About the work
A farce with songs by Johann Nestroy, based on the French vaudeville "L’Homme de la nature et l’homme policé" (1832), with music by Adolf Müller. It premiered on 16 January 1845 at the Theater an der Wien as a benefit performance for the author.
Plot
Two cousins raised in opposite ways clash in the city: the indulged Vincenz squanders his inheritance and falls into debt, while the dutiful Moritz rises through hard work, until Vincenz’s well-meant meddling threatens to ruin him. Only their fathers’ intervention and the young men’s love for their chosen brides set both back on the right path.
Cultural significance
Contemporary critics received the play cautiously; the Wiener Theaterzeitung praised individual quips, but overall success stayed modest with only six performances. Later scholarship attributed this partly to Nestroy attempting to dramatize an essentially unstageable tale of moral reform.