Johann Nestroy

(b Vienna, 7 Dec 1801; d Graz, 25 May 1862). Austrian playwright, actor and singer. The last and greatest figure in a long line of Viennese actor-dramatists, he played c 880 different parts during his career. Among his most successful stage works are witty parodies of Rossini's Cenerentola (Nagerl und Handschuh, 1832; music by Adolf Müller), Meyerbeer's Robert le diable (Robert der Teufel, 1833; music by Müller) and Tannhäuser (1857; music by Carl Binder).

Nestroy, Johann (1801–62), Austrian actor and dramatist, who wrote approximately 83 plays and was highly regarded for his acerbic wit. Nestroy employed dramatic forms ranging from fairy‐tale play and farce to political satire. He was a master of the Viennese dialect and folk tradition and mixed high and low culture to startling effect. Among his most notable fairy‐tale plays are Die Verbannung aus dem Zauberreiche oder Dreissig Jahre aus dem Leben eines Lumpen (The Banishment from the Magic Kingdom or Thirty Years in the Life of a Tramp, 1828), Der konfuse Zauberer oder Treue und Flatterhaftigkeit (The Confused Wizard or Fidelity and Fickleness, 1832), Die Zauberreise in die Ritterzeit oder die Übermutigen (The Magic Journey into the Days of Knights or the Exuberant Ones, 1832), Genius, Schuster und Markör oder die Pyramiden der Verzauberung (Genius, Shoemaker and Waiter or The Pyramids of Enchantment, 1832), Der Feenball oder Tischler, Schneider und Schlosser (The Fairy Ball or Carpenter, Tailor and Locksmith, 1832), Der Zauberer Sulphurelektromagnetikophosphoratus und die Fee Walburgiblocksbergiseptemtriolanis oder des ungeratenen Herrn Sohnes Leben, Taten und Meinungen wie auch dessen Bestrafung in der Sklaverei und was sich alldort Ferneres mit ihm begab (The Wizard Sulphurelektromagnetikophosphoratus and the Fairy Walburgiblocksbergiseptemtriolanis or the Life, Deeds and Opinions of the Spoiled Master Son as Well as his Punishment in Slavery and All the Rest that Happened with him There, 1834), Das Verlobungsfest im Feenreiche oder die Gleicheit der Jahre (The Engagement Feast in Fairyland or the Equality of Years, 1834), Die Familien Zwirn, Knieriem und Leim oder Der Welt‐Untergangs‐Tag (The Zwirn, Knieriem and Leim Families or The Day the World Ended, 1834), and Der Koberl oder Staberl im Feendienst (The Goblin or Staberl in the Service of the Fairies, 1838). Undoubtedly his most famous fairy‐tale play is Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus oder Das Liederliche Kleeblatt (The Evil Spirit Lumpazivagabundus or the Roguish Trio, 1833), which begins with the fairy goddesses Fortuna and Amorosa making a bet to see whether man can be improved by riches. According to the wager, if two out of three vagabonds improve themselves, Fortuna wins, but if only one changes, Amorosa wins, and Fortuna must give her daughter Brillantine to the magician's son Hilarus, who maintains that only love can reform the evil ways of man, as does Amorosa, who wins the bet and sets out to reform the two vagabonds who have led dissolute lives. Many of the folk characters reappear in Nestroy's plays, and many of his other farces have strong elements of the fairy tale in them. But magic was always employed by Nestroy to make fun of humankind's foibles and to expose the absurd nature of reality.

Bibliography

• Corriher, Kurt, ‘The Conflict between Dignity and Hope in the Works of Johann Nestroy’, South Atlantic Review, 46 (1981).
• Decker, Craig, ‘Toward a Critical Volksstück: Nestroy and the Politics of Language’ Monatshefte, 79 (1987).
• Diehl, Siegfried, Zauberei und Satire im Frühwerk Nestroys (1969).
• Hein, Jürgen, Das Wiener Volksstück: Raimund und Nestroy (1978).
• ——Johann Nestroy (1990).

— Jack Zipes

Nestroy, Johann Nepomuk (Vienna, 1801-62, Graz), son of a Viennese lawyer, began to study law, but in 1822 decided on a theatrical career. The possessor of a well-trained bass voice of high quality, he was immediately engaged by the Viennese Court Opera and made his debut in the important role of Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (24 August 1822). In the years 1823-31 he worked, first as a singer but increasingly as a comic actor, in Amsterdam, Brünn (Brno), where his engagement was cancelled by the police in 1826 because his frequent extemporization was contrary to the strict censorship regulations, and Graz.

He began to write plays for the Graz theatre, his principal success at this time being Dreißig Jahre aus dem Leben eines Lumpen (1828). The only earlier plays to survive are a one-act comic dialogue, Der Zettelträger Papp (1827), and a verse drama, Prinz Friedrich (written c.1828, performed as Rudolph, Prinz von Korsika in 1841). Nestroy had made an early marriage (1823) which proved a failure, and his wife left him in 1827. In Graz he met the actress Marie Weiler and lived with her in an unofficial union for the remainder of his life. In 1831 he returned to Vienna as a star in the company of Karl Carl with which he was to remain for 29 years, first at the Theater an der Wien, from 1839 also at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt (rebuilt in 1847 as the Carl-Theater). Tall and angular, he formed a celebrated comic partnership with the corpulent Wenzel Scholz (1787-1857); his reputation as an actor was such that he was sought after for guest appearances in many German cities, and his agreeable and kindly personality off stage increased his popularity.

Nestroy was also one of the principal purveyors of plays for Carl. He drew his plots from a variety of sources, including contemporary French and English novels (Die Anverwandten, 1848, is based on Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit) and popular comedies and melodramas of the Paris and London stage; into these plots he injected sustained wordplay, interspersed with solo scenes consisting of satirical monologues and songs, mainly for the central figures that he himself acted. Between 1827 and his death he wrote more than 80 plays, and from 1832 his output was intended exclusively for Carl and his theatre. Between 1832 and 1834 he burlesqued the tradition of the Viennese magic play (Zauberstück, see Volksstück), achieving a resounding success with Der böse Geist Lumpacivagabundus oder Das liederliche Kleeblatt (1833) for which he provided a sequel in the farce Die Familien Zwirn, Knieriem und Leim (1835). He also produced a drastic parody of the then fashionable opera of Meyerbeer, Robert le diable, under the dialect title Robert der Teuxel (1833). After 1834 Nestroy virtually abandoned the magic element and concentrated on the rival form of Viennese Volksstück, the Lokalposse. From 1835 to 1845 he wrote some 30 plays, many ephemeral, but some of outstanding quality which are still performed. Among his successes in this period was Zu ebener Erde und erster Stock (1835), which boldly divides the stage into two, in order to exhibit social contrast. Critical rejection of a local satire, Eine Wohnung ist zu vermieten (1837), was followed by a spell of experimentation, with the stylized comedy of Das Haus der Temperamente (1837) using a stage divided both horizontally and vertically, until he found his way to a settled and distinctive pattern of satirical farce. The next six years brought a series of brilliant successes, ushered in by Glück, Mißbrauch und Rückkehr (1838) and Die verhängnisvolle Faschingsnacht (1839, a parody of a play by K. von Holtei); these were followed in 1840 by Der Färber und sein Zwillingsbruder and by Der Talisman, which is generally recognized as his masterpiece, the ‘classic Posse’ (F. H. Mautner), and then by other popular successes including Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt (1841), Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842), Liebesgeschichten und Heiratssachen (1843), and Der Zerrissene (1844).

Nestroy's dramatic production took a new turn with Der Unbedeutende (1846), a comedy in which social questions take on a new importance. It proved to be the most impressive success of his career and was followed by other similar plays, notably Der Schützling (1847) and Der alte Mann mit der jungen Frau (written in 1848 or 1849, but withheld by Nestroy for political reasons). In the revolutionary year of 1848 (see Revolutionen 1848-9), when censorship was briefly lifted, Nestroy satirized the outbreak of the revolution in Freiheit in Krähwinkel, and in 1849 produced a brilliant parody of Hebbel's Judith ( Judith und Holofernes). His rate of production now became slower, and his last notable full-length play was performed in 1852 ( Kampl oder Das Mädchen mit Millionen und die Nähterin). In 1854 Karl Carl died and Nestroy agreed to become director of the Carl-Theater. He resigned in 1860 and retired to Graz, but made guest appearances in Vienna in 1862 in his last two successful one-act satires, Frühere Verhältnisse and Häuptling Abendwind (the latter based on Offenbach's Vent du soir).

Even in his heyday, Nestroy was repeatedly criticized by conservative reviewers (including the combative Viennese journalist M. G. Saphir), who measured his work against the often sentimental ‘humour’ of the old genial Viennese Volksstück and particularly against the work of Raimund. But the old forms had outlived their natural vitality and could not survive in the new age initiated in 1830 by the July Revolution and established by the turmoil of 1848. Nestroy's caustic satirical and parodistic wit established a new and more modern tone in the Volksstück and exercised a dominant influence on other popular playwrights such as Friedrich Kaiser; but his basic attitude is humane and positive, not the nihilistic cynicism that was formerly attributed to him.

Nestroy's funeral in Vienna was the occasion of a great public tribute of affection and esteem, but his work almost at once fell into a phase of neglect, which was ended by a sensationally successful Nestroy cycle in the Carl-Theater in 1881. His literary reputation rose with the publication in 1890-1 of a collected edition of his works and was established by the energetic advocacy of K. Kraus, who adjudged him the wittiest satirist in the German language and who in 1920 and 1925 respectively published adaptations of two of his plays, Die beiden Nachtwandler (1836) and Der konfuse Zauberer (1832). While much admired by contemporaries such as Grillparzer, Hamerling, and Kierkegaard, Nestroy is, like G. Büchner, a dramatist whose stature has been recognized increasingly in the 20th c.; his work has been of influence on modern dramatists including F. Dürrenmatt and Ö. von Horváth and has been championed by prominent critics including F. Torberg and H. Weigel.

Sämtliche Werke, historisch-kritische Ausgabe (15 vols.), ed. F. Brukner and O. Rommel, appeared 1924-30 and Gesammelte Werke (10 vols.), ed. V. Chiavacci and L. Ganghofer, 1890-91. A thoroughly revised Historisch-kritische Ausgabe (c.33 vols.), ed. J. Hein, J. Hüttner, W. Obermaier, and W. E. Yates, began to appear in 1977. It includes correspondence (Briefe, 1 vol., 1977), ed. W. Obermaier.

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Johann Nestroy
Born	7 December 1801 Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died	25 May 1862 Graz, Austrian Empire
Occupation	Playwright, actor, opera singer
Nationality	Austrian
Genres	comedy

Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (7 December 1801, Vienna  – 25 May 1862, Graz) was an opera singer, actor and, primarily, a playwright.

Nestroy was born in Vienna, Austria.

After a career as an opera singer in several European cities from 1822 to 1831, Nestroy returned to his native Vienna and took up writing and acting. This combination of careers has caused Nestroy to be called the "Austrian Shakespeare".

Nestroy's career as a playwright was an immediate success: his 1833 play Lumpacivagabundus was a major hit. He soon became a leading figure in Austrian culture and society. Nestroy succeeded Ferdinand Raimund as the leading actor-dramatist on the Viennese commercial stage, often referred to as the Viennese Volkstheater.

Whereas Raimund concentrated on romantic and magical fantasies, Nestroy used comedy for parody and criticism. Working at the time of conservative minister Clemens Metternich, he had to carefully draft his plays to skirt the strict censorship in place. His interest in word play was legendary, and his characters often mixed Viennese language with less-than-successful attempts at more "educated" speech. Music held an important role in his work, with songs elaborating the theme or helping on with the plot.

Der Talisman, 1840

Nestroy wrote over eighty comic plays in the 1840s and 1850s. Among the most important were the burlesque comedies Lumpacivagabundus, Liebesgeschichten und Heiratssachen, Der Talisman (made into the operetta Titus macht Karriere by Edmund Nick), Einen Jux will er sich machen and Der Zerrissene, all of which were marked by social criticism and biting satire. He died in Graz, Austria.

About half of Nestroy's works have been revived for the modern German-speaking audience and many are part and parcel of today's Viennese repertoire. However, few have ever been translated into English. Only one, Einen Jux will er sich machen, has become well known to English-speaking theatregoers. Interestingly, it has become a classic more than once. It was first adapted as Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (which later became the musical Hello, Dolly!) and later achieved success as the comic masterpiece On the Razzle, which was translated by Stephen Plaice and adapted by Tom Stoppard.

Nestroy has a square—Nestroyplatz—named after him in Vienna, as well as a station on Line 1 of the Vienna U-Bahn, which opened in 1979. When the Reichsbrücke had to be rebuilt after its collapse in 1976, the tender was won by a consortium named Project Johann Nestroy. The official name of the newly built bridge is probably Johann Nestroy Brücke[1][2][3], but that name doesn't seem to have any currency.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johann Nestroy

The most important German speaking Theatre Award is named after Nestroy. The "Nestroy Award" is an annual award for German Theatre with Oscar-like categories. Its ceremony is held in Vienna and being broadcast live to the National Television.

External links

• Johann Nestroy at the Internet Movie Database
• Internationales Nestroy Zentrum (in German)
• Nestroy information from aeiou.at (in German)

See also: Nestroy

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