
Patience is Gilbert and Sullivan’s extremely witty, infrequently performed little masterpiece about the Aesthetic Movement of the 1880s. Complete with willowy poets, sighing maidens, hearty milkmaids and burly officers, every tune is whistleable, every word worth hearing, and the humour is as fresh as it was at the first performance.
Synopsis
The opera opens with Bunthorne, an aesthetic poet, who is explaining the mysteries of love to a group of love-sick maidens. He proclaims that love can be cured by proper medical treatment to which they listen adoringly, yet Bunthorne remains oblivious to their devotion – he loves Patience, they declare.
Patience, a simple dairy-maid, has never loved anyone except an aunt, and learns that true love must be “utter unselfishness”.
Enter a regiment of Dragoon Guards, who had previously won the affections of the maidens, and their colonel who introduces himself and his charges via a bumptious number. The maiden’s affections are now with Bunthorne however who has “idealised them” and “their eyes are opened”. Once alone, Bunthorne confesses his fakery to aestheticism, admitting to only using it for the purpose of gaining admiration.
We return to Patience, who we find reminiscing about a childhood crush when in comes Archibald Grosvenor, another aesthetic poet, who happens to be the very same companion Patience has been daydreaming about. He has grown to be the flawless “Archibald the All-Right” and they declare themselves in love only to come to the conclusion that as Grosvenor is perfect, it would be selfish of Patience to marry him as clearly it cannot be true love.
Bunthorne returns and decides to put himself up for raffle, and just as the lot is to be drawn, Patience in her “utter unselfishness” says that she will marry him because “she detests him so.”
Their idol now lost, the disappointed maidens return to the Dragoons, but on seeing Grosvenor, and finding him poetic and even more attractive than Bunthorne, immediately transfer their affections to him, much to the dismay of everyone involved, including Grosvenor.
Synopsis
The unattractive Lady Jane laments the passing of the years and expresses hope that Bunthorne will “secure” her before it’s too late. She is exasperated at the beguiled maidens. Grosvenor, who is also annoyed by the maiden’s attentions, pleads for a “half holiday” as respite. While Patience muses upon love, Bunthorne, deserted and consumed by jealousy, has still one faithful admirer – Lady Jane – who implores him not to wait too long. Bunthorne however, is determined to beat Grosvenor on his own ground.
The rival poets meet at last. Bunthorne threatens a “dire curse” on Grosvenor unless he consents to cut his hair and become quite commonplace. Grosvenor outwardly appalled, yet secretly relieved, consents to become an “every day young man”.
Now that Bunthorne is happy, Patience, in her “utter unselfishness,” breaks her engagement. Upon Archibald Grosvenor’s return she realises that since he is now a commonplace young man, she can marry him after all.
Bunthorne on finding that the love-sick maidens have returned to their soldiers, decides to console himself with Lady Jane. But the Duke of Dunstable, desirous of marrying a plain woman, has already claimed her, so Bunthorne is left with the “vegetable love” that he had (falsely) claimed to desire and with no bride!
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