The Portland daily press., 1881-11-01
MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.


PATIENCE.
Gilbert and Sullivan's new opera of PA
tience" which has had such an immense sue
cess in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and
other cities when presented by the Standard
Theatre and Boston Museum companies, will
| have its first Interpretation in Portland Friday
night, by the Grayson Opera Company at
the Portland Theatre. The Boston Advertiser
gives the following excellent description of the
| opera;
1t seems as if one might rightly rejoice in the
existence of the aesthetic craze" simply be-
| cause it has produced the "Patience" of Mr..
| W. s. Gilbert and Mr.. Arthur Sullivan. A
subject cannot be imagined better suited to Mr..
Gilbert's queer, ironical humor, and the text OF
the operetta is as delicious as its scheme is ar
tistic. A troupe of young women, variegated
by one stalwartly gushing old maid, all rapt at
| first by hopeless passion for Reginald Bum
thorne, "a leshly poet" of Mr.. Wilde's school,
| and then ALL except the one faithful old maid,
| possessed by an equally hopeless passion for
Algernon Grosvenor, an "idyllic poet" of the
newest sort; the "heshly poet" conscious
| humbug and the 'idyllic" an unconscious
humbuge; the women all devoted to
medieval attitudes and aesthetic cos
| tunes; this is all excellent material; and when
combined and contrasted with Patience,-a
| simple milkmaid, in whom slight touch OF
"astheticism" works for a little while conf
cally hopeless chaos,-and an honest, manly,
commonplace company of the Dragon Guards,
who once were beloved by the ladies, and to
whom the ladies inevitably return at the last
the result is admirably entertaining. The text
is all very clever, the versifcation ingenious,
after Mr.. Gilbert's own high standard Of inge-
nuity, and the libretto as full of good quotable
passages as an egg is full of meat. Even the
stage directions have more humor than whole
dialogues in many pieces which figure on our
stage Lady Jane, for example, is described
Ia the first of these directions as "gaunt, for
midable, portentous, black haired, heavy
browed aesthetic" Bunthorne's description of
his poem as "wild, weird, feshly thing. yet
very tender, very yearning, very precious"
and his request that the ladies in listening to
it will 'cling passionately to one another and
think of faint lilies" is only excelled by the
poem itself, which is mastery humorous par
ody on the Oscar Wilde style of verse,-as wit |
ness its first stanza:--
What time tina poet hath hymned
The writing maid lithe-limbed, [
Quivering on amaranthiHe asphodel,
How can he paint her woes, |
Knowing, as well he knows
That all can be set right with calomel
lady James scorn of the dragon uniform of |
red and yellow is accompanied by praise of tho
aesthetic style,-"a cobwebby gray velvet, with |
a tender bloom like cold gravy" Swinburne is
exquisitely trayestied, or rather, initiated, in
another of Mr. Bunthorne's verselets:-
Oh, to be waited away
From this black Aceldama of sorrow,
Where the dust of an earthly to-day
Is the earth Of dusty tomorrow.
Phrases most felicitously and wittily express
sive occur by the half dozen in every converse
ton; for instance, Lady James, "There is a
tranScendentality OF delirium, an acute accen-
tuation OF supremest ecstacy, which the earthly
might mistake for indigestion; but it is not in
digestion; it is aesthetic TRANSPORTATION" and
Grosvenor's 81 have loved you with a Floren-
tine fourteenth-century frenzy for fifteen
years. Droll hits, of that fantastic and un-
expected sort which Mr.. Gilbert so delights in,
of course abound, as, for example, where Gros-
venor, finding that his face is not remembered
by the playmate of his childhood, exclains,
"Oh, Chronos, Chronos! this is too bad Of
you" and the Lady .Angela's exclamation,
"Oh, forgive her, Eros!' when Patience de-
clares her ignorance of the divine passion. The
most complete and varied utterance of the au-
thor's humor is found in Bunthorne's song,
wherein, after first admitting himself to be
humbug, he describes the true aesthetic"
1
it, from the rectative in which he speaks of
"stained-glass attitudes to the last line of the
verses; but the third stanza must suffice now
Then sentimental passion Of vegetable fashion
must excite your languid spleen,
not too-too French bean.
Though he Philistines may jostie you VII rank as
If yoa walk down Picadilly with poppy or lily
in your medieval hand.
And every enc will say,
wal v0lIrd oyvaru
,sIf he's content with vegetable love which would
certainly not suit me,
Wby what most particularly pure Young man this |
pure young man must be-
The song of Colonel Calverly, in which he
describes the composition of a "heavy dra-
coon !" is remarkable piece of versifcation,
but its close resemblance to the song of the
maior-general in THE Pirates of Penzance,"
and the occasional compulsion put upon the
sense by the form, produce an artifciality of
effect which is not entirely good. After citing
all these illustrations. it is well for us to say
again that almost the whole text is shrewdly
and Enthusiastically humorous.
Mr.. Sullivan's music is very brilliant and
very pleasing, and iu its humorous expressive
ness shows an advance even upon the power
which has already made itself felt in his world
famous operettaS. OF the composers orches-
tration we suppose it is impossible to judge
from the present version of the work, but the
vocal parts are scored with great skill and in
free, strong, flowing style most apt to the bust
those of the more elaborate character, are
worked out in fashion at once scholarly and
effective, and nothing of Mr.. Sullivan's pro-
duction surpasses the fnales of the two acts
and those in which the dragons and maidens
balance each other in chorus, with interjected
solos from the principals All the soldiers
music is strong and solidly vital and has the
suggestion of a steady tramp in it. The senti-
mental strains, Though not profound In feeling,
are graceful; and the sextet 81 hear the soft
note of the echoiDg voice." has a peculiar
charm, like that of, THE long day closes"
GAY and tripping measures abound-sometimes
very light, jiggy and Offenbachic, as in "a
magnet hung in hardware shop" sometimes
have penetrated the substance of the music as
well as to emanate from it; for example in the |
officers trio, "t's clear that medieval art"
And the higher points OF humorous aptness in |
musical utterance are reached in several of the
master numbers, especially in Bunthorne's re-
cital and song, eff you're anxious for to shine"
and in his duet with Lady Jane, $50 go to him
and say to him." The seriocomic of course |
abounds and is delightfully."- illustrated in the |
heart-broken opening chorus of languishing |
love-sick ladies. There are moments when |
faint but irritating eense OF sameness in the |
music makes itself felt; and the variety in |
Mr.. Sullivan's work is wonderful, especially In |
view of the peculiar and somewhat limited |
scope of the play which it illustrates. The
melody of the work is equally abundant and |
bewitching, and of itself would suffice to make
the work delightful, even II the text were |
without literary merit.
NOTES.
Barney McAuley's Messenger from Jarviss |
Section will fill Portland Theatre next Mon |
day and Tuesday, the It'll and Sth insts.
The Cumberland County Convention will |
commence at the First Congregational church, |
Falmouth, at 8 O'Clock this morning, and will |
close with grand concert Wednesday even |
ing.
A Musical Marvel
OF all the wondrous things to be seen and |
admired at the "Old Mechanics Fair" now |
being held in Boston, that marvel of inge-
nuity, the Mechanical Orguinette, seems to
oil for asnacial mention. 1T is at once the |