About the work
Farce with songs in three acts by Johann Nestroy after John Poole's English comedy 'Patrician and Parvenu' (premiered 21 March 1835 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London), first performed on 23 March 1843 at the Theater an der Wien as a benefit performance for the author. The music was composed by Michael Hebenstreit.
Plot
At the inn 'Zum silbernen Rappen', the penniless Anton Buchner hopes to marry the newly wealthy Fanny, while the swindler Nebel poses as a nobleman to win the well-off, older Lucia Distel. Mix-ups and intrigues bring several couples together before Nebel's deception is exposed and he, unusually for Nestroy, is left without reward for his scheming.
Cultural significance
Der Sammler praised the play's 'wealth of wit, satire and piquant ideas', and Der Wanderer called Nestroy the 'sole ruler in the realm of jest'; the Sonntagsblätter, by contrast, criticised its 'farcical shallowness'. Unusually for Nestroy, the comic schemer Nebel fails rather than being rewarded at the end — a departure Adolf Bäuerle specifically noted as an exception in the Wiener Theaterzeitung.