About the work
Das Quodlibet verschiedener Jahrhunderte (in full "...nebst Vorspiel Die dramatischen Zimmerherrn") is a quodlibet by Johann Nestroy in three parts with a prologue, premiered on 12 May 1843 as a benefit performance for the author at the Theater an der Wien. A quodlibet loosely strings together popular scenes and characters drawn from various, mostly foreign stage works; of the three planned parts only the first survives complete, the other two are considered lost.
Plot
In the prologue "Die dramatischen Zimmerherrn", two touring provincial actors lodging with a weaver endlessly and quarrelsomely rehearse their lines; a poet is commissioned to write them a quodlibet pairing a serious hero with a comic figure. The surviving first part, "Quodlibet im gothischen Style mit chinesischen Emblemen", mixes characters from well-known dramas — among them Schiller's Joan of Arc and the Chinese princess Turandot — into absurd, comic constellations.
Cultural significance
Contemporary critics reacted with rejection, accusing Nestroy of profaning Schiller's idealised figures through parody; the piece, written hastily for a single benefit evening, was dropped from the schedule after just four performances, as the quodlibet genre was already falling out of fashion at the time.