About the work
Verwickelte Geschichte! (roughly, A Tangled Affair) is a two-act farce with songs by Johann Nestroy, first performed on 22 June 1850 at Vienna's Carltheater with music by Carl Franz Stenzel. No specific literary source is known; the play recombines stock mistaken-identity devices from Nestroy's own earlier work.
Plot
Wealthy Pauline and the architect Stern have fallen in love through letters; when Stern returns from Rome for their first face-to-face meeting, Pauline has a confidante test his loyalty in disguise. Meanwhile the brewer Kessel, who is himself in love with Pauline, tries to break up the couple by hiring an ill-mannered double to impersonate Stern. After a string of mix-ups, the right couples end up together.
Cultural significance
Both the 1850 premiere and an 1858 revival were panned by contemporary critics as worn-out material, with only Nestroy's own acting drawing praise. Later scholarship has generally counted it among the weaker plays of this period in his career.