Interlude (Schnitzler)

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Data
Title: Interlude
Genus: Comedy in three acts
Original language: German
Author: Arthur Schnitzler
Publishing year: 1905
Premiere: October 12, 1905
Place of premiere: Burgtheater , Vienna
Place and time of the action: Vienna, present
people
  • Amadeus Adams , conductor
  • Cäcilie Adams-Ortenburg , opera singer, his wife
  • Peterl , 5 years old, both children
  • Albertus Rhon , writer
  • Marie , his wife
  • Sigismund, Prince of and to Maradas-Lohsenstein
  • Countess Friederike Moosheim , opera singer
  • Miss at Adams
  • House maid at Adams'

Interlude is a comedy in three acts by Arthur Schnitzler , which premiered on October 12, 1905 in the Burgtheater in Vienna. Composed between 1904 and 1905, the text was published by S. Fischer in Berlin in 1906.

time and place

The play takes place in Vienna in 1906.

title

The title is ambiguous. One alludes to the interlude in the Capriccio of the fourth symphony by conductor Amadeus Adams. And on another occasion , the interlude ironically hints at an interlude from the everyday marriage of the couple Cäcilie and Amadeus. The man breaks the marriage. It will most likely not be his last betrayal.

content

1st act

Amadeus Adams has a five-year-old boy with the internationally successful soprano Cäcilie Adams-Ortenburg. In the first act it becomes apparent that Amadeus has a relationship with the opera singer Countess Friederike Moosheim in Vienna. He is not aware of any guilt and agrees - with a slight hesitation on the part of Cecilia - to replace conjugal fidelity with friendship and complete truth towards the other. At the end of the day, the singer has a separate summer trip and a stay in Berlin, whereby she also has a potential lover with the figure of 26-year-old Sigismund, Prince of and to Maradas-Lohsenstein, who is only mentioned in the list. When asked, Cecilia gives an evasive answer. The couple split up and want to remain good friends.

2nd act

The second act begins with the return of Cecilia from Berlin, where she celebrated great success. Their return is accompanied by a rumor, a Viennese journal writes that Cäcilie had a relationship with Prince Sigismund in Berlin and that the two now wanted to marry. This makes Amadeus jealous. His affair with the countess is over, he wants his wife again. He sees a duel with the prince as the only way out. Cecilia, having returned home after a long absence, pours oil on the fire. Sigismund really followed her. They went to the Pergamenisches Museum together . But the duel that Amadeus wanted does not take place. Because Sigismund anticipates the conductor's seconds. The prince visits Amadeus and kindly suggests that he divorce him. Then the way would be free and he could fulfill his most ardent wish - marry Cäcilie. Amadeus rejects the request, but realizes that the two had no affair, but that it was only Cecilia's means to win Amadeus back.

3rd act

Amadeus confesses his love for Cäcilie and, with some force, persuades her to sleep with him again. But he only succeeds once, Cäcilie is convinced that he only fell in love with her all over again because she seemed a stranger to him. While Amadeus believes she would have remained loyal to him, she leaves it open that she did not sleep with Sigismund, but with others. Cäcilie appears to the viewer to be yielding after her new intercourse, but appearances are deceptive. The woman does not like to live in a marriage "where one cheats - and reconciles - and cheats again, depending on the mood". Amadeus has to object. Both he and she had given up after all. Amadeus now plays the lover, the protector of his wife. But Cecilia cannot come to terms with such a course of events: "We will not be divorced [...] We will divorce." Cecilia recognizes the big mistake in her marriage, which can no longer be saved. Amadeus is leaving. Cecilia stays behind with the little son, weeping softly.

Quotes

  • "You should never tell people what they mean to you."
  • "If possible, one should look at all living beings nearby."
  • "If you have no obligations, there is nothing more to fear."

reception

structure

  • "Interlude" is one of Schnitzler's pieces in which marital conflicts regarding infidelity are "carried out in a conversational tone". The viewer can only extract what is meant from what is said with difficulty, especially since unambiguous words are seldom used.
  • Scheible: Schnitzler can make the sexual permissiveness of the two spouses more or less believable by taking two artists as man and woman. Amadeus is the weaker of the two spouses. First of all, the freedom he has given his wife ultimately arouses his desire, which ends freedom. And secondly, in contrast to Amadeus, Cecilia did not use her freedom. Amadeus cannot understand that.

comedy

  • Sprengel is not sure whether the play is a comedy. Many a painful thing predominates. At most, the comments of the lyricist Albertus on the events of the pretended marriage are funny.
  • Le Rider : For Schnitzler, freedom of movement in civil marriage and the emancipation of women are an illusion. In such patriarchal conditions, women usually submit to men or submit without contradiction. Nevertheless, the author puts a patriarchy in decline on the stage. Because Cecilia is the more discerning.
  • Perlmann: Amadeus is not up to the freedom of movement in marriage that he advocated. After Amadeus has broken the marriage, he wants to own Cäcilie - whom he had generously released - again.

Quintessence

  • Perlmann: Although Schnitzler does not offer a happy ending, he does at least offer the prospect of reconciliation. Scheible: Cäcilie is pretty sure that Amadeus cannot be faithful in the long run.
  • Sprengel: The breakaway from the social role agreed by the spouses fails and leads to disguise.

literature

  • Perlmann gives further leading positions (Swales 1971, Kilian 1972, Jon D. Green 1973 and Offermanns 1973).

filming

Radio plays

Entries 95 and 96 in: Radio plays ( Memento from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

literature

source

  • Arthur Schnitzler: Interlude. Comedy in three acts p. 411 to 489 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Der einsame Weg. Time pieces 1891 - 1908. With an afterword by Hermann Korte . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2001 edition). 525 pages, ISBN 3-10-073558-7

First edition

  • Arthur Schnitzler: Interlude. Comedy in three acts . 139 pages. Linen. Gold stamping. S. Fischer Berlin 1906

Secondary literature

  • Willi Handl : Schnitzler and his "interlude". For the performance at the Burgtheater. In: Die Schaubühne , Vol. 1, No. 7, October 19, 1905, pp. 187–191. on-line
  • Hartmut Scheible : Arthur Schnitzler. rowohlt's monographs. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg, February 1976 (December 1990 edition). 160 pages, ISBN 3-499-50235-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nickl, H. Schnitzler, p. 369, entry from 1905
  2. ↑ Source, p. 523, penultimate entry
  3. ↑ Source, p. 412 below
  4. ↑ Source, p. 422, 5. Zvo
  5. ↑ Source, p. 450, 2nd Zvu
  6. ↑ Source, p. 457, 11. Zvu
  7. ↑ Heike Söhnlein (Tübingen 1986), quoted in Sabler, p. 96, 21. Zvo
  8. ^ Korte in the afterword of the source, p. 520, 12. Zvo
  9. ↑ Scheible, pp. 88-91
  10. ^ Sprengel, p. 503 above
  11. ↑ Le Rider, pp. 115-116
  12. ↑ Perlmann, pp. 91-92
  13. ↑ Perlmann, p. 92 middle
  14. ↑ Scheible, p. 91 above
  15. ↑ Sprengel, p. 503 middle
  16. ↑ Perlmann, p. 107, 2. Zvo