy [...] played splendidly and with the use of his drastic means. The main characters after him, Messrs. Scholz and Grois, supported their colleagues with the greatest zeal, which was also recognized by the overcrowded house. - Mr. Nestroy was called after the first acts to general applause, which only later fell silent due to the more unfavorable mood of the audience. "
The Österreichisches Morgenblatt declared the play's defeat; the Sunday papers judged very strictly:
- "In no one of Nestroy's pieces, perhaps not even in all of them together, has such a mass of meanness been accumulated as in this, his very latest."
The hiker analyzed the behavior of the audience:
- “Once a bad mood has taken hold, some of our audience loves to have some private fun in the theater; It eagerly grasps everything that can serve its lust for ridicule, and because the mocker is seldom fair, he lumps good and bad into one pot. "
Moritz Gottlieb Saphirs The humorist , as always Nestroy rather unfriendly, ended a devastating criticism with an equally devastating conclusion:
- "It was played in the spirit and spirit of the piece."
Later interpretations
Otto Rommel states that Nestroy, as a playwright, was only able to use part of Kock's novel, so that the detailed prerequisite for the contrary development of the two nephews - the life fate from birth to manhood - is missing. The conclusion by the parents appearing as rescuers in an emergency is a violent solution to the situation: "So in 1844, to summarize, Nestroy chooses a novel that absolutely could not be dramatized, blurs the problem and does not come to a proper conclusion." (Quote)
In Brukner / Rommel it is noted that Nestroy did not succeed in the task of creating a farce from an educational novel, neither in the long version , which is close to the popular corrective play , nor in the shortened version, which strives for the drastic farce. From Paul de Kock's fool Adam he had made the witty mocking Vincent, whose foolishness seemed inappropriate. The ambitious, elegant Edmond becomes the uninteresting model boy Moritz, the supporting roles for Scholz and Grois are tailor-made for them and no longer have anything to do with the novel models. In general, the supporting characters would not be drawn strangely enough to give the actors attractive tasks. Transferring it to the Viennese milieu would also have harmed the piece this time.
Helmut Ahrens calls the work “neither characterized by a dramaturgically neatly worked out tension, nor by special linguistic wit. In places it is not even good craftsmanship, […] ” (quote). He assumes that Nestroy's family difficulties at the time had an indirect influence on the rather weak piece. How then even when following the grocer cloverleaf at were the two gentlemen sons the inconvenience of his (too late) divorce from Wilhelmine Nespiesni been to blame for the unconvincing poetic and dramatic performances Nestroy.
text
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, twelfth volume, published by Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1929; Pp. 325-440, 635-668.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
Web links
- Image of Müller's original score on www.digital.wienbibliothek
Individual evidence
- ↑ the city (Vienna) as the location of the 2nd, 4th and 5th act is not mentioned on the theater bill, the reason is unknown
- ↑ Schaffner = then estate manager
- ↑ Tandler = Bavarian / Austrian for a small or traveling trader, see trinkets
- ↑ cleaner = milliner
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 351.
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 408.
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 439.
- ^ Table of contents in Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 649-657.
- ↑ a b Otto Rommel: Nestroys works. S. LIII.
- ↑ Manuscript collection in the Vienna City Hall, call number IN 33.453.
- ↑ Music collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall, shelf marks MH 1949, 853.
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 658-666.
- ↑ Calembourg = Kalauer
- ^ Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 657-658.
- ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I'm not auctioning myself up to the laurel. P. 265.