Biography
Nestroy completed high school between 1811 and 1816. After graduating from high school, he began studying philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1817. In 1820 he moved to the law faculty for two semesters. During this time he had his first appearances as a singer and actor on amateur stages. He also took on speaking roles. He gave up his studies and devoted himself entirely to stage art. Between 1823 and 1825 he was engaged as a bassist at the German Theater in Amsterdam. This was followed by appearances in various places such as Brno, Graz and Pressburg. From 1831 he was back in Vienna. He played there at the Theater an der Wien until 1839. This was followed by appearances at the Leopoldstadt Theater, which was renamed the Carl Theater in 1848. In 1854 he leased this venue and ran it as director. There he was able to record many performance successes.
In 1860 he gave up this activity and moved to Graz. There he appeared for the first time in 1827 as the author of local farces with the title "Der Zettelträger Papp". Since his engagement in Vienna, Johann Nestroy has often written his speaking roles himself, and he has usually appeared in the lead role in his works. In total he wrote over 80 plays, which he adapted from originals. He used novels, novellas, comedies and vaudevilles by English or French authors as inspiration. Through his redesigns, in which he often used his characteristic dialogue wit or language play, the pieces underwent a strong change and deviation from the original, which was often no longer recognizable. Nestroy's play "The Ankin" (1848), for example, is based on the play "Martin Chuzzlewit" by Charles Dickens. In his pieces he makes language itself the theme of the content. But he also adapted pieces into parodies in which the original remained explicitly recognizable.
For example, he created "Tannhäuser" (first performed in 1857), "Lohengrin" (first performed in 1859) and "Judith and the Holofernes" (first performed in 1849). Nestroy's first literary success came with the fantastic comedy "The Evil Spirit Lumpacivagabundus or The Dissolute Cloverleaf" (premiered in 1833). It is a "magic farce with singing" as the subtitle says. The dramatic piece can still be seen on many schedules today. The magical elements of the content soon disappeared in Nestroy's work. He turned to social criticism. Just two years later, the work "On the ground and first floor" was premiered. In it the author addresses the contrast between poverty and wealth. The social difference was made immediately noticeable in the divided stage design at the premiere. The play "Talisman" was premiered in 1840. There Titus Feuerfuchs stands in the foreground as an outsider and for injustice, but also for the narrow-mindedness of the lower middle class, poverty and boredom. With these social symptoms, Nestroy pointed to the fragility of the world order. The "Talisman" is considered Nestroy's masterpiece.
As an opera singer himself, he often added vocals to his works. In the revolutionary play "Freiheit in Krähwinkel", which premiered in 1848, political criticism is voiced directly - Nestroy speaks out against the reaction in the year of the German revolution. But the author also doubts the effectiveness of exclusively rhetorical formulations in revolutionary jargon. Thanks to his acting experience and talent, Nestroy was a master of extemporization. This spontaneous, improvised speaking posture in the middle of the performance was a thorn in the side of the censors, because in this way Nestroy made his socially critical content heard without the censors being able to intervene. Nestroy's comedic, satirical plays served as inspiration for the work of numerous writers, such as Ödön von Horváth, Karl Kraus and Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Nestroy's title "He wants to make a joke" (1842) became the literary template for Thornton Wilder's comedy "The Matchmaker" and the musical "Hello Dolly".
