Der Wildfang

(lit "A trap for wild animals", can also be used metaphorically to refer to a "tomboy". It is variously translated as "The Trapping of Game" by some sources, e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica, and as "The Madcap" by Hunt and Clarke, the translators of Von Kotzbue's own autobiography in 1827)

A comedy in three acts by August von Kotzebue (1761-1819).

Published in 1798

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English by William Dunlap and adapted as a comic opera in four acts under the title The Wild-Goose Chace (sic on the original printed edition, but listed as The Wild-Goose Chase by later critics and authors.) and performed in New York on 24 January 1800. Published there in 1800 by William Dunlap.

Translated into Dutch as De Verwarde Schaking ("The confused kidnapping") by Pieter Gerardus Witsen Geysbeek, and published by Van Kesteren in Amsteldam in 1798.

Productions in South Africa

1802: Performed on 17 July and 24 July in the African Theatre, Cape Town by Het Hoogduitsche Gezelschap van het Liefhebbery Theater, along with De Moetwillige Jongen (Kotzebue), possibly in Dutch. Advertised wrongly in the Kaapsche Courant as De Wildfang.

1824: Performed in Dutch as De Verwarde Schaking by Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense in the African Theatre, Cape Town on 29 May , with (Anseaume).

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Kotzebue

http://www.worldcat.org/title/wildfang-ein-lustspiel/oclc/475018414/editions?referer=di&editionsView=true

Der Wildfang. The Wild Goose Chace; a play in four acts and in prose , with songs by Augustus Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue and William Dunlap[1]

DiGaetani and Sirefman, 1994, Opera and the Golden West: The Past, Present, and Future of Opera in the U.S.A.[2]

Facsimile version of De Verwarde Schaking (Google E-Book)[3]

Go to ESAT Bibliography