Theatre
The Barometer-Maker on the Magic Island
Der Barometermacher auf der Zauberinsel
Ferdinand Raimund · 1823
Opening lines
Lidi
Vergiß nicht, erhabene Fee, daß heute wieder hundert Jahre herum sind und du dich entschließen mußt, die Zaubergaben wieder einem der Sterblichen zu verleihen.
Do not forget, sublime fairy, that today another hundred years have come round and you must resolve to bestow the magic gifts once more upon a mortal.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from zeno.org
Synopsis
Every hundred years, the fairy Rosalinde must entrust her three gifts to a mortal: a wand that turns everything to gold, a horn that summons an army, a scarf that carries one anywhere. Fate chooses Bartholomäus Quecksilber, a ruined barometer-maker, shipwrecked on an enchanted island. Too credulous for such treasures, he lets them be stolen from him one after another by Zoraide, the cunning and greedy daughter of the island's ruler.
Context
The play was first performed on 18 December 1823 on the stage of the Leopoldstadt, one of the three suburban theatres whose repertoire lived mainly on fairy plays, at an evening given for the benefit of its author and at first anonymous: his name appeared on the playbill only at the third performance. Raimund had asked Karl Meisl to bring the tale to the stage; disappointed by the first act he received, he wrote the play himself in the autumn. He turned the tale's prince into a ruined Viennese craftsman and the island's king into a drowsy caricature of Emperor Francis I. The music is by Wenzel Müller.
Who it is for
Two short acts broken up by sung verses, easy to follow. The language mixes conventional German with the Viennese dialect, which modern versions tone down.
Prizes and reception
Its author's first success, which established him at once as a dramatist and was followed by a string of successes on the same stage.
Sources for this page 8
The pages consulted to check this page.