Johann Nestroy

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Der Talisman, 1840

Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (born December 7, 1801 at Vienna, Austria; died May 25, 1862 at Graz, Austria) was an opera singer, actor and, primarily, a playwright.

After a career as an opera singer in several European cities from 1822 to 1831, Nestroy returned to his native Vienna and took up writing and acting. This combination of careers has caused Nestroy to be called the "Austrian Shakespeare".

Nestroy's career as a playwright was an immediate success: his 1833 play Lumpacivagabundus was a major hit. He soon become a leading figure in Austrian culture and society. Together with Ferdinand Raimund, Nestroy was a forerunner of Volkstheater Wien (Viennese popular theater).

Whereas Raimund concentrated on romantic and magical fantasies, Nestroy used comedy for parody and criticism. Working at the time of conservative minister Clemens Metternich, he had to carefully draft his plays to skirt the strict censorship in place. His interest in word play was legendary, and his characters often mixed Viennese language with less-than-successful attempts at more "educated" speech. Music held an important role in his work, with songs elaborating the theme or helping on with the plot.

Nestroy wrote over eighty comic plays in the 1840s and 1850s. Among the most important were the burlesque comedies Lumpacivagabundus, Liebesgeschichten und Heiratssachen, Der Talisman, Einen Jux will er sich machen and Der Zerrissene, all of which were marked by social criticism and biting satire.

About half of Nestroy's works have been revived for the modern German-speaking audience and many are part and parcel of today's Viennese repertoire. However, few have ever been translated into English. Only one, Einen Jux will er sich machen, has become well known to English-speaking theatregoers. Interestingly, it has become a classic more than once. It was first adapted as Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (which later became the musical Hello, Dolly!) and later achieved success as the comic masterpiece On the Razzle, which was translated by Stephen Plaice and adapted by Tom Stoppard.

Nestroy has a square—Nestroyplatz—named after him in Vienna, as well as a station on Line 1 of the Vienna U-Bahn, which opened in 1979.