National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-04-30
"Pntienee--The New opera.

The following is q brief sketch of Gill
bert and Sullivans new opera, which has already
become success in London: The opera opens
with scene representing glade, close 10 an an
Gent castle, where twenty "rapturous maidens,"
dressed in aesthetic draperies, playing lutes and
mandolins, sing in the last stages of despair, all
their love being concentrated on a male aesthetic,
Reginald BIRtt0Tne. a troop of dragons come
on the of their former heart conquests, but
are chagrined to find their old sweethearts
changed and indulging i'll the gushing jargon of
pseudo astheticism, and refusing to listen to the
suits of feshy warriors. They have reached, as
one character says, THAT transeendentalism
of delirium, that acute aecentuation of su-
premest ecstacy, which the earthly might
easily mistake for indigestion, but which is
aesthetic transformation Love in the minds
of the rapturous is the embodiment Of purity, the
abstraction of refinement the idealizaton of utter
selfishness." The colonel, major, and lieutenant
of the regiment determine in the second to be-
come aesthetics with their warriors in order to win
back their lost loves By the time this is accom-
plished the girls themselves have seen the folly of
their ways, have grown tired of the aesthetic
creed, and have returned to naturalneSs and
vivacity. The lbretto is of course full of eccen-
tricities topsyturvydom, Glbertiana and astonish-
ing rhymes. One of the eonundrums put forth
was Gilbert's new rhyme for totally" This is
the solution:
The consequence was he lost totally.
And married girl in the corps de balIy.
Mr.. Gilbert's receipt for making heavy dragon
is the following:
If you want receipt for that popular mystery
Known to the world a heavy dragon,
Take all the remarkable people in history,
Rattle them Otto popular tune
The pluck of Lord Nelson on board of the Victory
Genius of Bismarck devising plan;
The humOr of Fielding which sounds contradictory,
Goodness of Paget about TO trepan;
The science ofJulien, the eminent musicO,
Wit of Macaulay who wrote 10 Queen Anne;
The pathos of Paddy rendered by Boucicault,
Style of the bishop of SOdOr and Man.
The dash of Dorsay Invested of quackery
Narrative powers of Dickens and Thackeray,
Victor Emmanuel peak-hunting Peveril,
Thomas AquinaS and DIR. Sacheverel,
Upper and Tennyson. Daniel De Foe,
Anthony TrOllope and NJ GuzOt;
Take of these elements all that is fusble,
Melt them all down in a pipkin or crucible,
Set them to simmer and take off the scum,
And heavy dragon is the reSidium.
At the denOuemeRt everybody admits his or her
true position in life BuHtborRe admits himself to be
a pallid and thin young man,
\ h5ggard and lank young man,
a greenery gallery grOsvenor gallery.
FOOt-in-the- grave young man.
The librettO contains some love ballads of poetic
beauty. Mr.. Sullivan's music is not strikingly
original. 1t has lets of CO., and of the bal
lads extremely pretty. A sextet, at the con-
clusion of the first act hear the soft oe of the
echoing voice of an old, old love long dead"
is extremely sweet. Mr.. Sullivan has added a
quantity of jangle and it must be admitted that
Mr. Gilbert's words demand this