About the work
Farce with songs in three acts by Johann Nestroy after Adolphe Adam's comic opera 'Le brasseur de Preston' (1838), first performed on 15 January 1840 at the Theater an der Wien as a benefit performance for the author. Nestroy transposed the source's historical-romantic Scottish military plot into contemporary bourgeois Vienna, replacing warfare with the pursuit of smugglers at the border; the music was composed by Adolf Müller senior.
Plot
The timid dyer Kilian cannot bring himself to propose to his beloved Roserl, while his brash twin brother Hermann, a border sergeant, boasts of his exploits. Mistaken for Hermann, Kilian is drawn into his brother's dangerous duties and romantic entanglements. Through luck and unwitting courage he sees the situation through and wins Roserl's hand in the end.
Cultural significance
Together with 'Der Erbschleicher' and 'Der Talisman', the play marks the start of Nestroy's 'classical' farces-with-song in 1840: more sophisticated couplets and sharper social satire succeeded the simpler magic farces of the 1830s. Contemporary audiences responded enthusiastically, and the piece remains one of Nestroy's regularly performed works today.