The most conspicuous numbers in the first act are Dr. Daly’s ballad, “Time was when Love and I were well acquainted”; the duet between Sir Marmaduke and Lady Sangazure, “Welcome Joy, adieu to Sadness”; Alexis’ ballad, “Love feeds on many Kinds of Food I know”; Wells’ long and rollicking song, “Oh! my Name is John Wellington Wells”; and the incantation music, “Sprites of Earth and Air.” The second act opens with a charming little country dance. The principal numbers which follow it are Constance’s aria, “Dear Friends, take Pity on my Lot”; the ensemble for Aline, Alexis, Constance, and the Notary, “O, Joy! O, Joy!”; Alexis’ ballad, “Thou hast the Power thy Vaunted Love”; the quintette, “I rejoice that it’s decided”; Dr. Daly’s humorous song, “Oh! my Voice is sad and low”; and the final ensemble, “Now to the Banquet we press.”

H. M. S. Pinafore; or, The Lass that Loved a Sailor.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Opéra Comique, London, May 28, 1878.]

PERSONAGES.

The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., First Lord of the Admiralty.

Capt. Corcoran, commanding “H. M. S. Pinafore.”

Ralph Rackstraw, able seaman.

Dick Deadeye, able seaman.

Bill Bobstay, boatswain’s mate.

Bob Becket, carpenter’s man.

Tom Tucker, midshipmite.

Sergeant of Marines.

Josephine, the Captain’s daughter.

Hebe, Sir Joseph’s first cousin.

Little Buttercup, a bumboat woman.

[First Lord’s sisters, his cousins, his aunts, sailors, marines, etc.]

The scene is laid on the quarterdeck of “H. M. S. Pinafore”; time, the present.

Although “Pinafore,” when it was first produced in London, was received so coolly that it was decided to take it off the boards, yet eventually, with the exception of “The Beggar’s Opera,” it proved to be the most popular opera ever produced in England; while in the United States it was for years the rage, and is still a prime favorite. The first scene introduces the leading characters on the deck of “H. M. S. Pinafore” in the harbor of Portsmouth. Little Buttercup, a bumboat woman, “the rosiest, the roundest, and the reddest beauty in all Spithead,” comes on board and has an interview with Dick Deadeye, the villain of the story, and Ralph Rackstraw, “the smartest lad in all the fleet,” who is in love with Josephine, Captain Corcoran’s daughter. The Captain comes on deck in a melancholy mood because Josephine has shown herself indifferent to Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., who is to ask for her hand that afternoon. She confesses to her father that she loves a common sailor, but will carry her love to the grave without letting him know of it. Sir Joseph comes on board with a long retinue of sisters, cousins, and aunts, who chant his praises. After attending to some minor details, he has a fruitless interview with the Captain and Josephine. She declares she cannot love him. Shortly afterwards she meets Ralph, who declares his love for her, but she haughtily rejects him. When he draws his pistol and declares he will shoot himself, she acknowledges her love, and they plan to steal ashore at night and be married. Dick Deadeye overhears the plot and threatens to thwart it.

The second act opens at night. Captain Corcoran is discovered sadly complaining to the moon, and wondering why everything is at “sixes and sevens.” Little Buttercup sympathizes with him, and is about to become affectionate, when he informs her he can only be her friend. She grows enraged, and warns him there is a change in store for him. Sir Joseph enters, and informs the Captain he is much disappointed at the way Josephine has acted. The Captain replies that she is probably dazzled by his rank, and that if he will reason with her and convince her that “love levels all ranks,” everything will be right. Sir Joseph does so, but only pleads his rival’s cause. She tells him she has hesitated, but now she hesitates no longer. Sir Joseph and the Captain are rejoicing over her apparent change of heart, when Dick Deadeye reveals the plot to elope that night. The Captain confronts them as they are stealthily leaving the vessel, and insists upon knowing what Josephine is about to do. Ralph steps forward and declares his love, whereupon the Captain grows furious and lets slip an oath. He is overheard by Sir Joseph, who orders him to his cabin “with celerity.” He then inquires of Ralph what he has done to make the Captain profane. He replies it was his acknowledgment of love for Josephine, whereupon, in a towering rage, Sir Joseph orders his imprisonment in the ship’s dungeon. He then remonstrates with Josephine, whereupon Little Buttercup reveals her secret. Years before, when she was practising baby-farming, she nursed two babies, one of “low condition,” the other “a regular patrician,” and she “mixed those children up and not a creature knew it.” “The well-born babe was Ralph, your Captain was the other.” Sir Joseph orders the two before him, gives Ralph the command of “H. M. S. Pinafore,” and Corcoran Ralph’s place. As his marriage with Josephine is now impossible, he gives her to Ralph, and Captain Corcoran, now a common seaman, unites his fortunes with those of Little Buttercup.

It is one of the principal charms of this delightful work that it is entirely free from coarseness and vulgarity. The wit is always delicate, though the satire is keen. Words and music rarely go so well together as in this opera. As a prominent English critic said of “Trial by Jury,” “it seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain.” The chorus plays a very important part in it, and in the most solemnly ludicrous manner repeats the assertions of the principals in the third person. All its numbers might be styled the leading ones, but those which have become most popular are the song, “I’m called Little Buttercup”; Josephine’s sentimental song, “Sorry her Lot who loves too well,” one of the few serious numbers in the opera; Sir Joseph Porter’s song, “I am the Monarch of the Sea,” with its irresistible choral refrain, “And so are his Sisters and his Cousins and his Aunts, his Sisters and his Cousins, whom he reckons by the Dozens,” leading up to the satirical song, “When I was a Lad, I served a Term”; the stirring trio, “A British Tar is a Soaring Soul”; Captain Corcoran’s sentimental ditty, “Fair Moon, to thee I sing”; Josephine’s scena, “The Hours creep on apace,” with its mock heroic recitative; Dick Deadeye’s delightful song, “The Merry Maiden and the Tar”; the pretty octette and chorus, “Farewell, my own”; Little Buttercup’s legend, “A many Years ago, when I was young and charming”; and the choral finale, “Then give three Cheers and one Cheer more.”

The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced in England at the Opéra Comique, April 3, 1880.]

PERSONAGES.

Maj.-Gen. Stanley.

Pirate King.

Samuel, his lieutenant.

Frederic, the pirate apprentice.

Sergeant of Police.

Mabel,
Edith,
Kate,
Isabel, } Gen. Stanley’s daughters.

Ruth, a pirate maid of all work.

[Pirates, police, etc.]

The scene is laid on the coast of Cornwall; time, the present.

“The Pirates of Penzance” has a local interest from the fact that it was first produced in New York on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1879, under the immediate supervision of both Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Gilbert. When the composer left England he had only finished the second act, and that was without orchestration. After his arrival here he wrote the first act and scored the entire opera. By this performance the profits of the representations in this country were secured. The work was not published until after their return to England.

At the opening of the opera it is disclosed that Frederic, when a boy, in pursuance of his father’s orders, was to have been apprenticed to a pilot until his twenty-first year, but by the mistake of his nurse-maid, Ruth, he was bound out to one of the pirates of Penzance, who were celebrated for their gentleness and never molested orphans because they were orphans themselves. In the first scene the pirates are making merry, as Frederic has reached his majority and is about to leave them and seek some other occupation. Upon the eve of departure Ruth requests him to marry her, and he consents, as he has never seen any other woman, but shortly afterwards he encounters the daughters of General Stanley, falls in love with Mabel, the youngest, and denounces Ruth as a deceiver. The pirates encounter the girls about the same time, and propose to marry them, but when the General arrives and announces that he is an orphan, they relent and allow the girls to go.

The second act opens in the General’s ancient baronial hall, and reveals him surrounded by his daughters, lamenting that he has deceived the pirates by calling himself an orphan. Frederic appears, and bids Mabel farewell, as he is about to lead an expedition for the extermination of the pirates. While he is alone, the Pirate King and Ruth visit him and show him the papers which bound him to them. It is stated in them that he is bound “until his twenty-first birthday,” but as his birthday is the 29th of February, he has had but five. Led by his strong sense of duty, he decides that he will go back to his old associates. Then he tells them of the General’s orphan story, which so enrages them that they swear vengeance. They come by night to carry off the General, but are overpowered by the police and sent to prison, where they confess they are English noblemen. Upon promising to give up their piratical career, they are pardoned, and this releases Frederic.

The principal numbers in the first act are Ruth’s song, “When Frederic was a Little Lad”; the Pirate King’s song, “Oh! better far to live and die”; Frederic’s sentimental song, “Oh! is there not one Maiden Breast”; Mabel’s reply, “Poor Wandering One”; and the descriptive song of the General, “I am the very Pattern of a Modern Major-General,” which reminds one of Sir Joseph’s song, “When I was a Lad I served a Term,” in “Pinafore,” and Wells’ song, “Oh! my Name is John Wellington Wells,” in “The Sorcerer.” The second act opens with a chorus of the daughters and solo by Mabel, “Dear Father, why leave your Bed.” The remaining most popular numbers are the Tarantara of the Sergeant; the Pirate King’s humorous chant, “For some Ridiculous Reason”; Mabel’s ballad, “Oh, leave me not to pine,” and the Sergeant’s irresistible song, “When a Fellow’s not engaged in his Employment,” which has become familiar as a household word by frequent quotation.

Patience; or, Bunthorne’s Bride.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Opéra Comique, London, April 23, 1881.]

PERSONAGES.

Col. Calverley,
Major Murgatroyd,
Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable, } officers of Dragoon Guards.

Reginald Bunthorne, a fleshly poet.

Archibald Grosvenor, an idyllic poet.

Mr. Bunthorne’s Solicitor.

Lady Angela,
Lady Saphir,
Lady Ella,
Lady Jane, } rapturous maidens.

Patience, a dairy-maid.

[Guards, æsthetic maidens.]

The scene is laid at Castle Bunthorne; time, the last century.

The opera of “Patience” is a pungent satire upon the fleshly school of poetry as represented by Oscar Wilde and his imitators, as well as upon the fad for æsthetic culture which raged so violently a quarter of a century ago. Bunthorne, in one of his soliloquies, aptly expresses the hollowness of the sham,—

In these four lines Gilbert pricked the æsthetic bubble, and nothing did so much to end the fad of lank, languorous maidens, and long haired, sunflowered male æsthetes, as Gilbert’s well-directed shafts of ridicule in this opera.

The story of the opera tells of the struggle for supremacy over female hearts between an æsthetic (Bunthorne) and an idyllic poet (Grosvenor). In the opening scene lovesick maidens in clinging gowns, playing mandolins, sing plaintively of their love for Bunthorne. Patience, a healthy milkmaid, comes upon the scene, and makes fun of them, and asks them why they sit and sob and sigh. She announces to them that the Dragoon Guards will soon arrive, but although they doted upon Dragoons the year before they spurn them now and go to the door of Bunthorne to carol to him. The Guards duly arrive, and are hardly settled down when Bunthorne passes by in the act of composing a poem, followed by the twenty lovesick maidens. After finishing his poem he reads it to them, and they go off together, without paying any attention to the Dragoons, who declare they have been insulted and leave in a rage. Bunthorne, when alone, confesses to himself he is a sham, and at the close of his confession Patience comes in. He at once makes love to her, but only frightens her. She then confers with Lady Angela, who explains love to her, and tells her it is her duty to love some one. Patience declares she will not go to bed until she has fallen in love with some one, when Grosvenor, the idyllic poet and “apostle of simplicity,” enters. He and Patience had been playmates in early childhood, and she promptly falls in love with him, though he is indifferent. In the closing scene Bunthorne, twined with garlands, is led in by the maidens, and puts himself up as a prize in a lottery; but the drawing is interrupted by Patience, who snatches away the papers and offers herself as a bride to Bunthorne, who promptly accepts her. The maidens then make advances to the Dragoons, but when Grosvenor appears they all declare their love for him. Bunthorne recognizes him as a dangerous rival, and threatens “he shall meet a hideous doom.”

The opening of the second act reveals Jane, an antique charmer, sitting by a sheet of water mourning because the fickle maidens have deserted Bunthorne, and because he has taken up with “a puling milkmaid,” while she alone is faithful to him. In the next scene Grosvenor enters with the maidens, of whom he is tired. They soon leave him in low spirits, when Patience appears and tells him she loves him, but can never be his, for it is her duty to love Bunthorne. The latter next appears, followed by the antique Jane, who clings to him in spite of his efforts to get rid of her. He accuses Patience of loving Grosvenor, and goes off with Jane in a wildly jealous mood. In the next scene the Dragoons, to win favor with the maidens, transform themselves into a group of æsthetes. Bunthorne and Grosvenor finally meet, and Bunthorne taxes his rival with monopolizing the attentions of the young ladies. Grosvenor replies that he cannot help it, but would be glad of any suggestion that would lead to his being less attractive. Bunthorne tells him he must change his conversation, cut his hair, and have a back parting, and wear a commonplace costume. Grosvenor at first protests, but yields when threatened with Bunthorne’s curse. In the finale, when it is discovered that Grosvenor has become a commonplace young man, the maidens decide that if “Archibald the All-Right” has discarded æstheticism, it is right for them to do so. Patience takes the same view of the case, and leaves Bunthorne for Grosvenor. The maidens find suitors among the Dragoons, and even the antique Jane takes up with the Duke, and Bunthorne is left alone with his lily, nobody’s bride.

The most popular musical numbers in the opera are the Colonel’s song, “If you want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery”; Bunthorne’s “wild, weird, fleshly” song, “What Time the Poet hath hymned,” also his song, “If you’re anxious for to shine”; the romantic duet of Patience and Grosvenor, “Prithee, Pretty Maiden”; the sextette, “I hear the Soft Note of the Echoing Voice”; Jane’s song, “Silvered is the Raven Hair”; Patience’s ballad, “Love is a Plaintive Song”; Grosvenor’s fable of the magnet and the churn; the rollicking duet of Bunthorne and Grosvenor, “When I go out of Door,” and the “prettily pattering, cheerily chattering” chorus in the finale of the last act.

Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, November 25, 1882.]

PERSONAGES.

Lord Chancellor.

Earl of Mountararat.

Earl Tollaller.

Private Willis, of the Grenadier Guards.

Strephon, an Arcadian shepherd.

Iolanthe, a fairy, Strephon’s mother.

Queen of the fairies.

Celia,
Leila,
Fleta, } fairies.

Phyllis, an Arcadian shepherdess and ward in Chancery.

[Dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, barons, and fairies]

The scene is laid in Arcady and at Westminster; time, between 1700 and 1882.

The first act of “Iolanthe” opens in Arcady. Iolanthe, a fairy, having offended her Queen by marrying a mortal, has been banished for life; but in the opening scene, after twenty years of exile, she is pardoned. She tells the Queen of her marriage, and her son Strephon, half a fairy and half a shepherd, who is engaged to Phyllis, a shepherdess, and ward in Chancery. At this point Strephon enters, and informs his mother that the Lord Chancellor will not permit him to marry Phyllis, but he will do so in spite of him. He curses his fairyhood, but the Queen says she has a borough at her disposal, and will return him to Parliament as a Liberal-Conservative. In the next scene Strephon meets Phyllis and pleads against delay in marriage, since the Lord Chancellor himself may marry her, and many of the lords are attentive to her. Meanwhile the lords meet to decide which one of them shall have Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor waiving his claim, as it might lay his decision open to misconstruction. Phyllis is summoned before them, but is deaf to all entreaties, and declares she is in love with Strephon, who has just entered. The peers march out in a dignified manner, while the Lord Chancellor separates Phyllis and Strephon and orders her away. He then refuses Strephon his suit, whereupon the latter invokes the aid of his fairy mother, who promises to lay the case before her Queen. In the finale the peers are seen leading Phyllis, who overhears something said by Strephon and Iolanthe which induces her to believe he is faithless, and she denounces him. He replies that Iolanthe is his mother, but cannot convince her. She charges him with deceit, and offers her hand to any one of the peers. He then appeals to the Queen, who threatens vengeance upon the peers and declares that Strephon shall go into Parliament. The peers beg her for mercy, and Phyllis implores Strephon to relent, but he casts her from him.

The second act opens at Westminster. Strephon is in Parliament and carrying things with a high hand. Phyllis is engaged to two of the lords and cannot decide between them, nor can they settle the matter satisfactorily. Whereupon the Lord Chancellor decides to press his own suit for her hand. Strephon finally proves his birth to Phyllis and explains away all her fears. Iolanthe then acknowledges that the Lord Chancellor is her husband and pleads with him in Strephon’s behalf. When she makes this confession, she is condemned to death for breaking her fairy vow. Thereupon all the fairies confess that they have married peers. As it is impracticable to kill them all, the Queen hunts up a husband, and finds one in Private Willis, the sentry in the palace yard. All the husbands join the fairies, and thus matters are straightened out.

The music of “Iolanthe” is peculiarly refined and fanciful, and abounds in taking numbers. The best of these are Strephon’s song, “Good Morrow”; the delightful duet between Strephon and Phyllis, “None shall part us from each other,” one of the most felicitous of the composer’s lighter compositions; the Lord Chancellor’s song, “When I went to the Bar”; Strephon’s charming ballad, “In Babyhood upon her Lap I lay”; Private Willis’s song, “When all Night long a Chap remains”; the patter song of the Lord Chancellor, “When you’re lying awake with a Dismal Headache”; the duet of Strephon and Phyllis, “If we’re weak enough to tarry”; and Iolanthe’s pretty ballad, “He loves! if in the Bygone Years.”

Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant.

[Comic opera, in three acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, January 5, 1884.]

PERSONAGES.

King Hildebrand.

Hilarion, his son.

Cyril,
Florian, } Hilarion’s friends.

King Gama.

Avac,
Guron,
Scynthius, } Gama’s sons.

Princess Ida, Gama’s daughter.

Lady Blanche, Professor of Abstract Science.

Lady Psyche, Professor of Humanities.

Melissa, Lady Blanche’s daughter.

Sacharissa,
Chloe,
Ada, } girl graduates.

[Soldiers, courtiers, girl graduates, “daughters of the plough,” etc.]

The scene is laid at King Hildebrand’s palace and Castle Adamant; time, the present.

“Princess Ida” is the least effective of the Sullivan operas. Its libretto is also the least effective of the Gilbert stories set to the former’s music. At the time it was written the composer was depressed by a severe family affliction, and at the same time had met the misfortune of losing all his savings through the failure of those to whom he had intrusted them. It may have been also that the labored and heavy style of the story had something to do with the dry and somewhat forced style of the music, as well as its lack of the brightness and fancy which are so apparent in “Pinafore” and “Patience.”

The first act opens at King Hildebrand’s palace, where the courtiers are watching for the arrival of King Gama and his daughter, the Princess Ida, who has been promised in marriage to Hilarion, Hildebrand’s son. When Gama finally comes, Ida is not with him, and he explains to the enraged Hildebrand that she is at Castle Adamant, one of his country houses, where she is president of a woman’s university. Gama and his three sons, Avac, Guron, and Scynthius, are seized and held as hostages for her appearance, and in the mean time Hilarion, and his two friends, Cyril and Florian, determine to go to Castle Adamant and see if they cannot make some impression upon the Princess.

The second act opens at Castle Adamant, and discloses the pupils of the university in discourse with Lady Psyche, the Professor of Humanities, and Lady Blanche, Professor of Abstract Science, who is ambitious to get control of the institution. Hilarion and his two friends scale the wall and get into the grounds, and finding some academic robes they disguise themselves as girls. They first meet the Princess and explain to her that they wish to enter the university, to which she gives her consent upon their subscription to the rules. They sign with enthusiasm, especially when they discover that there is one which requires them to give the fulness of their love to the hundred maidens of the university. Shortly afterwards they encounter Lady Psyche, who recognizes Florian as her brother. They tell their secret to her. Melissa, the daughter of Lady Blanche, overhears them, and is in raptures at her first sight of men. She discloses to her mother what she has discovered, but urges her not to speak of it, for if Hilarion is successful in his suit she (the Lady Blanche) may succeed to the presidency. At the luncheon, however, the Princess discovers she is entertaining three men and flees from the spot. In crossing a bridge she falls into the river, but is rescued by Hilarion. Her anger is not appeased by his gallantry, and she orders the arrest of the three. As they are marched off, there is a tumult outside. Hildebrand, with an armed force and with his four hostages, has arrived, and gives the Princess until the morrow afternoon to release Hilarion and become his bride.

The last act opens with the preparations of the Princess and her pupils to defend themselves, but one after the other their courage deserts them. Gama proposes that his three sons shall be pitted against Hilarion and his two friends, and if the latter are defeated the Princess shall be free. In the contest Gama’s sons are defeated, whereupon the Princess at once resigns and accepts Hilarion. The Lady Psyche falls to Cyril, and the delighted Melissa to Florian, and it is to be presumed the presidency of the Woman’s College falls to Lady Blanche.

As has already been intimated, the music as a whole is labored, but there are some numbers that are fully up to the Sullivan standard; among them Hilarion’s ballad, “Ida was a twelvemonth old”; Gama’s characteristic song, “If you give me your Attention,” and the trio of Gama’s sons, “For a Month to dwell,” in the first act: the Princess’s long aria, “At this my Call”; Lady Blanche’s song, “Come, Mighty Must”; Lady Psyche’s sarcastic evolution song, “A Lady Fair of Lineage High”; Cyril’s song, “Would you know the Kind of Maid”; and Hilarion’s song, “Whom thou hast chained must wear his Chain,” in the second act: and the Princess’s song, “I built upon a Rock”; Gama’s song, “Whene’er I spoke Sarcastic Joke”; the soldiers’ chorus, “When Anger spreads his Wing”; and the finale, “With Joy abiding,” in the third act.

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, March 14, 1885.]

PERSONAGES.

Mikado of Japan.

Nanki-Poo, his son, disguised as a minstrel, in love with Yum-Yum.

Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner of Titipu.

Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else.

Pish-Tush, a noble lord.

Yum-Yum,
Pitti-Sing,
Peep-Bo, } three sisters, wards of Ko-Ko.

Katisha, an elderly lady, in love with Nanki-Poo.

[School girls, nobles, guards, and coolies.]

The scene is laid in Japan; time, the present.

That the “Princess Ida,” ineffective as it is in some respects, did not indicate that the resources of Gilbert and Sullivan were exhausted, is shown by the great success of both in “The Mikado,” which immediately followed it. This charming travesty of Japan, with the exception perhaps of “Pinafore,” has proved to be the most popular of the Sullivan operas, and has even made an impression in Germany. It has been an equal success for both the musician and the librettist, and still retains its freshness and vivacity after seventeen years of performance.

The story of “The Mikado” is so well known that it need not be given with much fulness of detail. Nanki-Poo, the Mikado’s son, is in love with Yum-Yum, the ward of the tailor Ko-Ko, who is also Lord High Executioner, and to whom she is betrothed, as Nanki-Poo is informed by Pooh-Bah, when he comes to Titipu in quest of her. Pooh-Bah, who accepted all the offices of the Ministers of State after their resignations when Ko-Ko was made Lord High Executioner, is also “the retailer of state secrets at a low figure,” and furnishes much of the delightful comedy of the opera. Nanki-Poo nevertheless manages to secure an interview with Yum-Yum, confesses to her he is the Mikado’s son, and that he is in disguise to escape punishment for not marrying the elderly Katisha. Ko-Ko’s matrimonial arrangements are interfered with by a message from the Mikado, that unless some one is beheaded in Titipu within a month he will be degraded. Nanki-Poo consents to be beheaded if he is allowed to marry Yum-Yum and live with her for the month. This being satisfactory, the arrangements for the nuptials are made.

The second act opens with Yum-Yum’s preparations for her marriage. A tête-à-tête with Nanki-Poo is interrupted by Ko-Ko, who announces that by the law when a married man is beheaded his wife must be burned alive. This cools Yum-Yum’s passion, and to save her Nanki-Poo threatens to perform the Happy Despatch that day. As this would endanger Ko-Ko, he arranges to swear to a false statement of Nanki-Poo’s execution. Suddenly the Mikado arrives. Ko-Ko gives him the statement, but a great danger is imminent when the Mikado informs him he has killed the heir apparent and must suffer some horrible punishment. In the dénouement Nanki-Poo reappears, and Ko-Ko gets out of trouble by marrying the ancient Katisha, leaving Yum-Yum to Nanki-Poo.

The opera abounds in charming lyrics, though with a single exception, a march chorus in the second act, “Miya sama, miya sama,” there is no local color to the music, as might have been expected in an opera entirely Japanese in its subject and dramatic treatment. Its lyrics are none the less delightful on that account. The most popular numbers in the first act are Ko-Ko’s song, with its choral response, “You may put ’em on the List and they never will be missed”; the fascinating trio for Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, and Pitti-Sing, “Three Little Maids from School are we”; Nanki-Poo’s song, “A Wandering Minstrel”; and the trio for Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah, and Pish-Tush, “My Brain, it teems.” The leading numbers of the second act are Yum-Yum’s song, “The Sun, whose Rays”; the quartette, “Brightly dawns our Wedding-Day”; the Mikado’s song, “A more Humane Mikado never”; Ko-Ko’s romantic ballad, “On a Tree by a River a little Tomtit,” which is in the genuine old English manner, and the well-known duet for Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko, “The Flowers that bloom in the Spring, tra la.”

Ruddygore; or, The Witch’s Curse.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, January 22, 1887.]

PERSONAGES.

Robin Oakapple, a young farmer.

Richard Dauntless, his foster brother and man-o’-war’s man.

Sir Despard Murgatroyd, the wicked Baronet.

Old Adam Goodheart, Robin’s faithful servant.

Rose Maybud, a village maiden.

Mad Margaret.

Dame Hannah, Rose’s aunt.

Zorah,
Ruth, } professional bridesmaids.

Six Murgatroyd Ghosts.

Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, twenty-first Baronet.

[Officers, ancestors, and professional bridesmaids.]

The scene is laid in Cornwall; time, early in the last century.

Although “Ruddygore,” a satire upon the old English melodramas, has not been as successful as some of the other Sullivan operas, it is as entertaining as any in the series, while the story, with its grotesque dramatic features, is peculiarly Gilbertian in its humor. The first act opens in Cornwall. Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, the first of the baronets, employed his leisure in persecuting witches and committing other crimes. The chorus of “the legend,” sung by Hannah, an old spinster, prophesies that each Murgatroyd will die “with sinning cloyed.” To avoid this fate, the last inheritor of the title, Sir Ruthven, secludes himself under the name of Robin Oakapple, in the Cornish village of Rederring, and his younger brother, Despard, believing him to be dead, succeeds to the title. Robin, who is shy and modest, is in love with Rose, a foundling, who is very discreet. The love-making lags, and meanwhile Richard, his foster brother, a man-o’-war’s man, returns from sea, and so commiserates Robin that he offers to plead his case with Rose. Instead of that he pleads his own case, and is accepted by her, much to the disappointment of Robin, who supports Richard’s claim, however. Robin’s younger brother, Sir Despard, next appears, and hears from Richard of the existence of the brother whom he had thought dead. He thereupon claims Robin as his elder brother, and Rose shows her preference for Sir Despard, who is also claimed by Mad Margaret, a village maiden, whom he had mistreated when he was under the influence of the Murgatroyd curse.

The second act opens in the picture gallery of Ruddygore Castle. Robin and Adam, his faithful servant, are in the gallery, the former as Sir Ruthven, and Adam as Gideon Crawle, a new name he has taken. The new Sir Ruthven is under the curse, and asks his servant to suggest some daily crime for him to commit. The strong scene of the act is the coming to life of the various baronets whose portraits hang upon the walls, and their announcement that Robin will die in fearful agony unless he abducts some lady, it matters not whom. In the dénouement it is revealed that a Ruddygore baron can only die through refusing to commit the daily crime, but that such a refusal is tantamount to suicide. Hence none of the ancestors ought to have died at all, and they come back to life greatly to the delight of the professional bridesmaids, and Rose and Robin are at last united.

The principal numbers in the first act are the weird legend, “Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, his Leisure and his Riches,” sung by Hannah; Richard’s breezy sea song, “I shipped, d’ ye see, in a Revenue Sloop”; the very tuneful chorus of the bridesmaids, “Hail the Bridegroom, hail the Bride”; Mad Margaret’s whimsical song, “Cheerily carols the Lark”; the melodious chorus of the bucks and blades, “When thoroughly tired of being admired”; Sir Despard’s song, with its alternating choral refrains, “Oh, why am I moody and sad”; the madrigal, “Where the Buds are blossoming,” written in the early English style, and supported by the chorus; and the charming gavotte leading to the finale, which contains some admirable duet and trio numbers. The leading numbers of the second act are the opening duet for Robin and Adam, “I once was as meek as a New-born Lamb,” with a most melodramatic “Ha ha,” followed by another charming duet for Richard and Rose, with choral refrain, “Happily coupled are we”; the weird song of Sir Roderic, “When the Night Wind howls in the Chimney Cowls,” which is finely artistic in construction; the patter trio for Robin, Despard, and Margaret, “My Eyes are fully open to my Awful Situation”; Hannah’s pretty ballad, “There grew a Little Flower”; and the brilliant finale, beginning with Robin’s number, “Having been a Wicked Baronet a Week.”

The Yeoman of the Guard; or, The Merry Man and his Maid.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, October 3, 1888.]

PERSONAGES.

Sir Richard Cholmondeley, lieutenant of the Tower.

Col. Fairfax, under sentence of death.

Sergt. Meryll, of the Yeomen of the Guard.

Leonard Meryll, his son.

Jack Point, a strolling jester.

Wilfred Shadbolt, head jailer of the Tower.

Headsman.

Elsie Maynard, a strolling singer.

Phœbe Meryll, Sergt. Meryll’s daughter.

Dame Carruthers, housekeeper to the Tower.

Kate, her niece.

[Yeomen of the guard, gentlemen, citizens, etc.]

The scene is laid at Tower Green, London; time, the sixteenth century.

Although “The Yeomen of the Guard” has not enjoyed the popularity of some others of Sullivan’s works, the composer himself believed it to be the best of his operas. The music is in some numbers a parody of the old English; the story is melodramatic. Colonel Fairfax has been sentenced to death for sorcery. As he has twice saved the life of Sergeant Meryll in battle, the latter and his daughter, Phœbe, are anxious to save him also. The chance comes when the brother of Phœbe, who has been appointed a yeoman of the Guard, is induced to let Fairfax take his place in the ranks. The latter is brought in to the lieutenant of the Tower and declares his readiness to die, but asks, as he has been condemned for sorcery through the machinations of one of his kinsmen who will succeed to the estate in case he dies unmarried, that he will find him some one whom he can marry at once. Elsie Maynard, a strolling singer, happens along with Jack Point, a jester, and she agrees for a money consideration to be married blindfolded to Fairfax, provided she can leave immediately after the ceremony. She marries him, and then the question arises how to get the yeoman suit to Fairfax in his cell and let him escape, as the keys are in the possession of Wilfred, the head jailer, who is in love with Phœbe. The problem is solved by Phœbe, who steals the keys, releases Fairfax, and returns them before Wilfred discovers their absence. The executioner comes forward, and the first act closes as he is waiting for his victim.

The second act discloses the civilians and Dame Carruthers denouncing the warders for permitting their prisoner to escape. Point arranges with Wilfred that if he will discharge his arquebus and state that he has killed Fairfax he shall be a jester. When the shot is heard, Wilfred and Point notify the governor that Fairfax is dead. Dame Carruthers enters and informs Meryll that from what she has heard Elsie mutter in her sleep she is sure Fairfax is the man she married. Fairfax, in order to test her, makes love to Elsie in Point’s interests, but ends by falling in love with her himself. In the dénouement, Leonard, son of Sergeant Meryll, arrives with a pardon which had been kept back by Fairfax’s kinsmen. Now that he is free, Fairfax claims Elsie, Phœbe consents to marry Wilfred, and the sergeant surrenders to Dame Carruthers.

The music is in humorous imitation of the antique, in which kind of work Sullivan is always happy. The choruses are interesting, especially the opening double one, “Tower Warders under Orders,” which is swinging and tuneful. The principal numbers in the first act are Dame Carruthers’ song with chorus, “When our Gallant Norman Foes”; Fairfax’s sentimental song, “Is Life a Boon”; the irresistibly funny chorus, both in music and words, “Here’s a Man of Jollity, jibe, joke, jollify; give us of your Quality, come, Fool, follify”; the extremely melodramatic duet for Elsie and Point, “I have a Song to sing”; Point’s recitative and song, “I’ve Jest and Joke”; Elsie’s pretty ballad, “’Tis done! I am a Bride”; Phœbe’s graceful song, “Were I thy Bride”; and the trio in the finale, “To thy Fraternal Care.” The leading numbers of the second act are Point’s rollicking song, “Oh! a Private Buffoon is a Light-hearted Loon”; Fairfax’s ballad, “Free from his Fetters Grim”; the quartette, “Strange Adventure! Maiden wedded”; the trio, “If he’s made the Best Use of his Time,” and the quartette, “When a Wooer goes a-wooing,” which leads through a melodramatic ensemble to the finale,

The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria.

[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, December 7, 1889.]

PERSONAGES.

Duke of Plaza-Toro, a grandee of Spain.

Luiz, his attendant.

Don Alhambra del Bolero, the Grand Inquisitor.

Duchess of Plaza-Toro.

Casilda, her daughter.

[Gondoliers, contadine, men-at-arms, heralds, and pages.]

The scene is laid in Venice; time, the year 1750.

“The Gondoliers” will always bring a feeling of regret to the admirers of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, as it was their last joint production. It was during its run at the London theatre that their partnership was dissolved after the extraordinary collaboration of twenty-three years. Both were at their best in their Swan Song. “The Gondoliers” is not so much melodrama or pleasant satire as it is genuine comedy. Among all the Gilbert books which he furnished the composer, none is more delightful or more full of his rollicking humor than this. The story opens in Venice. The contadine are weaving garlands for the two favorite gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe, who, as they have no preference, make their choice blindfolded, and secure Tessa and Gianetta for their brides. As all gayly dance off, a gondola arrives with the Spanish Duke of Plaza-Toro, the Duchess, their daughter Casilda, and Luiz, their attendant. While waiting for an audience with the Grand Inquisitor, the Duke tells Casilda the object of their visit. When she was an infant she was married by proxy to the infant son of the King of Barataria. When the latter abandoned the creed of his fathers and became a Methodist, the Inquisitor had the young husband stolen and taken to Venice. Now that the King is dead, they have come to find the husband, and proclaim Casilda queen. During the audience the Inquisitor announces that the husband is a gondolier, and that the person who brought him up had “such a terrible taste for tippling” that he was never certain which child had been intrusted to him, his own or the other. The nurse, however, who is Luiz’s mother, would know, and he would induce her to tell in the torture chamber. Shortly afterwards the Inquisitor meets the newly wedded gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe, and decides that one or the other of them is the new King, but as he cannot tell which, he arranges that both of them shall rule until the nurse can be found and made to settle the matter. Thereupon they bid their wives good-by, and sail away for Barataria.

The second act discloses the two Kings upon the thrones. While they are cleaning the crown and sceptre, and their friends, the gondoliers, are playing cards, contadine arrive with Tessa and Gianetta. The delighted Kings give them a grand banquet and ball, but the dance is interrupted by the Inquisitor, who informs them that the ducal party will shortly arrive, and that Casilda will claim one of them for her husband. When Tessa and Gianetta realize that neither of them can be Queen, they begin to weep, but are somewhat comforted when the Inquisitor assures them they will not be kept long in suspense as the foster-mother is in the torture chamber. In the dénouement she confesses that the late King intrusted the Prince to her, and when traitors came to steal him she substituted her own son and kept the Prince in hiding, and that Luiz is the real Prince. Thereupon Luiz ascends the throne with Casilda as his queen, and Marco and Guiseppe sail joyfully back to Venice with Tessa and Gianetta.

The music is of Sullivan’s best. He has reproduced in the score the old Italian forms, employs the legitimate modern ballad and song styles, and introduces also the “patter” songs and the “chant” songs which are so common in his other operas. Besides this, he has given strong local color with fandangoes, boleros, cachucas, and other dance rhythms. The best numbers are the ensemble for Marco and Giuseppe, “We’re called Gondolieri”; the pompous song of the Duke, “In Enterprise of Martial Kind”; the serious duet for Casilda and Luiz, “There was a Time”; the Inquisitor’s song, “I stab the Prince”; Tessa’s beautiful song, “When a Merry Maiden marries”; the frolicsome quartette, “Then one of us will be a Queen”; the song of Marco with chorus, “For every one who feels inclined”; the characteristic song of Giuseppe, “Rising early in the Morning”; the gay and fascinating ensemble, “We will dance a Cachuca,” with the brilliant dance music that follows it; the song of the Inquisitor, “There lived a King”; the ensemble, “In a Contemplative Fashion,” a quiet movement with alternating comments by chorus, reaching a crescendo and then returning to the original movement, one of the most effective numbers in the opera; the Duchess’ song, “On the Day when I was Wedded”; and the quintette in the finale, “I am a Courtier Grave and Serious.”