Gilbert & Sullivan: An Appreciation

 

Since high school I have been an unabashed fan of the light operas of W.S. Gilbert, who wrote the lyrics, and Sir Arthur Sullivan (no relation) who wrote the music. Here they are shown in a cartoon, Gilbert at left. Their operas go in and out of fashion — currently out except for the occasional production of the always popular “Pirates of Penzance” by high school and local theatre groups.  

Virtually forgotten are two Gilbert & Sullivan offerings that are particular favorites of mine, “Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride” and “Yeoman of the Guard.”  The former was first performed in 1881, not long after the pair had a smash hit with “The Mikado.”  It was the first theatrical production in the world to be lit entirely by electric light.  The opera is a spoof of the aesthetic movement of that period in England that paid homage to “art for art’s sake” rather than for any pragmatic ends.

The story revolves around two foppish poets, Reginald Bunthorne, “a Fleshly Poet” and the Archibald Grosvenor, “an Idyllic Poet.” A photo shows them on stage; Bunthorne is standing. The first act opens with a chorus of women singing “Twenty love sick maidens we…”   All are in love with Bunthorne, who adores reciting his “highly aesthetic” poetry to the fawning women.  Among his admirers is Patience, a lowly milkmaid.  Bunthorne dominates the first act, until the very end when in a pivotal moment Grosvenor shows up declaring:

“I am a broken hearted troubadour 

Who’s mind’s aesthetic and whose tastes are pure!”

The lovesick maidens are immediately attracted:

“Aesthetic!  He is aesthetic!”

To which the Idyllic Poet replies:

 “Yes, yes—I am aesthetic, and poetic!

That is enough for the fickle maidens to abandon Bunthorne.  They sing to Grosvenor:

Then, we love you!

Leading up to this moment the music has been romantically lush.  Now comes a quartet involving the maidens, Patience, and the two poets that is truly memorable — and the curtain falls.  The second act continues Gilbert’s clever foolery, again to Sullivan’s appropriate music.  In the end Grosvenor shucks off his poet’s garb for a business suit and the lovesick maids decide to abandon the aesthetic pose and become “everyday young girls.”  Although Jane still claims to be aesthetic, she rejects Bunthorne for a Duke.  Although the movement satirized in “Patience” is ancient history, deflating pomposity has enduring appeal.

“Yeoman of the Guard,” subtitled “The Merryman and His Maid,”  is a later offering from Gilbert & Sullivan.  Set in the Tower of London, above, during the 16th Century, it has dark overtones quite different from the frivolity of their earlier work. For example the action takes place at a prison, with a leading character under sentence of death.  Critics consider Sullivan’s score to be among the finest music he composed, however, and the overture continues to be popular as an opening  for orchestras.

The “merryman” is Point, a court jester, in love with Elsie, a singer, who performs with him.  Elsie, who needs medicine for her sick mother and for money agrees to marry Colonel Fairfax, a man being held in the Tower who is to be beheaded the next day.  After Point facilitates the nuptials, Fairfax escapes and a whole series of events ensue, many designed to elicit sympathy for Point.  In the end, Elsie turns away from Point finally to marry Fairfax, who has received a reprieve.  Point sings: 

“It’s the song of a merryman, moping mum,

Whose soul was sad and whose glance was glum,

Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb,

As he died for the love of a ladye.”

The stage directions then say that as Fairfax and Elsie embrace, “Point falls insensitive at their feet,” and the opera concludes.  Some have interpreted the ending to mean that Point dies, certainly an unusual ending for a light opera.

Other commentators think the jester merely faints.  Whatever the interpretation, with elements reminiscent of both Puccini’s “Tosca” and Verdi’s “Rigoletto,”  “Yeoman of the Guard” is a far cry from Gilbert & Sullivan’s early comic operas.

My hope is that as fashions in musical entertainment come and go a future generation will discover the joys of Gilbert & Sullivan and revive these operas on stage.  In the meantime many of them, including the two reviewed here, can be found on CDs.