Patience (2008)

Gilbert & Sullivan's
Patience
(or Bunthorne's Bride)

June 13, 14, 20, 21, 2008 at 8 pm
June 15 & 22, 2008 at 2 pm

Directed by Guillaume Tourniaire
Music Directed by Joseph Sorge

Cast

Patience - Stacey Mastrian
Lady Jane - Melissa Kornacki
Lady Angela - Patricia Portillo
Lady Saphir - Wanda Flinn
Lady Ella - Gayle Gillespie
Reginald Bunthorne - Gary Sullivan
Archibald Grosvenor - Harv Lester
Colonel Calverley - Thomas Goode
Major Murgatroyd - Blair Eig
Lieut. The Duke of Dunstable - Pablo Zylberglait

Chorus of Rapturous Maidens and Dragoon Guards - David Bradley, Grace Brigham, Katie Caughlan, Alex Desjardins, Rick DuPuy, Noah Friedlander, Stefanie Garcia, Annie Gribben, Dardi Harrison, Lucy Hellerman, Rand Huntzinger, Donna Jaffe, Lyle Jaffe, Carlton Maryott, Jane Maryott, Jim Noone, Pamela Sears-Rogan, Madeleine Smith, Julie Stevens, Ed Vilade, Clyde Wright, Ann Yu

Orchestra

Violin 1 - Steve Natrella (CM), Bonnie Barrows, Carolyn Larson, Irv Berner
Violin 2 -Martin Brown, Peter Mignery, Edwin Schneider, Andrew Nixon
Viola - Amanda Laudwein, Victor Ontiveros
Cello - Sheryl Friedlander, David Dubov, Andrew Schneider
Bass - Pete Gallanis
Flute - Jackie Miller, Louise Hill
Oboe - Gwen Earle
Clarinet - Laura Langbein, Laura Bornhoeft, James Bensinger
Bassoon - Richard Sargeant
Horn - Kathleen Bartolomeo, Lora Katz, Deborah Kline
Trumpet - Curt Anstine, Bernie Rappaport
Trombone - Steve Ward, Al Potter, Frank Eliot
Percussion - George Huttlin

Production Staff

Producer - Denise Young
Assistant Music Director - Jenny Craley Bland
Choreographer - Felicity Ann Brown
Stage Manager - Felicity Ann Brown
Assistant Stage Manager - Tony Dwyer, Ezra Schatz
Lighting Designer - Ayun Fedorcha
Set Designer - David Kaysen
Costumes - Denise Young
Stage Crew - Michael Rogan
Master Carpenter - William Kolodrubetz, Ed Byrdy
Scenic Artist - Rebecca Meushaw
Set Construction - Ed Byrdy, Hank Drahos,Tony Dwyer, Les Elkins,
Peter Finkel, Ernst Harmse, Dave Kaysen, Deborah Peetz
Rehearsal Pianist - Jenifer Craley Bland
Program - Denise Young
Graphic Design - John Boulanger, Patricia Portillo
Publicity - Sandy Rovner
Properties - Guillaume Tourniaire & cast
Surtitles - Denise Young, Douglas Maryott
Educational Outreach programs - Debbie Niezgoda, Kiersten Whitehead
House Management - Merle Haber
Set Storage - Rockville Civic Center

Director's Note

       “Parody is by its nature ephemeral. It relies on recognition, and the specific objects of parody seldom have lasting recognition. In 1881, when
        George Grossmith played Bunthorne wearing an eyeglass like Swinburne’s, a lily like Wilde’s, and a silver streak in his hair like Whistler’s, he
        entered to a prolonged ovation; in the 1970’s, a similarly made-up John Reed got only mild chuckles at his eccentric appearance. Parody doesn’t
        last, and Patience is no exception.”   ~A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert and Sullivan by Gayden Wren

In changing midstream from a play about two rival curates to one about two rival poets (and leaving some traces of the earlier work along the way), Gilbert aimed his skewering pen at the overblown figures and followers of the aesthetic movement of the day. While this made the operetta all the more popular for its timeliness, it did create a problem for later productions. For starters, the purists out there can breathe a sigh of relief: I did not choose to update the play, setting it in the era of Flower Power or in a modern-day spa.

By the same token, however, I also chose not to include the affected poses that are such a well-known part of Patience, but seem anachronistic to the uninitiated. I felt that including the traditional aesthetic poses for their own sake would be a bit like telling a private joke for only part of the audience, or a public joke that requires an explanation – one seems rude, and the other simply isn’t funny. Instead, the cast and I have taken great delight in interpreting for ourselves the sparkling dialogue and music that make the operetta such a pleasure to revisit. Our goal was to offer a Patience that would make sense to an audience seeing it for the first time.

As an American opera company presenting an emblematically British art form, we drew inspiration from Whistler’s contemporary, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, whose works hang in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and Freer Gallery. Dewing’s Tonalist paintings were the American nod to English aestheticism, and were praised for their reminiscence of Botticelli. My first image of Lady Jane was his Lady Playing the Violoncello (1908). The backdrop of the stage is an homage to his Summer (1890), and the ladies’ aesthetic garb picks up the drape and hues of this and other paintings in the season series. The set resembles the setting in his In the Garden (1894), and the lighting attempts to capture the suffusion of color in his backdrops, out of which his figures seem to grow in The Lute (1904).

In several of his books, Gilbert wrote about the quest to know what love is; also, that clothes do not make the man. To me, Patience in this regard is chiefly about selflessness: selflessness as the loss of identity in a regimented organization or wholly engrossing movement; selflessness as the abandonment of individuality in the pursuit of an ideal or single-minded goal; as well as the selflessness of giving oneself freely for love. Some characters in the play give up their ego for the uniform of a soldier or the cause of a poet; others embrace and espouse aestheticism as one might a philosophy or religion. Although Patience herself professes that she “cannot tell what this love may be,” she does seem surer of her own self than the interchangeable ladies, dragoons, and poets .

Synopsis

Act I
Bunthorne, an aesthetic poet, is explaining to a group of lovesick maidens the mysteries of love. They listen to him with adoration, but he remains insensible to their passion. He loves Patience, they declare. Patience, a simple dairymaid, has never loved anyone except an aunt, and learns that true love must be "utter unselfishness." The previous year the officers of a regiment of Dragoon Guards have been much beloved by the maidens, but now they are accorded a different welcome. Bunthorne has "idealised them" and "their eyes are opened." When alone, he admits being a sham - only feigning aestheticism to gain admiration. Patience remembers a boy who was her child-companion, and when Archibald Grosvenor appears she discovers it is he. They love each other, but Patience thinks she cannot marry one so perfect. Bunthorne, returning, has decided to put himself up to be raffled for, and just as the lot is to be drawn, Patience in her "utter unselfishness" says that she will marry him because "she detests him so." The disappointed maidens then return to the Dragoons, but when they see Grosvenor, immediately transfer their affections to him because "he is aesthetic!"

Act II
The unattractive Jane bewails the lot of maidens who have been in that state too long. All the maidens now adore Grosvenor. He is annoyed by their attentions. Patience, meanwhile, muses upon love. Bunthorne, deserted and consumed by jealousy, has still one faithful admirer - Lady Jane, whose charms decrease as her size increases. She implores him not to wait too long, but Bunthorne is determined to beat Grosvenor on his own ground. At last the rival poets meet. Bunthorne threatens to "curse" Archibald unless he consents to become quite commonplace. Grosvenor outwardly appalled, but secretly relieved, consents to become an "every day young man". Now that Bunthorne is happy, Patience, in her "utter unselfishness," breaks her engagement. Upon Archibald Grosvenor's return, in a tweed suit, she realizes that since he is now a commonplace young man, she can marry him. Bunthorne finds that the lovesick maidens have returned to their soldier lovers. He then decides to console himself with the portly Lady Jane. But the Duke of Dunstable, desirous of marrying a plain woman, has already claimed Lady Jane, so Bunthorne is left without a bride

Musical Selections

Act I

Twenty love-sick maidens we (Maidens, Angela, Ella)
Still brooding on their mad infatuation (Patience, Saphir, Angela, Maidens)
I cannot tell what this love may be (Patience)
The soldiers of our Queen (Dragoons & Colonel)
In a doleful train (Maidens, Ella, Angela, Saphir, Dragoons & Bunthorne)
Twenty love-sick maidens we (Maidens)
When I first put this uniform on (Colonel & Dragoons)
Am I alone and unobserved? (Bunthorne)
Long years ago, fourteen maybe? (Patience & Angela)
Prithee, pretty maiden (Patience & Grosvenor)
Though to marry you would very selfish be (Patience & Grosvenor)
Let the merry cymbals sound (Ensemble)

Act II

On such eyes as maidens cherish (Maidens)
Sad is that woman’s lot (Jane)
Turn, oh, turn in this direction (Maidens)
A magnet hung in a hardware shop (Grosvenor & Maidens)
Love is a plaintive song (Patience)
So go to him and say to him (Jane & Bunthorne)
It’s clear that medieval art (Duke, Major, Colonel)
If Saphir I choose to marry (Duke, Colonel, Major, Angela, Saphir)
When I go out of door (Bunthorne & Grosvenor)
I’m a Waterloo House young man (Grosvenor & Maidens)
After much debate internal (Ensemble)