About the work
A three-act Posse with songs by Johann Nestroy, premiered on 1 April 1850 at Vienna's Carltheater, with music by Michael Hebenstreit.
Plot
The guardian Muffinger wants to marry off his wealthy ward Marie to his own son so he can control her inheritance of 150,000 gulden. The clasp-maker Finkl helps the young couple through a series of disguises to thwart the forced marriage, in the process exposing that Muffinger has embezzled part of the estate.
Cultural significance
The premiere was a failure: even the Wiener Theaterzeitung, usually well disposed toward Nestroy, called the play "a complete failure," and critic Moritz Gottlieb Saphir dismissed it as pointless and empty. It received no further performances and ranks among its author's least successful works.