Anglo-American Music Theater I Main Menu

Summary: Imaginary Republicanism [Gondoliers]

15878
MUSI 730 Anglo-American Operetta and Musical Theater I
Assignment 1: Chapter Summary by Nigel Tangredi            Gilbert and Sullivan’s Gondoliers is considered the last of their great Savoy operas. Premiering in 1889, it was very well received by most critics and the aristocracy.
The plot revolves around the young prince of Barararia who was married as a toddler and hidden in Venice to grow up as a gondolier. The man charged with his care has mixed him up with his own son and the two must jointly rule after the King of Barataria dies. Complicating matters the two have wedded local girls not knowing the real prince was married as a baby to his princess.
Arthur Sullivan liked the setting of the opera in Venice, which he played to his strengths as composer weaving in Italian musical styling to create something both new and familiar that audiences loved. The production was not successful in the United States and George Bernard Shaw felt that the Gondoliers marked the moment when “the Savoy operas became machine-made.”
The setting of Venice in the late 1700s and then in the fictional island of Barataria, the land promised to be ruled by Don Quixote, allowed plausible deniability for discerning audiences that this is a work of fiction and not a critical reflection of British monarchy and hereditary nobility, all the while indeed being one. The “Imaginary” Republicanism theme of this opera repeatedly asserts the notion: out of two (or many), we become one. This theme of republicanism is represented in the marriages, in two sons having to share the one role as king, gondolier worker group and the obsessive notion of equality for equality’s sake. The two gondoliers promised to rule in a Republican way through equality for all by appointing “The Lord High Vagabond” and “The Lord High Coachman on the Box”. This was a way of satirizing Republicanism, British rule of law, monarchy, and the combining of nation states in Italy at the time as well as England’s ever expanding to become Great Britain. Republicanism is represented in the gondoliers themselves, men of conviction and community much like unions/republican clubs of the late 1800s, but the satire is toned down by making one of the workers a King and half throw away their “antimonarchical and republican principles”.
            The full title of this opera has two parts, The Gondoliers and The King of Barataria. They are the two plot lines that are loosely intertwined through the use of a familiar plot device of mistaken/hidden identity or multiple identities for the male characters. Like Poo-Bah’s many jobs, Nanki-Poo masquerading as a second trombone, Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd disguised as Robin Okeapple, in the case of the Gondoliers the prince of Barataria hidden as a gondolier in Venice isn’t the prince and in a final twist is actually Luiz. Female Identity is mainly obscured but women’s mental states or convictions/pressures to conform to feminine societal norms are evident: Mad Margaret’s new-found ability to control herself when she is married, Rose Maybud’s addiction to her etiquette book, or Josephine’s agony over her marriage/love of a low class sailor. Williams does not offer any examples from the Gondoliers, but Casilda the rightful queen who was married as an infant can be seen as the usurpation of her right to choose a mate the way Marco did.
 

This page has paths:

  1. Literature Summaries & Research Abstracts Steven Gerber

This page has tags:

  1. Person: Sullivan, Arthur Steven Gerber
  2. Person: Gilbert, William S. Steven Gerber
  3. 1889 Steven Gerber
  4. Topic: Social Critique Steven Gerber
  5. Topic: Musical/Theatrical Features Steven Gerber
  6. Topic: Gender Politics Steven Gerber
  7. Work: Yeomen of the Guard Steven Gerber
  8. Topic: Satire/Parody Steven Gerber

Contents of this tag:

  1. Participant: Tangredi, Nigel