author
Paul Weidmann
1744–1801
A prolific Viennese playwright and librettist, he helped shape late 18th-century Austrian popular theater with dozens of stage works. Alongside his writing, he also spent much of his adult life in Austrian state service.
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About the author
Born in Vienna on September 10, 1744, Paul Weidmann was an Austrian writer, dramatist, and librettist. He is often noted as the younger brother of the actor and playwright Joseph Weidmann, with whom he has sometimes been confused.
Weidmann entered Austrian state service in 1767, but he also built a remarkably productive literary career. Reference works credit him with more than 65 dramas, and he published works including Hababah, oder die Eifersucht im Serail in 1772. His writing belongs to the lively world of late 18th-century Viennese theater, where plays and libretti were closely tied to popular performance.
He died in Vienna on April 9, 1801. Though not widely known today, his large body of dramatic work shows how active and varied the theatrical culture of his time could be.