PATIENCE (2009 BBC PROMS)
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Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.
Gilbert, who wrote the words, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds for these operas, where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion—fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates turn out to be noblemen who have gone wrong. Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos.
Patience (1881) satirised the aesthetic movement in general and its colourful poets, in particular, combining aspects of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler and others in the rival poets Bunthorne and Grosvenor. The work also lampoons male vanity and chauvinism in the military. The story concerns two rival "aesthetic" poets, who attract the attention of the young ladies of the village, who had been engaged to the members of a cavalry regiment. But the two poets are each in love with Patience, the village milkmaid, who detests one of them and feels that it is her duty to avoid the other despite her love for him.
PATIENCE
(semi-staged performance)
Live 11 August 2009, London Royal Albert Hall
BBC Promenade Concerts, 2009 Concert No. 35
Broadcast: BBC Radio3
Patience - Rebecca Bottone
Lady Jane - Felicity Palmer
Lady Angela - Pamela Helen Stephen
Lady Ella - Elena Xanthoudakis
Lady Saphir - Sophie-Louise Dann
Reginald Bunthorne - Simon Butteriss
Archibald Grosvenor - Toby Stafford-Allen
Colonel Calverley - Donald Maxwell
Major Murgatroyd - Graeme Danby
Lt. Duke of Dunstable - Bonaventura Bottone
Chorus of English National Opera London
Chorusmaster: Martin Merry
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
