Narcissus (curlew)
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| Title: | Narcissus |
| Genus: | Tragedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Albert Emil Curlew |
| Literary source: | Rameau's nephew |
| Publishing year: | 1857 |
| Premiere: | March 7, 1856 |
| Place of premiere: | Royal Theater, Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Alternating between Paris and Versailles. Time: 1764. |
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Narcissus (originally spelled Narciß ) is a tragedy in five acts by Albert Emil Brachvogel . The premiere took place in Berlin in 1856. The now forgotten play was extremely successful and has been present on the German-speaking stages for decades.
content
The title-giving person of the piece is Narcissus Rameau (Narcissus is his first name), whom Brachvogel took from Diderot's philosophical dialogue Rameau's nephew . Brachvogel puts this figure in a concrete historical situation, the year 1764, in the vicinity of the French royal court at the time of Louis XV.
The actually well-disposed Narcissus Rameau has become a nihilistic cynic through a drastic experience in his past. He viciously gives free rein to his contempt for society and thereby attracts attention.
At the same time, Madame de Pompadour sought to marry the king in order to consolidate her power. However, the star of the Pompadour is already sinking, the king himself is tired of her, the party of the queen ( Maria Leszczyńska ) is working on her overthrow. The tool for this is said to be Narcissus.
Because on a walk, the Pompadour shouted the name "Narcissus" when she saw a vagabond, whereupon she collapsed. Choiseul-d'Amboise manages to find out what it is all about. The "Narcissus", whose sight shocked the Pompadour to death, is none other than her first husband, whom she married when she was still Jeanette Poisson, the daughter of a spice dealer. Following her pursuit of fame, she left her husband then and never saw him again.
Choiseul-d'Amboise draws up a plan: he wants to confront the Pompadour face to face with Narcissus in the hope that she will not survive this renewed shock. Therefore, on the occasion of the supposedly imminent wedding with the king, he organized a theatrical performance entitled "Athalia, Queen of Judah".
In the play, the actress Doris Quinault and Narcissus themselves are supposed to reproduce the adultery on the stage, after which the sight of Narcissus is supposed to finish off the pompadour. This is exactly what happens. The initial joy at the reunion is followed by a tirade from Narcissus against his unfaithful wife, whereupon the Pompadour dies. Narcissus, maddened, also dies.
Performance history
- " Narciss tops the performance statistics for the 19th century and was played ten times as often as all of Hebbel's pieces put together."
criticism
Despite its longevity on stage, the piece garnered some negative contemporary reviews. For example, Theodor Fontane wrote in a performance review of December 11, 1881:
- “What I suffer from this piece defies description. Despite my high semesters, I still have the weakness to take such stories seriously and to attach more general considerations to them. And then it goes to my head every time I calculate that this colossal nonsense has dominated the German stage for about 30 years. "
expenditure
- Narcissus in full text at Zeno.org
- Scan of the 7th edition (Jena, Hermann Costenoble, [1891])
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Schwarz: 'Brachvogel, Albert Emil'. In: Killy Literature Lexicon . Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area. 2nd, completely revised edition. De Gruyter 2008, Volume 2, pp. 115-116.