Comedy of seduction

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Komödie der Verführung is a play in three acts by Arthur Schnitzler , which premiered on October 11, 1924 at the Burgtheater under the direction of Hans Brahm in Vienna and was published in the same year by S. Fischer in Berlin.

Shortly before and on the eve of the First World War, the play follows the fate of three women from the nobility and the world of artists when choosing a partner.

content

Max, who lives from his father's inheritance, has love affairs with three young women one after the other during the action period - from May 1 to August 1, 1914. Countess Aurelie von Merkenstein, who has already given her word to Baron Ulrich von Falkenir, succumbs to the charm of the seducer. Ironically, years earlier, Max's father, a Viennese womanizer, had been shot in a duel by the countess's father. But Aurelie, heavily courted by both the Baron and Prince Arduin of Perosa, actually loves Falkenir. The countess - "nobody's bride", suffering from a "disturbance" - goes into the water with the baron. The 20-year-old singer Judith Asrael, sister-in-law of a bank president, assesses Max soberly and does not give in so easily. Performing on the stages of Europe, the experienced woman dictates her idiosyncratic conditions to the lover. Max should wait in Vienna. Judith will call him - for a single night of love. Then he has to go. Said and done. The love of the strange couple on the night of August 1, 1914, in Gilleleije on the Danish beach near Skodsborg, indeed marks the end of this second relationship between the protagonist Max. Prince Arduin, major general of the Austro-Hungarian army and major of one French cavalry regiment, does not think about war and leaves the bellicose Europe, this "world of fools", never to be seen again on his yacht with Judith.

The viewer can see the play as the story of Seraphine's love for Max. With diligence and thanks to an understanding fatherly upbringing, the petty bourgeoisie Seraphine, who would almost have become a "telephone lady", has worked her way up to become a violin soloist. A guest tour takes her through Central Europe. The father, a former chamber singer, accompanies the daughter. Seraphine already knew her weakness for the beloved Max in Vienna. When the girl "played the violin, he passed by. That's why ... it sounded so beautiful." It was also in Vienna, in that May 1914, that Max and Seraphine fell in love - only for one night. Only on the day the war broke out does Seraphine confess her pregnancy to her lover, but she disregards the unfaithful.

Quotes

  • "Where there is no secret, there is no danger."
  • "Art only begins with the echo."

Timepiece

War euphoria in May 1914

  • The prosecutor Braunigl says, "a war would undoubtedly have a cleansing effect." And the princess agrees: "A real fountain of youth for humanity."

reception

  • Musil discussed the premiere in 1924. The content, form and language of the play cannot satisfy the reviewer. Musil laments the constant indirectness: "The current is never suffered, always the in-between." Kafka rejects Schnitzler's drama.
  • Comedy - a confusing parlor game with numerous opponents - is not easy to understand. In this context, Korte refers to Schnitzler's "allusion system" and mentions "leitmotifs of seduction": Watteau , Mozart and Wagner .
  • According to Le Rider , the suicide of Aurelie and Falkenir on the eve of the First World War is a symbol of the death drive of society as a whole. In addition, all the characters in the play are in an identity crisis . Although men are players and women are toys, women still look better.
  • Arnold gives further work: Gerhard Kluge (1984), Reinhard Urbach (Frankfurt am Main 1985) and Heide Eilert (1991). Perlmann mentions Melchinger (1968), Andreas Török (1971), Kilian (1972), Offermanns (1973) and William H. Rey (1977)

Performances

literature

source
  • Arthur Schnitzler: Comedy of Seduction. In three acts p. 381 to 533 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Arthur Schnitzler: Comedy of seduction. Time pieces 1909 - 1924. With an afterword by Hermann Korte . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (edition 2000). 553 pages, ISBN 3-10-073559-5
First edition
  • Arthur Schnitzler: Comedy of Seduction. In three acts. S. Fischer Berlin 1924. 263 pages
expenditure
  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Selected works in eight volumes. Comedy of seduction. Time pieces. Afterword by Hermann Korte. 560 pages. S. Fischer, February 2002, ISBN 978-3-10-073559-1
Secondary literature
  • Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler. Metzler Collection, Vol. 239. Stuttgart 1987. 195 pages, ISBN 3-476-10239-4
  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Publisher edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998, 174 pages, ISBN 3-88377-577-0
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 555, 2nd column, 8. Zvu Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8
  • Jacques Le Rider : Arthur Schnitzler or The Vienna Belle Époque . Translated from the French by Christian Winterhalter. Passagen Verlag Vienna 2007. 242 pages, ISBN 978-3-85165-767-8
  • Robert Musil: Arthur Schnitzler's “Comedy of Seduction”. In: Tomorrow, October 13, 1924
  • Wolfgang Lukas: The self and the foreign. Epochal life crises and their solution in Arthur Schnitzler's work. Munich 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ANNO, Burgtheater theater ticket, 1924-10-11, page 1. Accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Source, p. 440, 15. Zvo
  3. ↑ Source, p. 400, 16. Zvu
  4. ↑ Source, p. 422, 7th Zvu
  5. ↑ Source, p. 468, 5. Zvo
  6. ↑ Source, p. 448, 16. Zvo
  7. ↑ Perlmann, p. 106, 22. Zvo
  8. ↑ Perlmann, p. 106, 12th Zvu
  9. ↑ Perlmann, p. 106, 9. Zvu
  10. ↑ Source, p. 547 below
  11. ↑ Le Rider, p. 104 middle to p. 105
  12. ^ Arnold (1998), p. 162, left column, chap. 3.5.16
  13. ↑ Perlmann, p. 108, last entry