''Happy Arcadia'' is a musical entertainment with a libretto by
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...
and music originally by
Frederic Clay
Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for songs and his music written for the stage.
Although from a musical family, for 16 years Clay made his living as a civil servant in HM Treasury ...
that premiered on 28 October 1872 at the
Royal Gallery of Illustration
The Royal Gallery of Illustration was a 19th-century performance venue located at 14 Regent Street in London. It was in use between 1850 and 1873.
The gallery was built in the 1820s by the architect John Nash as part of his own house, to displa ...
. It was one of four collaborations between Gilbert and Clay between 1869 and 1876. The music is lost. The piece is a satire on the genre of pastoral plays in which the characters, who each wish that they could be someone else, have their wish granted, with unhappy results.
Gilbert and Sullivan later produced a popular
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
, ''
Iolanthe'' in which two of the characters, Strephon and Phyllis, are "Arcadian" shepherds. Phyllis, like Chloe, is torn between two suitors. The character of Lycidas also anticipates the character of Archibald Grosvenor in ''
Patience
(or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when face ...
'', who is cursed with perfect beauty.
Background
This work is the fifth in a series of six one-act musical plays written by Gilbert for
Thomas German Reed
Thomas German Reed (27 June 1817 – 21 March 1888), known after 1844 as simply German Reed was an English composer, musical director, actor, singer and theatrical manager of the Victorian era. He was best known for creating the German Ree ...
and his wife
Priscilla
Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from Latin ''Prisca'', derived from ''priscus''. One suggestion is that it is intended to bestow long life on the bearer.
The name first appears in the New Testament of Christianity variously as ...
between 1869 and 1875. The German Reeds presented respectable, family-friendly
musical entertainments at their Gallery of Illustration beginning in 1855, at a time when the theatre in Britain had gained a poor reputation as an unsavory institution and was not attended by much of the middle class.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
was played, but most of the entertainments consisted of poorly translated French
operettas, risque
burlesques and incomprehensible broad farces. The Gallery of Illustration was a 500-seat theatre with a small stage that only allowed for four or five characters with accompaniment by a piano, harmonium and sometimes a harp.
The title of ''Happy Arcadia'' is an oxymoron, as the inhabitants of this fictional Arcadia are anything but happy. Arcadia was a legendary site of rural perfection, first described by the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, that was a popular setting for writers of the 19th century and artists such as
Jean-Antoine Watteau. ''Happy Arcadia'' is a satire on the genre of pastoral plays, which were set in an ideal world. The piece has a typical Gilbertian topsy-turvy plot in which magic items grant wishes, and each of the characters uses his or her wish to become someone else. The magic items cause the sort of transformation that fascinated Gilbert throughout his career and that he used in all his "lozenge plot" works, including ''
The Sorcerer
''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas story, ''An Elixir of Lo ...
'', ''
Foggerty's Fairy
''Foggerty's Fairy'', subtitled "An Entirely Original Fairy Farce", is a three-act farce by W.S. Gilbert based loosely on Gilbert's short story, "The Story of a Twelfth Cake", which was published in the Christmas Number of ''The Graphic'' in 18 ...
'' and ''
The Mountebanks
''The Mountebanks'' is a comic opera in two acts with music by Alfred Cellier and Ivan Caryll and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns a magic potion that causes the person to whom it is administered to become what he or she has pre ...
''. Theatre historian
Kurt Gänzl
Kurt-Friedrich Gänzl (born 15 February 1946) is a New Zealand writer, historian and former casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre.
After a decade-long playwriting, acting and singing career, and a second ca ...
noted that "the highlight of the show was a scene in which, various jealousies having arisen, everyone is simultaneously wishing he were one of the others – and consequently everyone is!
emonstrating Gilbert'sfavourite theme of change of identity or personality."
[Gänzl, pp. 56–57]
As the original score is long lost, others have created their own, and Jonathan Strong's adaptation of Sullivan's non-
Gilbert and Sullivan music may be heard on the video of the work by the Boston Massachusetts-based group, Royal Victorian Opera Company.
Gilbert (who directed and designed his own shows) was busy in the days leading up to the opening of ''Happy Arcadia'': Four days before ''Happy Arcadia'' opened, Gilbert's one-act farce, ''A Medical Man'', opened at
St. George's Hall, although it had been published in 1870. The original production of ''Happy Arcadia'' played from 28 October 1872 to 2 May 1873. A revival, produced by and starring
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington (15 January 1853 – 31 May 1922) was an English singer, actor, comedian and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his p ...
, played at St George's Hall from 15 July 1895 to 10 August and again from 4 November until 30 November 1895.
[ Although ''Happy Arcadia'' was one of the later pieces by Gilbert for the German Reeds, it was a step backwards in terms of dramatic development.
]
Synopsis
Chloe and Strephon are "completely and intensely miserable. Bored beyond expression." They hate their lambs and flageolets. Chloe: "I always pinch my lamb when nobody's looking." Strephon: "And I always play out of tune when nobody's listening". They irritably agree to break off their engagement. Chloe's parents are also miserable. Her father was a criminal who evaded punishment by fleeing to Arcadia and is now tired of living a life of innocence. He would happily return to a life of iniquity if he could do so without being sentenced to penal servitude. Meanwhile, Strephon's lodger, Astrologos, owes him three months' rent, but as an Arcadian, Strephon can't ask him to pay it, since Arcadians don't care about money. Astrologos notes that he has four magic items, a stick, a ring, a cloak, and a cap, each of which grants one wish, but that he has used up the wishes.
Daphne has news: The handsome, wealthy, gifted Lycidas has determined to renounce the vanities of a worldly life and is going to become an Arcadian, and he has taken a fancy to Chloe. Strephon protests that Chloe is betrothed to him, and that, to put up a fight, he'll resign from Arcadia. Lycidas appears, saying he will live in Arcadia, and he asks to be left alone with Chloe. Strephon reluctantly withdraws, and Lycidas asks Chloe to "be mine". Strephon returns with a stick, and Lycidas withdraws, agreeing to return in half an hour. Strephon says that he is no longer an Arcadian and will smash Lycidas if he presumes to address Chloe again.
Astrologos has departed, leaving a package for Strephon containing the four magic items. The instructions say, "Distribute them as you think fit". Strephon decides to auction off three of the items. Each item is auctioned off for four pence. Daphne, left alone, inadvertently wishes that she were in Strephon's shoes, and she immediately changes into Strephon. Meanwhile, Colin has turned into Daphne – as a woman, he would be able to get away with crimes. Chloe has changed into Colin, hoping to be "a grumpy... old bear like papa," to be out from between her two suitors. Strephon has turned into Chloe. Everyone is distressed by their transformations, and the idea occurs to them that if they exchange magic items, they will each get another wish. They do so and wish to return to their original forms, which they do, and they all happily embrace. Lycidas returns, declaring that Arcadia is no place for him, and he is leaving. They auction all the items to Lycidas, and all ends happily.
Roles and casts of 1872 and 1895 productions
Musical numbers
*1. Duet. "Let us sing" (Strephon and Chloe)
*1b. Song. "When I was seventeen" (Daphne; only appears in early versions of the libretto)
*2. Song. "Only a Woman" (Colin) egins "From the first it was always the same"*3. Scene. "Fair love" (Strephon, with interjections by Astrologos)
*4. Song. "There's naught but care, and toil, and strife. (Strephon)
*5. Entrance of Lycidas: "Welcome to this spot" (Chloe, Daphne, Strephon, Colin), "Far away from care and strife" (Lycidas) and "On the banks of every stream" (Ensemble)
*5b. Ballad: "The Way of Wooing" (Chloe; only appears in early versions of the libretto)
*6. Quartette. "Good people all, attend, attend to me" (Strephon and ensemble)
*7. Identity quartette. "The question of identity, Suppose we now discuss" (Colin, Chloe, Daphne, Strephon)
*8. Finale. "In this innocent little vale" (Strephon and ensemble; reprises "Good people all, attend, attend to me")
Notes
References
*
*
* Gänzl, Kurt. ''The British Musical Theatre, Vol 1, 1865–1914'', Macmillan: London, 1986
*
* (with an introduction by Stedman)
External links
''Happy Arcadia'' libretto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Happy Arcadia
1872 operas
English comic operas
English-language operas
Operas
Works by W. S. Gilbert
Operas by Frederic Clay