The black woman
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| Title: | The black woman |
| Genus: | Parodying farce in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Karl Meisl |
| Literary source: | La Dame blanche by François Boieldieu and Eugène Scribe |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1826 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater in the Josefstadt |
| Place and time of the action: | December 1, 1826 |
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The black woman is a farce with singing in 3 acts by Carl Meisl . The premiere took place on December 1, 1826 in the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna .
content
In the small town of Gänsewitz, the “black woman” has been haunted in the town hall for several years, and all councilors and city guards fear her. She walks (as a parody of Grillparzer's ancestor )
- "[...] slowly and solemnly out of the house." (Act I, scene 6)
She appears to the stingy tenant Sparhawk because he owes her (in truth Nanette) money. Haberstroh wants to get hold of the great inheritance of Nanette and marry her in addition. She disguises herself as a “black woman” in order to protect the buried treasure of her deceased father, who was a wealthy goldsmith, through this haunted house.
The funny vagabond Georgel comes to town, is visited by the council servant and shows himself unimpressed by the “black woman”, he calls her “conduct announcer” (Act I, 6th scene) and even dances a waltz with her. According to her own words, Nanette has dozens of Amanten [...]. (Act II, scene 9).
After a few disguise scenes - Klapperl also plays the “Black Woman” (Act I, 11th scene) - in the final scene all the councilors' wives appear in this costume, identify themselves and abuse their men for their pathetic behavior. Georgel and Nanette, who found the buried treasure, finally find each other.
Factory history
The literary model for Meisl was the Opéra comique La Dame blanche by François Boieldieu (music) and Eugène Scribe (libretto), premiered on December 10, 1825 at the Paris Opéra-Comique . It was very successful and was soon played all over Europe and North America, on July 6, 1826 also in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor , in the German translation by Ignaz Franz Castelli .
Just five months later the parody by Carl Meisl was performed, some other parodies by other authors were not so successful. On December 12, 1826, due to the crowd, the production moved to the larger Theater an der Wien , which was then combined with the Josefstädter Theater. Under the direction of Carl Carl , it became a success and repertoire piece that ran for around 25 years until the end of the 1840s. It was also very successful in German-speaking countries before it was forgotten.
Meisl stuck to the template relatively closely, only he transplanted the aristocratic Scottish milieu of 1759 into a Viennese small-town scenario. The castle manager Graveston becomes the quarter master Haberstroh, his ward Anna, the foster daughter of the deceased Countess von Avenal, becomes the orphan Nanette, the simple-minded tenant Dickson is now the stingy sparrowhawk, Dickson's wife Jenny becomes the coquettish Hanni, the officer Georges Brown Anna legitimized at the last moment through documents entrusted to her as the legal heir of the castle, Julien d'Avenal, becomes the walking rascal Georgel, the "white lady", protector of the d'avenal family for centuries, becomes a "black woman", the disguised Nanette.
The last performance of “Black Woman” was given in a version condensed into one act in 1851 together with Johann Nestroy 's folk play The good-natured devil , in which, in addition to Wenzel Scholz , Nestroy also took part. In an earlier performance of “Black Woman” in October 1827 during his time in Graz, Nestroy was punished, as was often the case later, for “ extemporating contrary to censorship ”.
At the premiere, Wenzel Scholz did not yet play the councilman Klapperl, but in the Theater an der Wien he took on the role that became his first great success and breakthrough as a comedian. The black lady played Betty Vio , the tenant Sparhawk Friedrich Hopp .
The music comes from Adolf Müller senior , who celebrated his first great success with it.
The play ran as a successful and repertoire piece of the theater troupe around director Carl Carl. It was not only a career springboard for the composer Adolph Müller,
Later reception
Alice Christine Waginger writes in her diploma thesis that "The Black Woman" is one of the so-called Krähwinkliaden , local antics that take place in places where
- “[...] whose inhabitants are rural between the bourgeoisie and 'traditionally Austrian'. This backdrop is often used for opera parodies. "
According to Fanny Platette, the maudlin scenes of the original (the situations of memory and recognition) are replaced by prosaic events (affair between Nanette and Georgel, parody of the lyrics) in Meisl. First and foremost, he is
- “[...] about a burlesque ghost parody, which he has also brought to the stage in other plays [...] but at the same time this 'common sense' itself, the petty-bourgeois attitude, is ridiculed. [...] Even if the intention is primarily comical or parodic, the contemporary socio-political background [...] is recognizable. "
literature
- Fanny Platelle: Adolf Bäuerles and Carl Meisl's arrangements of French “opéras comiqes” , in: Nestroyana, sheets of the international Nestroy Society , 35th year 2015, issue 3–4, ISSN 1027-3921; Pp. 184-191.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Allusion to the pre-March police system in the Austrian Empire
- ↑ Harald Miesbacher: The early Graz years of Johann Nestroy (1826-1831). In: Nestroyana, sheets of the international Nestroy Society , p. 135.
- ↑ Alice Christine Waginger, diploma thesis (2011) at the Philological and Cultural Studies Faculty of the University of Vienna [1]
- ↑ Fanny Platelle: Adolf Bauerles and Carl Meisl's adaptations of French "opéras comiqes" , S. 191st