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Summary: New Light [Patience]

15878
MJ Halco
Summary:
            Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience premiered in 1881 at the Opera Comique. The Savoy Theatre was completed while Patience was running at the Opera Comique, and moved to the newly built Savoy Theatre, making it the first Savoy Opera. Patience follows a form called The Serious Family, developed by earlier works. The opera mocks a fad called aesthete culture, where beauty and contemplation was placed above practical matters, such as eating. Aesthetes dressed in a certain way, in dull colors in large and out dated clothing, and loose hair for both men and women. Some objects of aesthete culture include sunflowers and lilies. Patience also targets gender roles and homosexuality, although the latter on more discreet level. The main characters take on different stereotypes of gender roles. Patience, the image of innocence and femininity; the Aesthetic maidens, as trendy and superficial; and Lady Jane, representing female power and self-interest, make up the female roles. The male roles are slightly less clearly divided. Bunthorne is an aesthete poet while Grosvenor is an idyllic poet, two Victorian genres of poetry that are considered opposites. They are juxtaposed with the Dragoon Guards, who are the epitome of masculinity. The bulk of the blending of gender roles occurs in those of the aesthete culture, with masculine women and effeminate men. In Gilbert and Sullivan fashion, the opera ends with everyone happily wed, with the exception of Bunthorne. There are many different interpretations of this, with some depicting Bunthorne as having escaped marriage, but most conclude that his single state hints at homosexuality.
Main plot points: Sources:
            Williams uses the script of Patience, a manuscript of Patience, several scripts of earlier influencing works, reviews of Patience, and scholarly interpretations of the opera to define and validate her conclusions. She includes several works that followed Patience to depict the impact the opera would have.
 

This page has paths:

  1. Literature Summaries & Research Abstracts Steven Gerber

This page has tags:

  1. Person: Sullivan, Arthur Steven Gerber
  2. Person: Wilde, Oscar Steven Gerber
  3. Person: Gilbert, William S. Steven Gerber
  4. Work: Patience Steven Gerber
  5. Topic: Gender Politics Steven Gerber
  6. Topic: Genre/Form Steven Gerber
  7. Topic: Antecedents Steven Gerber
  8. Topic: Satire/Parody Steven Gerber
  9. Topic: Successors Steven Gerber

Contents of this tag:

  1. Participant: Halco, MJ