FULL PATIENCE (Gilbert&Sullivan) Minneapolis MN 2002 Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company GSVLOC
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Patience or, Bunthorne's Bride
- Composer: Arthur Sullivan
- Libretto: W. S. Gilbert Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company GSVLOC
- Recorded: 2002
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Megan Browning, Jim Ahrens, Donald Barbee, Sandra Schoenecker, Sara Ochs, Franny Gustafson, Kathryn Larsen, Waldyn J. Benbenek, Jeremy Bierlein, Eric Mellum
- Conductor: Steven Michael Utzig
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Lesley Hendrickson
- Stage Designer: Wendy Waszut-Barrett
- Costume Designer: David Pipho
- Lighting Designer: Rhuby Gallinati
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
PROGRAM LEAFLET
Director’s Note
When W. S. Gilbert first plotted the story that would become Patience, he had in mind a tale of two rival curates. Much as Dr. Daly, of The Sorcerer, had raised a hymn to the ladies who “gazed upon me, rapt in adoration,” these rivals would contend for the attentions of a chorus of sensitive county maidens. One of these handsome young men was actually to be named (I’m not making this up) Lawn Tennison. But Gilbert, having already been troubled by charges of irreverence aimed at Dr. Daly, felt he might be wise to find new personas for his leading men. The growing notoriety of the young Oscar Wilde, as well as the public’s ongoing fascination with other flamboyant personalities in and around the Aesthetic Movement in art and poetry, suggested to Gilbert an easy and audience-pleasing target.
All of which suggests that, at the core, Patience is not about the Aesthetic Movement at all, though Gilbert obviously enjoys tweaking the pretensions of the art-for-art’s-sake set. Gilbert’s bigger target, here as elsewhere, is the fatuousness of romantic love. In art as in life, Gilbert didn’t believe in it. By his lights, any reasonably attractive and intelligent young gentleman ought to be able to make a happy life with any reasonably attractive and intelligent young lady. Aesthetic transfiguration is not something you’d want to gaze at across the breakfast table.
But we have not lost faith in romantic love. Whether it is a duty or not, we cannot say, but still would urge you to “try, try, try to love. It isn’t that difficult if you put your whole mind to it.”
Lesley Hendrickson