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 Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876. A young man, Alexis, is obsessed with the idea of love levelling all ranks and social distinctions. To promote his beliefs, he invites the proprietor of J. W. Wells & Co., Family Sorcerers, to brew a love potion. This causes everyone in the village to fall in love with the first person they see and results in the pairing of comically mismatched couples. In the end, Wells must sacrifice his life to break the spell.
This article is about the 19th century comic opera. For other uses, see Sorcerer.
The opera opened on 17 November 1877 at the Opera Comique in London, where it ran for 178 performances. It was considered a success by the standards of that time and encouraged the collaborators to write their next opera, H.M.S. Pinafore. The Sorcerer was revised for an 1884 revival, and that version is usually performed today. The Sorcerer was the first Savoy opera for which the author and composer had nearly total control over the production and the selection of cast. Several of the actors chosen went on to create principal roles in most of the later Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It was their first opera to use all the major character types and typical range of songs that would appear in their later collaborations, such as comic duets, a patter song, a contrapuntal double chorus, a tenor and soprano love duet, a soprano showpiece and so forth.
The modest success of The Sorcerer was overshadowed by the extraordinary popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan's later collaborations, and the opera remains one of the team's less popular ones. The satire in the piece concerns Victorian-era class distinctions and operatic conventions with which modern audiences are less familiar. Nevertheless, the opera was important to the development of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and is still regularly played.
Synopsis[edit]
Act I[edit]
The villagers of Ploverleigh are preparing to celebrate the betrothal of Alexis Pointdextre, the son of the local baronet, and the blue-blooded Aline Sangazure ("Ring forth, ye bells"). Only a young village maiden named Constance Partlet seems unwilling to join in the happy mood, and we learn as she tells her mother that she is secretly in love with the local vicar, Dr Daly ("When he is here, I sigh with pleasure"); and the cleric himself promptly soliloquises that he has been unlucky in love ("The air is charged with amatory numbers"). However, despite Mrs. Partlet's best attempts at matchmaking, the middle-aged Dr Daly seems unable to conceive that a young girl like Constance would be interested in him.
Reception[edit]
1877 reaction[edit]
The early reviews were generally favourable.[31] According to The Times, The Sorcerer "achieved a genuine success, and, moreover, a success in every respect deserved".[53] The Era praised both libretto and music: "the libretto, both in the prose and poetical portions, displays remarkable facility in writing fanciful and witty dialogue; and the lively flow of Mr. Sullivan's music, always tuneful, bright, and sparkling, and frequently reaching a very high standard of excellence, could hardly fail to please."[54] Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper called it "a very amusing work",[55] and Reynolds's Newspaper proclaimed it "one of the best entertainments of the kind that has yet been placed on the stage".[56] As with their previous opera, Trial by Jury, the integration of Gilbert's words and Sullivan's music was emphasised. The Times commented that "the music is spontaneous, appearing invariably to spring out of the dramatic situations, as though it was their natural concomitant";[53] The Musical Times mused that "it seems as if every composition had grown up in the mind of the author as he wrote the words"; and[57] The Pall Mall Gazette called the union between composer and librettist "well-assorted", arguing that "the opera contains several very happily designed pieces, in which one cannot tell (and need not know) whether the merit of the original underlying idea belongs to the composer of the poem or to the author of the score".[58]
A dissenting voice was Figaro, which claimed that there was nothing in The Sorcerer that could not have been written by "any theatrical conductor engaged at a few pounds a week".[59] It also criticised Sullivan for wasting his talent on comic opera; such criticism would follow him through the rest of his career.[60] Monthly Musical Record objected to the comic depiction of a clergyman, commenting that "the earnest, hard-working, and serious Clergy should not be made the subject of sneering caricature upon the stage",[61] and Lewis Carroll wrote in his 1888 essay:
Revisions and cut material[edit]
Initial cuts and changes[edit]
Gilbert initially wrote a duet for Aline and Lady Sangazure, "Oh, why art thou sad, my mother?", followed by a ballad for Sangazure, "In days gone by, these eyes were bright". These numbers were cut before opening night, although the ballad was included in the first published version of the libretto.[108] Alexis's Act II ballad ("Thou hast the power") was revised, with the refrain changed from common time to waltz time. Although performed on opening night, it was not included in the original vocal score. Available evidence suggests that the ballad was dropped from the opera, but later reinstated during the original run.[109] It was a substitute for Aline's ballad, "Have faith in me", which was present in the license copy but cut before the first night and absent from the published version of libretto.[106] Some of the text was reused in "None shall part us" in Iolanthe.[110] The second verse of Constance's Act I aria, "When he is here", was also cut during the original production.[111]
The Act I finale was shortened during the original production to omit a reprise of the Brindisi after the "Oh marvellous illusion" chorus, and Constance's Act II song was transposed downwards.[112] Originally, in the Act II finale, there was a second incantation in which J. W. Wells summoned Ahrimanes (to be played by Mrs Paul),[113] who told him that either he or Alexis must yield his life to quell the spell. This scene was cut, although its opening recitative in rewritten form was present in the first production.[114]
The Sorcerer has not been recorded as often as most of the other Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and the recordings have not been generally well received. The 1966 D'Oyly Carte Opera Company recording is considered the best of their efforts to record this opera.
The 1982 Brent Walker video is considered to be one of the best of that series and is recommended in Marc Shepherd's Gilbert and Sullivan discography.[128] More recent professional productions have been recorded on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.[129]