Zampa the day thief
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| Title: | Zampa the day thief |
| Original title: | Zampa the day thief or The Bride of Gyps |
| Genus: | Parody in three acts |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | Zampa ou la fiancée de Marbre , Opéra-comique by Ferdinand Hérold , libretto by Mélesville |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1832 |
| Premiere: | June 22, 1832 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater an der Wien |
| Place and time of the action: | The action takes place not far from the sea and falls in the age of hostility between Clarina and Obscurus |
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Zampa der Tagdieb or The Bride of Gyps is a parody in three acts by Johann Nestroy . The piece was written in 1832 and was performed for the first time on June 22 of the same year.
content
Camillerl and the dissolute Paphnuzzi, who is always in need of money, prepare their wedding. Then the terribly angry Dandoli ("Ritti, i bitt 'di!") Brings the terrible news that Camillerl's father Guckano is being held in the inn by the gang of day thieves - they threaten to let him drink himself to death with schnapps. The gang capo Zampa comes to Camillerl himself and demands that if she wants to save her father, she must marry him instead of Paphnuzzi. Zampa organizes a feast for his comrades in Guckano's house; he sees the plaster figure of Bianca, the housemaid who once died of grief because he left her. Guckano once put up the portrait on behalf of the fairy Clarina. When he put a ring on the statue out of mockery, she suddenly gives him a push and takes him by the hair.
- Damian (half dead from fear): The hand holds his head tight,
- Honestly, she shakes his head. (First act, twenty-second scene)
Nevertheless, Zampa insists on the wedding, but Paphnuzzi promises Camillerl to prevent it. When the wedding guests arrive, Camillerl faints three times and has to be revived with vinegar, swallow water and lemon balm spirit . Zampa argues:
- It would be a shame if you had said something earlier that we would have married right away in the pharmacy. (Second act, fourteenth scene)
Bianca's plaster figure wakes up again and takes Zampa by the lap of her skirt. He can tear himself away and announces that he has allied himself with the fairy Clarina against Obscurus and therefore enjoys her protection. He chases Paphnuzzi away with a whip, but faints himself because Bianca's plaster figure threatens him again.
In a dispute between Camillerl, Zampa and Paphnuzzi it turns out that the two are brothers. As a last resort, Paphnuzzi disguises himself as Bianca's ghost and appears to Zampa, who shoots him, but the bullet is caught by Obscurus. He threatens to throw Zampa into Mount Etna if he does not marry the revived Bianca. Zampa gives in:
- G'Married't, with'm Etna is nothing! (Third act, thirteenth scene)
Factory history
The material - a statue is brought to life by an attached ring - is already in Wilhelm von Malmesbury (around 1080–1143), in the German Imperial Chronicle (12th century), in Vincent von Beauvais (around 1184–1264), in The ring by Thomas Moore (1779–1852), in the romances of the Rosary by Clemens Brentano (1778–1842), in the marble picture by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–11857) and with a few other poets.
Nestroy's template was the libretto of Mélesville (actually Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, 1787-1865) for the Opèra-comique Zampa ou La Fiancée de marbre (Zampa or the bride of marble) by Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833). The first performance took place in the Paris Opéra-Comique on May 3, 1831 and on May 3, 1832 in the Vienna Theater am Kärntnertor , each time with great success. The work remained present on the operatic stage for five decades, although the Mélesville libretto was only a very weak adaptation of the Don Juan motif. Here it is Alice di Manfredi, seduced by Zampa, who stands as a marble statue in the palace hall - instead of the Commander (as in Don Giovanni by Lorenzo da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ). Alice's statue kills Zampa while he tries to take Camillas.
Nestroy's parody - actually travesty - was limited to the mocking description of the characters and situations without going into the core of the original. Mélesville's band of pirates turned into a couple of day thieves; He transformed the peculiar conditions of the Kingdom of Sicily into a framework of ghosts and fairies that hid every improbability; the macabre aristocratic marble bride Alice di Manfredi mutated into the marrying plaster figure of the housemaid Bianca; one count became a macaroni manufacturer, the other the son of a salami manufacturer; captivity on the pirate ship was just a drinking orgy in the inn. Through these and other changes he exposed the weak points of the opera libretto with burlesque means, only the comic subplot about Ritta (Ritti), Capuzzi (Damian) and Dandolo (Dandoli) was almost unchanged by Nestroy.
Johann Nestroy played the paphnuzzi Salamucci, director Carl Carl the day thief Zampa, Friedrich Hopp the day thief Damian, Ignaz Stahl the obscurus, Eleonore Condorussi the parlor girl Ritti, Nestroy's partner Marie Weiler the fairy Clarina.
The original manuscript has probably been lost; only the title page with a text fragment is kept in the Vienna Library in the City Hall . The manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library holds a theater manuscript (register № 5) with the singing passage for the Zampa parody and the incomplete prompting book (register № 341) with the stuck-in ticket for the first performance, both from the Carltheater archive . The original score by Adolf Müller is also in the music collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall.
Contemporary review
The first performance received little attention from the critics, only the Wiener Theaterzeitung by Adolf Bäuerle published a relatively benevolent review on June 28, 1832, which only reported that the play was a respectable success:
- “According to the speaker, these expectations [of Nestroy] were quite satisfied, because the praise of this farce is based not only on piquant details, on witty failures and ingenious twists and turns, but on a far more essential and not to be overlooked advantage, that of the Mr. Nestroy's earlier products were largely lacking. This is the unity in the plan, the functional connection of the whole. Anyone who knows the parodied original will have to admit that both the music and the text were happily travestated and that the travesty made the shortcomings of both clear. "
The actors, the music and the equipment were all praised, and the atmosphere in the overcrowded theater hall was described as divided.
Later interpretation
Otto Rommel puts this work by Nestroy in the category of those parodies that use the magical apparatus. He also counts the soulful Kerckermeister (1832), Nagerl und Handschuh (1832), the magician Sulfurelectrimagneticophosphoratus (1834), as well as Zampa the Tagdieb and Robert der Teuxel (1833), whereby he classifies the last two pieces in a special subgroup. In the figure of the pirate Konfusius Stockfisch from the magic play The Confused Magician (1832) Rommel sees a variant of the repentant day thief Damian. The parody follows
- '[...] the textbook [of the original] scene by scene, uncovering every improbability, every exaggeration, every showmanship with sharp jokes, so that the parody reads like a funny ongoing criticism. "
The material is stripped of any romanticism, the gruesome is transformed into burlesque. In order not to provide any material for criticism, Nestroy replaced the figure of the Madonna in his parody with the well-known magic game scheme of the warring spirits - here Clarina versus Obscurus. The wit of the work, however, lies more in the details than in the overall impression.
literature
- Fritz Brukner / Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition, third volume. Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1925, pp. 169–262, 473–493.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Choice in two parts. Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
Web links
- Content in nestroy-pieces / 13_zampa
Individual evidence
- ↑ Capo = head of a (criminal) group; therefore probably the wrong article the (head) instead of the (capo)
- ↑ Paphnuzzi, Bafnudsi = awkward , funny person (after Ignaz Franz Castelli ); Salamucci = Viennese for salami seller
- ↑ The plaster statue of the bride
- ^ Brukner, Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 209.
- ↑ Rauber vinegar, vinegar robber = Pestessig , was once considered a protection against infectious diseases
- ↑ Schwalbenwasser = water distilled from young swallows, formerly known as Aqua hirundinum in pharmacies, see Aqua hirundinum. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 02, Leipzig 1732, column 1022.
- ^ Brukner, Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 230.
- ^ Brukner, Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 260.
- ^ Table of contents in Brukner, Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 482-486.
- ↑ a b Brukner, Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 488-490.
- ↑ digitized text page from the Vienna library in the town hall
- ↑ digitized score page from the Vienna Library in the City Hall
- ^ Otto Rommel: Nestroys works. S. XXVII, XXIX, XXXIII.