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Overview

Synopsis

All of the maidens in the village are besotted with Reginald Bunthorne, a moody and handsome poet, but he has eyes only for the simple milkmaid, Patience. The problem? Bunthorne’s artistic ways are all just an act to attract women to him--he doesn’t even like poetry! Besides, Patience is in love with her childhood sweetheart, who happens to be a real poet named Archibald Grosvenor, but feels she cannot marry him because he is just too perfect. In the meantime, the serious (and decidedly non-poetic) platoon of Heavy Dragoon Guards that were meant to marry the village maidens find themselves dismayed and perplexed by their sudden loss of prospects. One of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most successful shows, Patience is a rollicking satire that pits the straight-laced ideals of the Victorian era against the passions and indulgences of the 1870s Aesthetic Movement, ridiculing each side of the spectrum.

Show Information

Lyrics
W.S. Gilbert
Category
Operetta
Age Guidance
Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
Number of Acts
2
First Produced
1881
Genres
Comedy, Satire
Settings
Multiple Settings
Time & Place
1870s
Cast Size
medium
Orchestra Size
Medium
Dancing
Some Dance
Ideal For
Mostly Male Cast, Includes Young Adult, Adult, Mature Adult, Late Teen Characters, Medium Cast

Context


Plot


Characters

Name Part Size Gender Vocal Part

Patience

Lead

Female

Soprano

Reginald Bunthorne

Lead

Male

Baritone

Lady Jane

Supporting

Female

Lady Angela

Supporting

Female

Mezzo-Soprano

Archibald Grosvenor

Supporting

Male

Baritone

The Duke of Dunstable

Supporting

Male

Tenor

Colonel Calverley

Supporting

Male

Baritone

Major Murgatroyd

Supporting

Male

Baritone

Lady Saphir

Featured

Female

Soprano

Lady Ella

Featured

Female

Soprano

Bunthorne’s Solicitor

Featured

Male

Silent

Chorus of Rapturous Maidens and Officers of Dragoon Guards

Ensemble

Either Gender

Songs

Overture

Act I

  • 1. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Angela, Ella and Chorus of Maidens)
  • 2. "Still brooding on their mad infatuation" (Patience, Saphir, Angela, and Chorus)
  • 2a. "I cannot tell what this love may be" (Patience and Chorus)
  • 2b. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Chorus of Maidens - Exit)
  • 3. "The soldiers of our Queen" (Chorus of Dragoons)
  • 3a. "If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" (Colonel and Chorus)
  • 4. "In a doleful train two and two we walk" (Angela, Ella, Saphir, Bunthorne, and Chorus of Maidens and Dragoons)
  • 4a. "Twenty love-sick maidens we" (Chorus of Maidens - Exit)
  • 5. "When I first put this uniform on" (Colonel and Chorus of Dragoons)
  • 6. "Am I alone and unobserved?" (Bunthorne)
  • 7. "Long years ago, fourteen maybe" (Patience and Angela)
  • 8. "Prithee, pretty maiden" (Patience and Grosvenor)
  • 8a. "Though to marry you would very selfish be" (Patience and Grosvenor)
  • 9. "Let the merry cymbals sound" (Ensemble)

Act II

  • 10. "On such eyes as maidens cherish" (Chorus of Maidens)
  • 11. "Sad is that woman's lot" (Jane)
  • 12. "Turn, oh turn, in this direction" (Chorus of Maidens)
  • 13. "A magnet hung in a hardware shop" (Grosvenor and Chorus of Maidens)
  • 14. "Love is a plaintive song" (Patience)
  • 15. "So go to him, and say to him" (Jane and Bunthorne)
  • 16. "It's clear that mediaeval art" (Duke, Major, and Colonel)
  • 17. "If Saphir I choose to marry" (Angela, Saphir, Duke, Major, and Colonel)
  • 18. "When I go out of door" (Bunthorne and Grosvenor)
  • 19. "I'm a Waterloo House young man" (Grosvenor and Chorus of Maidens)
  • 20. "After much debate internal" (Ensemble)

A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.

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Scenes

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