VICTORIAN LYRIC OPERA COMPANY
  • About VLOC
    • Board of Directors
    • Diversity, Equity, and Expansion
    • Education and Outreach
    • VLOC Hall of Fame >
      • Hall of Ancestors
      • Flowers of Progress
    • Reviews, Press & Awards
    • Financials & Strategic Plan
  • Shows & Events
    • Tickets >
      • The New Moon
      • The Zoo & Sweethearts
    • Health & Safety
    • Archive >
      • The Brigands
      • El Capitan
      • More... >
        • Iolanthe
        • From Paris to Vienna (2021)
  • Get Involved
    • Auditions
    • Opportunities
    • Company Policies
    • Cast Portal >
      • The New Moon Cast
      • The Zoo & Sweethearts Cast
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Shop
  • Contact Us

Patience: why all the satire?

4/12/2018

1 Comment

 
PictureBunthorne and Grosvenor in a 1900 performance of Patience at the D'Oyly Carte
VLOC's upcoming performance of Patience this June will be a classic Gilbert & Sullivan production, and the Victorian pomp and wit will shine in all its glory! One feature for which Patience is so famous is it's varied and hilarious satire. Poking fun at politics? Check. The military? Check. Poets? Yep, that too.

Ok, poetry is a little different than politics and the military. So why do Gilbert and Sullivan poke fun at something as seemingly non-controversial as poets?

The answer lies in a cultural movement taking place in England at the time - the Aesthetic Movement. Apparently, a number of artists at the time had grown rather tired of the "rules" that the norms of the Victorian Era had imposed on both art and life. These "aesthetes" decided beauty in art was of the utmost importance, and the accepted cultural norms (or even practicalities) that demanded conformity and respectability were artistically limiting and should be cast aside to let art reach the highest level of beauty possible.

Some aesthetes took this "art for art's sake" notion very seriously, even to the point of walking, talking, and moving in ways very strange to Victorian England. Many had devoted fans, but there were plenty of people that called out the aesthetes for being shallow and fake. 

So this Aesthetic Movement, along with the backlash against it, was all the rage at the time that Gilbert and Sullivan composed Patience, and they took full advantage of the situation to make an operatic hit. Of course, they wove in biting satire about plenty of other topics - politics (which is an easy target), love, rural life, etc. But the satiric icing on the cake of this opera is certainly their ingenious stabs at the Aesthetic Movement and all it entailed, which is brought to life in Patience through the rivalry between two sham poets. 

Don't miss all the wit and the laughs that this opera brings! Patience shows in June at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, and you can buy your tickets now! Call the box office at 240-314-8690 or buy online HERE.

1 Comment
Lawrence Tagrin
5/1/2018 01:00:18 pm

I actually learned about the subject matter of "Patience" while reading a biography of Oscar Wilde and learning that the main character lampooned in Patience combined characteristics of James Whistler and Oscar Wilde and how Wilde struggled to find the appropriate reaction to the piece.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    The Victorian Lyric Opera Company

    Archives

    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


Victorian Lyric Opera Company is supported by funding from Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County,
​Maryland State Arts Council, and City of Rockville.
Victorian Lyric Opera Company
 PO Box 10391
Rockville, MD 20849-0391
Picture
Picture
Picture
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs
on this site are copyright Harvey Levine. 
© 2022 The Victorian Lyric Opera Company
  • About VLOC
    • Board of Directors
    • Diversity, Equity, and Expansion
    • Education and Outreach
    • VLOC Hall of Fame >
      • Hall of Ancestors
      • Flowers of Progress
    • Reviews, Press & Awards
    • Financials & Strategic Plan
  • Shows & Events
    • Tickets >
      • The New Moon
      • The Zoo & Sweethearts
    • Health & Safety
    • Archive >
      • The Brigands
      • El Capitan
      • More... >
        • Iolanthe
        • From Paris to Vienna (2021)
  • Get Involved
    • Auditions
    • Opportunities
    • Company Policies
    • Cast Portal >
      • The New Moon Cast
      • The Zoo & Sweethearts Cast
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Shop
  • Contact Us