About the work
Der arme Jonathan (Poor Jonathan) is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a libretto by Hugo Wittmann and Julius Bauer. It premiered on 4 January 1890 at the Theater an der Wien and spread quickly: within two weeks it was staged in Berlin, and within two months in Budapest.
Plot
At the birthday party of the wealthy but world-weary millionaire Vandergold, he meets the penniless Jonathan Tripp in the garden, who has just been dismissed as a clumsy kitchen hand. Equally tired of life, Vandergold signs his fortune over to Jonathan and swaps places with him, agreeing on a song that, should either grow dissatisfied, will signal a return to their old lives. While Jonathan enjoys his new wealth in Monaco and becomes engaged to Molly, the now-poor Vandergold falls for the singer Harriet and forgets the tune of the signal at the crucial moment; in the end, the whole story turns out to have been a dream during his nap in the garden.
Cultural significance
A later adaptation of the text by Walter Felsenstein became the standard version performed in German-speaking theatres and still shapes performance practice today.