Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride, is a
comic opera in two acts with music by
Arthur Sullivan and libretto by
W. S.
Gilbert.
First performed at
the Opera
Comique
, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the
1,292-seat Savoy
Theatre
on 10 October 1881, where it was the first
theatrical production in the world to be lit entirely by electric
light.
Henceforth, the G&S comic operas would
be known as the Savoy Operas, and both
fans and performers of G&S would come to be known as
"Savoyards."
Patience was the sixth operatic collaboration of fourteen
between
Gilbert and Sullivan.
It ran for a total of 578 performances, which was seven more than
the authors' earlier work,
H.M.S. Pinafore, and the second longest run of
any work of musical theatre up to that time, after the
operetta Les Cloches de
Corneville.
Background
The opera
is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in
England
, part of the 19th
century European movement that emphasized
aesthetic values over moral or social
themes in literature, fine art, the decorative
arts, and interior design. Although the output of poets,
composers, painters and designers was prolific, some argued that it
was empty and self-indulgent. This artistic movement was so
popular, and also so easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad, that it
made
Patience a big hit. The topical nature of the story
may make
Patience somewhat less accessible to some modern
audiences, and G&S fans tend to have strong feelings one way or
the other about
Patience. Modern productions have
sometimes "updated" the setting of
Patience to an
analogous era, such as a
hippie
Patience, where there is a flower-child poet versus a
beat poet.
A popular misconception holds that the central character,
Bunthorne, a "Fleshly Poet," was intended to satirize
Oscar Wilde. However, this identification is
retrospective: in fact, the authors hired Wilde, after the fact, to
popularize the opera in America. There is a good case to be made
that Bunthorne is based partly on the
poets
Algernon Swinburne and
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who were
considerably more famous than Wilde in early 1881, before Wilde's
first volume of poetry had been published. Rossetti had been
attacked for immorality by
Robert Buchanan (under the
pseudonym of Thomas Maitland) in an article called "The Fleshly
School of Poetry", published in the Contemporary Review for
October, 1871. Nonetheless, Wilde's biographer Richard Ellmann
suggests that Wilde is a partial model for both Bunthorne and his
rival Grosvenor. Gilbert scholar Andrew Crowther comments,
"Bunthorne was the creature of Gilbert's brain, not just a
caricature of particular Aesthetes, but an original character in
his own right."
The makeup and costume adopted by the first Bunthorne,
George Grossmith, used the velvet jacket of
Swinburne, the hair style and monocle of the painter
James McNeill Whistler, and
knee-breeches similar to those worn by Wilde and others. The title
character, Patience, was made up and costumed to exactly resemble
the subject of
Luke Fildes's first
successful picture, "Where are you going to, my pretty maid?"
Patience was not the first satire of
the aesthetic movement played by Richard D'Oyly Carte's company at the
Opera
Comique. Grossmith himself had written a sketch in
1876 called
Cups and
Saucers that was revived as a companion piece to
H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, which was a satire of
the
blue pottery
craze.
1882 teapot in the shape of an
Aesthetic poet, with sunflower
Gilbert and Sullivan's partner, the
impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, was also the
booking manager for Oscar Wilde. He sent Wilde and his green
carnation and knee-breeches to enlighten Americans on the English
Aesthetic Movement and, incidentally, to build up the box office
for
Patience. Wilde even agreed to attend one of the early
performances of
Patience, with suitable publicity arranged
by
Helen Lenoir, who would become the
second Mrs. D'Oyly Carte.
Gilbert originally conceived
Patience as a tale of rivalry
between two curates and of the doting ladies who attended upon
them. The plot and even some of the dialogue was lifted straight
out of Gilbert's
Bab Ballad "The Rival
Curates." During the course of writing the libretto, however,
Gilbert took note of the criticism he had received for his very
mild satirizing of a clergyman in
The
Sorcerer, and looked about for an alternative pair of
rivals. The aesthetes proved to be a gift to topsy-turvydom. Some
remnants of the Bab Ballad version do survive in the final text of
Patience. Lady Jane advises Bunthorne to tell Grosvenor:
"Your style is much too sanctified—your cut is too canonical!"
Later, Grosvenor agrees to change his lifestyle by saying, "I do it
on compulsion!"—the very words used by the Reverend Hopley Porter
in the Bab Ballad.
Roles
- Colonel Calverly (Officer of Dragoon Guards) (bass-baritone)
- Major Murgatroyd (Officer of Dragoon Guards) (baritone)
- Lieut. The Duke of Dunstable (Officer of Dragoon
Guards) (tenor)
- Reginald Bunthorne (a Fleshly Poet) (comic baritone)
- Archibald Grosvenor (an Idyllic Poet) (lyric baritone)
- Mr. Bunthorne's Solicitor (Silent)
- The Lady Angela (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano)
- The Lady Saphir (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano or soprano)
- The Lady Ella (Rapturous Maiden) (soprano)
- The Lady Jane (Rapturous Maiden) (contralto)
- Patience (a Dairy Maid) (soprano)
- Chorus of Rapturous Maidens and Officers of Dragoon Guards
Synopsis
- Act I
"Rapturous maidens" await
Bunthorne
In front of Castle Bunthorne, a group of "lovesick maidens" are all
in love with the aesthetic poet Bunthorne ("Twenty lovesick maidens
we"). Lady Jane, the oldest and plainest of the ladies, informs
them that Bunthorne, far from returning their affections, has his
heart set on the simple milkmaid, Patience. Patience appears and
confesses that she has never loved anyone; and she is thankful that
love has not turned her miserable as it has them ("I cannot tell
what this love may be"). Soon, the ladies' old sweethearts, the
Dragoon Guards, appear ("The soldiers of our Queen"), led by
Colonel Calverly ("If you Want a Receipt for that Popular
Mystery"), Major Murgatroyd, and the droopy but immensely rich
Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable. They arrive ready to propose,
only to discover their beloveds fawning over Bunthorne, who is in
the throes of poetical composition, pretending to ignore the
attention of the ladies thronging around him ("In a doleful
train"). Bunthorne reads his poem and departs, while the officers
are coldly rebuffed and mocked by the aesthetic ladies, who turn
their noses up at the sight of the red and yellow uniforms. The
Dragoons, reeling from the insult, depart ("When I first put this
uniform on").
Bunthorne, left alone, confesses that his
aestheticism is a sham, and mocks the
movement's pretensions ("If you're anxious for to shine"). Soon, he
reveals to Patience that, like her, he does not really like poetry,
but she tells him that she could not love him. Later, Lady Angela,
one of Bunthorne's admirers, explores with Patience the latter's
childhood crush ("Long years ago"). Lady Angela rhapsodizes upon
love as the one truly unselfish pursuit in the world. Impressed by
this eloquence, Patience promises to fall in love at the earliest
opportunity. That opportunity is provided by the arrival of
Archibald Grosvenor, another aesthetic poet who turns out to be
Patience's childhood love. He has grown up to be the infallible,
widely-loved poet known as "Archibald the All-Right" ("Prithee,
pretty maiden"). The two declare themselves in love but are brought
up short by the realisation that as Grosvenor is a perfect being,
for Patience to love him would be a selfish act, and therefore
impossible; thus, they must part.
Bunthorne, heartbroken by Patience's rejection, has chosen to
raffle himself off among his lady followers
("Let the merry cymbals sound"), the proceeds going to charity. The
Dragoons interrupt the proceedings, and, led by the Duke, attempt
to reason with the ladies ("Your maiden hearts, ah, do not steel"),
but the ladies are too busy clamouring for tickets to the raffle to
listen ("Come walk up"). Just as Bunthorne is handing the bag to
the unattractive Jane, ready for the worst, Patience interrupts the
proceedings and proposes to unselfishly sacrifice herself by loving
the poet ("True Love must single-hearted be"). A delighted
Bunthorne accepts immediately, and his followers, their idol lost,
return to the Dragoons to whom they are engaged ("I hear the soft
note of the echoing voice"). All seems resolved, when Grosvenor
enters and the ladies, finding him poetic, aesthetic, and far more
attractive than Bunthorne, become his partisans instead ("Oh, list
while we a love confess"), much to the dismay of the Dragoons,
Patience, Bunthorne and especially Grosvenor himself.
Act II
Lady Jane, accompanying herself on the cello, laments the passing
of the years and expresses her hope that Bunthorne will "secure"
her before it is too late ("Silvered is the raven hair").
Meanwhile, Grosvenor wearily entertains the ladies ("A magnet hung
in a hardware shop") and begs to be given a half-holiday from their
cloying attentions. The Dragoons' Major, Colonel, and Duke attempt
to earn their partners' love through making an effort to convert to
the principles of aestheticism ("It's clear that mediaeval art").
Then, Patience confesses her affection for Grosvenor to Bunthorne,
who is naturally furious at the revelation.
Confronting Grosvenor, Bunthorne threatens him with a dire curse
unless he undertakes to become a perfectly ordinary young man.
Grosvenor, intimidated, but also pleased at the excuse to escape
the celebrity caused by his "fatal beauty" agrees to do so. This
plot backfires, however, when Grosvenor reappears as an ordinary
man; all of the ladies follow him into ordinariness, becoming
"matter-of-fact young girls." Patience realizes that Grosvenor has
lost his perfection in her eyes – and therefore, it will not be so
selfish for her to marry him, which she undertakes to do without
delay. The ladies, following suit, return to their old fiancés
among the Dragoons. In the spirit of fairness, the Duke chooses the
"plain" Lady Jane as his bride, for her very lack of appeal.
Bunthorne is left to the "vegetable" love that he has claimed
(falsely) to desire most of all. Thus, echoing the subtitle of the
piece, everyone sings that "Nobody [is] 'Bunthorne's bride.'"
Musical numbers
- Overture (includes "Turn, oh turn, in this direction", "So go
to him and say to him", and "Oh list while we a love confess"). The
Overture was orchestrated by Eugen
d'Albert, who was then a pupil of Sullivan's.
- Act I
Lytton and Lewis: "Sing 'Hey' to you!"
- 1. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Angela, Ella and Chorus of
Maidens)
- 2. "Still brooding on their mad infatuation" (Patience, Saphir,
Angela, and Chorus)
- 2a. "I cannot tell what this love may be" (Patience and
Chorus)
- 2b. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Chorus of Maidens -
Exit)
- 3. "The soldiers of our Queen" (Chorus of Dragoons)
- 3a. "If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" (Colonel
and Chorus)1
- 4. "In a doleful train two and two we walk" (Angela, Ella,
Saphir, Bunthorne, and Chorus of Maidens and Dragoons)
- 4a. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Chorus of Maidens -
Exit)
- 5. "When I first put this uniform on" (Colonel and Chorus of
Dragoons)
- 6. "Am I alone and unobserved?" (Bunthorne)
- 7. "Long years ago, fourteen maybe" (Patience and Angela)
- 8. "Prithee, pretty maiden" (Patience and Grosvenor)
- 8a. "Though to marry you would very selfish be" (Patience and
Grosvenor)
- 9. "Let the merry cymbals sound" (Ensemble)
1 This was originally followed by a song for the Duke,
"Though men of rank may useless seem." The orchestration survives
in Sullivan's autograph score, but without a vocal line. There have
been several attempts at a reconstruction, including one by
David Russell Hulme that was
included on the 1994 new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
recording.
- Act II
- 10. "On such eyes as maidens cherish" (Chorus of Maidens)
- 11. "Sad is that woman's lot" (Jane)
- 12. "Turn, oh turn, in this direction" (Chorus of Maidens)
- 13. "A magnet hung in a hardware shop" (Grosvenor and Chorus of
Maidens)
- 14. "Love is a plaintive song" (Patience)
- 15. "So go to him, and say to him" (Jane and Bunthorne)
- 16. "It's clear that mediaeval art" (Duke, Major, and
Colonel)
- 17. "If Saphir I choose to marry" (Angela, Saphir, Duke, Major,
and Colonel)
- 18. "When I go out of door" (Bunthorne and Grosvenor)
- 19. "I'm a Waterloo House young man" (Grosvenor and Chorus of
Maidens)
- 20. "After much debate internal" (Ensemble)
Note on topical references:Songs and dialogue in
Patience contain many topical references to persons and
events of public interest in 1881. In particular, the Colonel's
song, Act I, item 3a above, is almost entirely composed of such
references. The
Wikisource
text of the opera contains links explaining these
references.
Production history
original run of
Patience in London, split across two
theatres, was the second-longest of the Gilbert and Sullivan
series, eclipsed only by
The
Mikado. Its first London revival was in 1900, making it
the last of the revivals for which all three partners (Gilbert,
Sullivan, and D'Oyly Carte) were alive. Gilbert admitted some
doubts as to whether the æsthetic subject would still be
appreciated, years after the fad had died out. Gilbert wrote to
Sullivan after the premiere of this revival (which the composer was
too ill to attend), "The old opera woke up splendidly." (Allen
1975, p. 461).
In the British provinces,
Patience played — either by
itself, or in repertory — continuously from summer 1880 to 1885,
then again in 1888. It rejoined the touring repertory in 1892 and
was included in every season until 1955–56. New costumes were
designed in 1918 by
Hugo Rumbold, and a
new production debuted on January 28, 1957. The opera returned to
its regular place in the repertory, apart from a break in 1962–63.
Late in the company's history, it toured a reduced set of operas to
reduce costs.
Patience had its final D'Oyly Carte
performances in April 1979 and was left out of the company's last
three seasons of touring.
In America, Richard D'Oyly Carte mounted a production at the
Standard Theatre in September 1881, six months after the London
premiere. Unlike
H.M.S. Pinafore, there were no
"pirated" productions before the official version opened, although
there were several afterwards, including one starring
Lillian Russell.
In Australia, its
first authorized performance was on 26 November 1881 at the Theatre
Royal, Sydney
, produced by
J. C. Williamson.
Patience entered the repertory of the
English National Opera in 1969, in an
acclaimed production with Derek Hammond-Stroud as Bunthorne. The
production was later mounted in Australia and was preserved on
video as part of the Brent Walker series.
In 1984, ENO also took
the production on tour to the Metropolitan
Opera House
, in New York
City
.
Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, a
great Gilbert and Sullivan fan, undertook the silent role of Mr.
Bunthorne's Solicitor (who oversees the raffle until scared off by
the Dragoons) in a 1985
Washington
Savoyards production of the piece.
The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte
productions in Gilbert's lifetime:
| Theatre |
Opening Date |
Closing Date |
Perfs. |
Details |
| Opera Comique |
23 April 1881 |
8 October 1881 |
170 |
|
| Savoy Theatre |
10 October 1881 |
22 November 1882 |
408 |
|
| Standard Theatre, New York |
22 September 1881 |
23 March 1882 |
177 |
Authorised American production |
| Savoy Theatre |
7 November 1900 |
20 April 1901 |
150 |
First London revival |
| Savoy Theatre |
4 April 1907 |
24 August 1907 |
51 |
First Savoy repertory season; played with three other operas.
Closing date shown is of the entire season. |
Historical casting
The following tables show the casts of the principal original
productions and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring repertory at
various times through to the company's 1982 closure:
Illustration from an 1885 programme
Recordings
Of the recordings of this opera, the 1961 D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company recording (with complete dialogue) has been the best
received. Two videos, Brent Walker (1982) and Australian Opera
(1995), are both based on the respected
English National Opera production
first seen in the 1970s.
- Selected recordings
- 1930 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: Malcolm Sargent
- 1951 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: Isidore Godfrey
- 1961 D'Oyly Carte (with dialogue) – New Symphony Orchestra of
London; Conductor: Isidore Godfrey
- 1962 Sargent/Glyndebourne – Pro Arte Orchestra, Glyndebourne
Festival Chorus; Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
- 1982 Brent Walker Productions (video) – Ambrosian Opera Chorus,
London Symphony Orchestra; Conductor: Alexander Faris; Stage
Director: John Cox
- 1994 New D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: John Owen Edwards
- 1995 Australian Opera (video) – Conductor: David Stanhope;
Stage Director: John Cox
See also
Notes
References
- Also, five supplements, privately printed.
External links
Wikis
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