Seven girls in uniform
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| Title: |
Seven girls in uniform Twelve girls in uniform |
| Genus: | Vaudeville - posse in one file |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Louis Angely and Johann Nestroy |
| Publishing year: | 1825 |
| Place of premiere: | Königsstädtisches Theater , Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Scene: an old ruined fortress, on the seashore, a quarter of an hour from a small town in France |
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Seven Girls in Uniform , sometimes Twelve Girls in Uniform , is a one-act vaudeville by Louis Angely . The premiere took place in 1825 at the Königsstädtisches Theater in Berlin . Johann Nestroy wrote some parodic glosses about literary classics in his text for the role of the invalid Sansquartier, which he often played.
content
Governor Osmond has imprisoned a few young men in the old fortress for improper behavior during Carnival times, as well as his son Henri, whom he wants to prevent from running away with his beloved Sophie. The fortress commander Briquet learns with pride that he is being assigned a squad of new soldiers to guard these prisoners, who are supposed to reinforce his troops, consisting of the one-eyed Sansquartier and the lame Bataille. In fact, Osmond's cousin Victor forged the dispatch and also put some girls in soldier's uniforms who want to have fun at the fortress. Sansquartier is amazed:
- "It seems to me that they haven't been on duty for long, as the saying goes." (Second scene)
“Corporal” Julie brings the two lovers together at the police station, but the old Sansquartier disturbs the Tête-à-Tête because he pursues his passion for reading on the bastion. He comments for himself on what he has read: (Seventh scene)
- (Schiller, The Maid of Orleans) “Now, this is actually not a comedy, but rather a dramatic fable. - Well - you don't know anything G'wiss's - and now nothing comes up - it's been a long time - and the neighborhood is all dead. […] But I didn't think so - so many English people and the single-layer virgin - the G'schicht 'must have a' sad outcome. "
- (Schiller, Don Carlos) “It's a Spanish class, but - also a bit lascivious; but that doesn't matter - it's already there. [...] That is a frugal person, this queen, she would be satisfied with a half-cut Don Carlos - aha, now the Marquis Posinger comes in - I think it will come to a wild end, this mutual infantry. "
Briquet notices Sophie's offense and locks her in custody. But when Osmond suddenly shows up and sees through the game, everything seems to have failed. But he joins in and announces that an Algerian corsair fleet is cruising off the coast and is planning to raid the fortress. Panic spreads among the girls, but they don't want to flee without Sophie.
The news that a corsair frigate is attacking makes Briquet enthusiastic, hoping for battle and fame - but the girls flee to the barracks and barricade themselves inside. When the "corsairs" attack, the three old soldiers defend themselves, but Briquet soon realizes that he was fooled by the governor and the disguised released prisoners. The girls come out of the barracks in their women's clothes and surrender. But now, to their relief, the brothers unmask themselves, Osmond gives his consent to Henri and Sophie's wedding, only Briquet is disappointed because there was no glorious fight. However, he makes a good face to the bad game:
- “God should keep me! who will misinterpret a well-intentioned joke? " (Eighteenth Scene)
Factory history
Louis Angely's Vaudeville Posse was premiered in Berlin in 1825 and is available in print in the second volume of the Vaudevilles and Comedy Plays , Berlin 1828–1834. The piece enjoyed great popularity and was performed very often in German-speaking countries for a long time.
During Nestroy's engagement in Graz from 1826 with director Johann August Stöger , he was urged by him not only to maintain his singing career, which was more important for him at the time, but also to appear as a comedian in speaking roles. According to tradition, recorded by Friedrich Schlögl ( Vom Wiener Volkstheater , Vienna / Teschen 1884), Nestroy is said to have tried this new subject more or less voluntarily. An alleged conversation between Nestroy and a friend named Walter was supposed to document this:
- Nestroy came to Walter's room, angrily threw a manuscript on the table and shouted: “Now it's impossible to bear what the director does with me! [...] I've got a new roll, again a maleficent-funny one, but with which I don't even know what to do! "
It was about the Sansquartier from Angelys Posse and allegedly the angry mime decided to deliberately play it so exaggerated that he would be spared from comical roles forever - he intends to portray a drunk old German master, then he will have his peace . His game, however, aroused so much applause from the audience, who were only beginning to wonder, that the success was clear.
The story is not too likely in this form, however, because Nestroy had already embodied cheerful roles, especially in works by Adolf Bäuerle , but also Longimanus in Ferdinand Raimund's Der Diamant des Geisterkönig and Fortunatus Wurzel in Der Bauer als Millionär . But the role of the Sansquartier was an additional challenge, because in the literary scene on the ramparts the actor was given complete freedom for his own texts. Thanks to Nestroy, the original supporting role had become an unmistakable central figure. Even in later years he has given the Sansquartier again and again - with ever more perfect text and play.
In Graz, as in some other theaters, the play was entitled Twelve Girls in Uniform - where the size of the ensemble allowed, a few more girls' roles were added for the sake of the effect. It was performed together with the prelude to Der Zettelträger Papp , Nestroy's first farce, on December 15, 1827 in the Ständisches Schauspielhaus Graz.
From the performance on May 7, 1847 at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt , a theater ticket has survived: Nestroy played the Sansquartier, Ignaz Stahl played Colonel Osmond, Franz Gämmerler played Henri, Alois Grois played Briquet. The opening act were scenes from The Evil Spirit Lumpacivagabundus and Der Zerrissene von Nestroy, as well as The Prodigal by Ferdinand Raimund ; the net proceeds went to the basic poor house of the communities Leopoldstadt and Jägerzeile .
Yet in 1925 owned by Fritz Brukner befindliches Textbook of Natural History for lower secondary schools was used by Johann Nestroy as a reading book Sans quarters in the scene on the ramparts. This can be recognized by the fact that on some pages insert sheets are stapled, which in Nestroy's handwriting contain more or less detailed texts of the parodic glosses. A few pencil corrections prove his permanent work on these texts. These notes and Leopold Rosner's from Nestroy: A little souvenir. With a biographical preface (4th edition, Vienna 1885) served as a source for the reconstruction of Nestroy's inserts.
Contemporary reception
In the Grätzer Zeitung in 1827 there was a positive review:
- "Mr. Nestroy as Sansquartier gave a funny, Hogarthian kind of invalid, who seems to be grayed more in slovenliness than in service. His stiff bones, his padded neck band suggest that he doesn't have to boast of his frailty, and one would like to I bet that the eye was knocked out more in a tavern than on the battlefield. […] Mr. Nestroy gave the character so understood and for the real entertainment of the audience. "
In the Wiener Theater Zeitung of Adolf Bäuerle was on September 8, 1831 (Volume 24):
- [...] the debut of Mr. Nestroi (sic!) From the kkstädtischen theater in Lemberg took place on August 30th . [...] His portrayal of the Sansquartier must be counted among the best comic productions on this stage. The guest here developed such freedom and informality as if he were already at home with us, and it is no doubt due to this fact that he was able to develop such a penetrating and powerful comic character from the not very important role.
In later years, namely on May 10, 1842, Der Wanderer wrote another hymn of praise:
- An interesting, diaphragmatic portrayal was that of the aftermath, in which Nestroy, as the Invalide Sansquartier, weighed a whole generation of comedians and aroused roaring laughter. Now it is less than a decade that Sansquartier-Nestroy paroxied the man below, and he still wants to raise him to the seventh heaven and never tire of writing when it is not time to finish an essay which for all its intended brevity is already too long.
Later interpretations
Helmut Ahrens notes that, especially in the later years, the audience assumed more and more that the Sansquartier was a figure created solely by Nestroy, so much has he added to new things, to his own texts and design ideas, that this stage figure himself has from the only appropriated role to a figure that can no longer be separated from Nestroy.
Gustav Pichler says that Nestroy played the Sansquartier 256 times, even the Knieriem in the Lumpazivagabundus he only played twice more. He describes this work as "a real Nestroy piece that has explicitly entered theater history" because he filled the weak model with his spirit and his personality.
Otto Rommel also quotes the above-mentioned scene with Nestroy's outraged rejection of the role, of whose truthfulness he was presumably convinced, and cites Schlögl as a credible witness. The success of this role convinced Nestroy that the focus of his work in the future will be the cheerful subject.
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, fourth volume, Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1925, pp. 280–292, 409–419.
- Gustav Pichler: Unknown Nestroy. Wilhelm Frick Verlag & Co., Vienna 1953; Pp. 10-35, 131-133.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
Web links
- Content and role index in nestroy-stuecke / 02_maedchen (accessed on April 8, 2015)
- Louis Angely: Seven Girls in Uniform: Vaudeville-Posse in One Act , Klemann, 1842. (Facsimile of the original text on Google Books) (accessed April 8, 2015)
Individual evidence
- ↑ the original title always changed to Twelve Girls ... when the theater had enough actresses for it; An example was Graz, where Nestroy played the Sansquartier
- ↑ Angely: Seven Girls in Uniform , p. 13.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 281-292.
- ↑ Angely: Seven Girls in Uniform , p. 72.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 416.
- ↑ a b c Pichler: Unknown Nestroy. Pp. 132-133.
- ↑ Facsimile of the theater slip in Pichler: Unknown Nestroy, after p. 10.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 409.
- ↑ a b Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 62-63.
- ^ Pichler: Unknown Nestroy. Pp. 10-11.
- ^ Otto Rommel: Nestroys works. S. XVI-XVII.