Information AboutThe Sorcerer |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT THE SORCERER | |
| operas by gilbert and sullivan | |
| sorcerer, the | |
| english-language operas | |
| english comic operas | |
| operas | |
| 1877 operas | |
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''The Sorcerer'' is the earliest surviving two-act Gilbert And Sullivan Comic Opera . (The score to '' Thespis '' did not survive, and '' Trial By Jury '' was only one act.) ''Thespis'' opened on November 17 1877 at the Opera Comique , London , where it ran for 178 performances. For the 1884 revival, Gilbert and Sullivan abridged the ending to Act I, and provided a new opening to Act II, and it is in this form that the work is usually presented today. ROLES
Note SYNOPSIS Act 1 The villagers of Ploverleigh are preparing to celebrate the Betrothal of Alexis Pointdextre, the son of the local squire, and the blue-blooded (literally!) Aline Sangazure ("Ring forth, ye bells"). Only a young village maiden named Constance Partlet seems unwilling to join in the happy mood, and we learn as she tells her mother that she is secretly in love with the local vicar, Dr Daly ("When he is here, I sigh with pleasure"); and the cleric himself promptly soliloquises that he has been unlucky in love ("The air is charged with amatory numbers".) However, despite Mrs Partlet's best attempts at matchmaking, Dr Daly seems unable to believe that a young girl like Constance would be interested in him. Alexis and Aline arrive ("With heart and with voice"), and it soon becomes clear that his widower father Sir Marmaduke and her widowed mother Lady Sangazure are concealing strong feelings for one another, which propriety however demands remain hidden ("Welcome joy, adieu to sadness"). The betrothal ceremony is carried out, and left alone together Alexis reveals to his fiancée his plans for practical implementation of his principle that love should unite all classes and ranks ("Love feeds on many kinds of food, I know"). He has invited a representative from a respectable London firm of sorcerers to Ploverleigh ("My name is John Wellington Wells"), who prepares a batch of love potion with a fearsome incantation ("Sprites of earth and air"). The potion is added to the teapot for the feast on the village green, and all the villagers save Alexis, Aline, and Wells drink it and fall unconscious ("Oh, marvellous illusion"). Act 2 At midnight that night ("Tis twelve, I think"), the villagers awake and, under the influence of the potion, each falls in love with the first person of the opposite sex that they see ("Why, where be Oi"). Many of the matches thus made are highly unsuitable; Constance, for example, loves the ancient notary who performed the betrothal ("Dear friends, take pity on my lot"). However, Alexis is pleased with the results, and now asks Aline that they should drink the potion themselves to seal their own love. Aline is hurt by his lack of trust and refuses, offending him ("Thou hast the power thy vaunted love"). Alexis is distracted, however, by the revelation of his upper-class father having fallen for the lower-class Mrs Partlet, which he manages to make the best of ("I rejoice that it's decided"). Wells, meanwhile, is regretting the actions his magic has caused, and regrets them still more when the fearsome Lady Sangazure fixes on his as the object of her affections ("Oh, I have wrought much evil with my spells"). Aline succumbs to Alexis' persuasion and drinks the potion, but inadvertently meets Dr Daly first and falls in love with him ("Oh joyous boon"). Alexis realises that his meddling has gone too far, and asks Wells how the effects of the spell can be reversed; it turns out that this requires the death of either Alexis or Wells himself. The people of Ploverleigh rally against the outsider from London, and Wells, resignedly, sinks into the ground in a burst of flames ("Or he or I must die"). The spell broken, the villagers pair off according to their true feelings, and celebrate with another feast (reprise of "Now to the banquet we press"). MUSICAL NUMBERS
Act I
Act II
1 See notes on revisions. 2 ''The Sorcerer'' was heavily revised, and Act II originally opened with "Happy are we in our loving frivolity". REVISIONS A ballad for Lady Sangazure, "In days gone by," originally came immediately after "My child, I join in these congratulations." It was deleted after opening night and is now lost. The remaing recitative ends somewhat abruptly. Alexis's Act II ballad was revised, with the refrain changed from common time to waltz time. Although performed on opening night, it was not included in the original vocal score. Available evidence suggests that the ballad was dropped from the opera, and later reinstated during the original run (Hulme 1984, p. 3). For the 1884 revival, the opera underwent extensive revisions: The length of time between the acts was altered from half-an-hour to twelve hours, resulting in a different ending to Act I and a complete rewrite of the Act II opening. Whereas in 1877 the chorus succeeded in hiding the effects of the tea after "Oh marvellous illusion," and the finale worked its way back to the tea-cup brindisi, in the revised version they are unable to regain their senses, and the act ends with everyone falling over after "Oh marvellous illusion." The original Act II started off with "Happy are we in our loving frivolity" – a pageant of mismatched couples taking place half-an-hour after the end of Act I. The revision changed the setting to nighttime, with a quiet trio for Alexis, Aline and John Wellington Wells whilst the villagers remain asleep, before they wake up with a rustic chorus in broad Cornish accents and pair up. There are also minor changes to the music leading into "Dear friends take pity on my lot," with the key of that piece lowered to accommodate the 1884 Constance. These revisions were not, however, done very carefully. The Act I Finale still says "Their hearts will melt in half-an-hour / Then will be felt the potion's power." Similarly, Aline drinks the potion in Act II, but then falls in love with Dr. Daly immediately, instead of falling asleep for twelve hours as the revisions would require. REFERENCES 1 SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINK |
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