''Tales from the Vienna Woods'' (, 1931) is a play by Austro-Hungarian writer

Ödön von Horváth Edmund Josef von Horváth (9 December 1901, Sušak, Rijeka, Austria-Hungary – 1 June 1938, Paris France) was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the name of ''nom de guerre'' Ödön von Horváth. He was ...

Plot

The play is set in

Wachau The Wachau () is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems that also attracts "connoiss ...

Josefstadt Josefstadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Josefstod'') is the eighth district of Vienna (german: 8. Bezirk, Josefstadt). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Josefstadt is a heavily po ...

, and the

Vienna Woods The Vienna Woods (german: Wienerwald) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area w ...

just before the

Austrofascist The Federal State of Austria ( de-AT, Bundesstaat Österreich; colloquially known as the , "Corporate State") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the clerical fascist Fa ...

takeover. It tells the fate of a naive young woman, Marianne, who breaks off her reluctant engagement with Oskar after falling in love with a fop named Alfred who, however, has no serious interest in returning her love. For this error, she must pay bitterly.

Werner Pirchner Werner Pirchner (13 February 1940 – 10 August 2001) was an Austrian composer and jazz musician. Life He was born in Hall in Tirol, and had his musical start playing jazz. In 1963 he played vibraphone in the Oscar Klein, Oscar-Klein-Quartett. ...

composed the

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

to the play.

Background

It was premièred in Berlin in 1931 and has been filmed several times. Before the première, the German writer and playwright,

Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. Life and career Born in Nackenheim in Rhenish Hesse, he was t ...

nominated the play for the

Kleist Prize The Kleist Prize is an annual German literature prize. The prize was first awarded in 1912, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist. The Kleist Prize was the most important literary award of the Weimar Re ...

, which it won, the most significant literary award of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

. The play's title is a reference to the

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

Tales from the Vienna Woods "Tales from the Vienna Woods" (german: "Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald", links=no, italic=no, occasionally ) is a waltz by Johann Strauss II. Composed in 1868 in music, 1868, , Opus number, Op. 325, was one of six Viennese waltzes by Johann Stra ...

" by

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ov ...

. Horváth's play premièred at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. Written in the late 1920s during the period of catastrophic unemployment and the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the play is a key work of modern drama, described by

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including '' Emil and the Detectives''. He received ...

as "a Viennese folk play accompanied by Viennese folk songs". It is a bitter satire about the mendacity and brutality of the petite-bourgeoisie, named ironically after the

near the Austrian capital that are so idealised in the waltz. In the play, Viennese ''

Gemütlichkeit ''Gemütlichkeit'' () is a German-language word used to convey the idea of a state or feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer. Other qualities encompassed by the term include cosiness, peace of mind, and a sense of belonging and well ...

'' or "coziness" becomes a hollow phrase; the tragic, brutal story of the sweet girl Marianne and the deeply conventional butcher Oskar reflects the hardships and anxieties of the late 1920s during the global economic crisis.

Adaptations

Film

The play was filmed for cinematic release in 1961 by director , starring

Johanna Matz Johanna Matz (born 5 October 1932, in Vienna) is an Austrian film actress. She began as a dancer and later acted at the Burgtheater. Selected filmography * '' Maria Theresa'' (1951) * '' Season in Salzburg'' (1952) * ''The White Horse Inn'' (19 ...

(Marianne),

Walter Kohut Walter Kohut (20 November 1927 – 18 May 1980) was an Austrian film, television and theatre actor. He appeared in many Austrian and German films over a 30-year period and became known for playing shady characters. He became known internationally ...

(Alfred),

Helmuth Lohner Helmuth Lohner (24 April 1933 – 23 June 2015) was an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 1997 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt. Early life Born in Vienna, Lohner initially trained as a commercial artist, while also taki ...

, Hans Moser (reprising his role of Marianne's father from the 1931 Berlin premiere),

Helmut Qualtinger Helmut Qualtinger (; 8 October 1928 – 29 September 1986; alt. sp.: ''Helmuth Qualtinger''; birthname: ''Helmut Gustav Friedrich Qualtinger'') was an actor, writer, reciter and cabaret performer. Biography He was born Helmut Gustav Friedrich Qu ...

(Oskar) and

Jane Tilden Jane Tilden, born as Marianne Wilhelmine Tuch, (1910–2002) was an Austrian actress who enjoyed a long career on stage and in films and television shows. She was born as Marianne Tuch in Aussig, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was ...

(Valerie), among others. Another version was , directed by

Michael Kehlmann Michael Kehlmann (21 September 1927 – 1 December 2005) was an Austrian television film director and theatre director, screenwriter and actor. During 1951–1953, Kehlmann was the manager of the "Kleines Theater im Konzerthaus", Vienna. He was awa ...

. A 1979 remake was undertaken by director

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', h ...

, featuring

Birgit Doll Birgit Doll (9 March 1956 – 26 October 2015) was an Austrian actress of stage, screen and television and theatre director. She made her professional theatre debut at the age of 20 and won the Kainz Medal in 1992 for her performance of '' Libussa ...

(Marianne),

Hanno Pöschl Hanno Pöschl (born 2 July 1949 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian actor. Pöschl has enjoyed a long and prolific career working with directors Maximilian Schell, Peter Patzak, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Paulus Manker, Richard Linklater, and G ...

(Alfred), Helmut Qualtinger (Zauberkönig),

(Valerie),

Adrienne Gessner Adrienne Gessner (23 July 1896 – 23 June 1987) was an Austrian actress. Gessner appeared in over fifty film and television shows during her career, including the 1955 costume film '. Gessner appeared in a mixture of German and Austrian films dur ...

(Alfred's Grandmother),

Götz Kauffmann Götz Kauffmann (15 January 1949 – 26 January 2010) was an Austrian stage, film and television actor, cabaret artist and writer. Life Gottfried Maria Kauffman was born in the fifteenth district of Vienna. His father was the noted Vienna or ...

(Oskar),

André Heller Franz André Heller (; born 22 March 1947 as Francis Charles Georges Jean André Heller-Hueart) is an Austrian artist, author, poet, singer, songwriter and actor. Biography Heller was born in Vienna into a wealthy Jewish family of sweets manufac ...

(Hierlinger) and (Erich). *''Légendes de la forêt viennoise'' (1993) directed by *''Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald'' (1999) directed by

Martin Kušej Martin Kušej (born 14 May 1962) is an Austrian theatre and opera director, and is director of the Burgtheater Vienna. According to German news magazine Focus, Kušej belongs to the ten most important theatre directors who have emerged in the G ...

*''Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald'' (2013) directed by Herbert Fottinger and Andre Turnheim.

Opera

''Tales from the Vienna Woods'', a 2014

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

by composer

HK Gruber Heinz Karl "Nali" Gruber (born 3 January 1943), who styles himself HK Gruber professionally, is an Austrian composer, conductor, double bass player and singer. He is a leading figure of the so-called Third Viennese School. Career Gruber is said to ...

to a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Michael Sturminger. It premiered at the

Bregenz Festival Bregenzer Festspiele (; Bregenz Festival) is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz in Vorarlberg (Austria). It features a large floating stage which is situated on Lake Constance. History The Festival beca ...

under the direction of the librettist and the baton of the composer.

Stage

Christopher Hampton, who had provided the English translation of the play for

's London production of January 1977, used von Horváth as a character in his 1983 play ''Tales from Hollywood'' to draw parallels between Austrian society of the 1930s, as depicted in von Horváth's original work, and Hollywood's treatment of film-makers escaping from European fascism to find work in the American entertainment industry.

References

External links

Playtext
from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...

{{in lang, de 1931 plays Austrian plays Satirical plays Plays set in Vienna Austrian plays adapted into films Plays adapted into operas Plays set in the 1920s Vienna Woods