“A languid love for lilies does not blight me!
Lank limbs and haggard cheeks do not delight me!
I do not care for dirty greens
by any means.
I do not long for all one sees
that’s Japanese.
I am not fond of uttering platitudes
in stained-glass attitudes.
In short, my mediævalism’s affectation,
born of a morbid love of admiration!”
Patience
Patience or Bunthorne's Bride
May 30 to June 8, 1980
Directors
| Stage Director: | Richard Fishel |
| Music Director: | James Hart |
Patience or Bunthorne’s Bride is the sixth of Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourteen comic operas. It was first performed at the Opera Comique in London on April 23, 1881.
The phenomenon known as the “Aesthetic Movement” was in full swing when this opera was written. Aestheticism was a Victorian fad, a reaction against the art of the day. As a movement it sometimes occasioned excessive infatuation with styles of art and literature associated with classical and medieval culture. And it gave rise to such publicly precious and mannered artistic figures as Oscar Wilde, James Whistler and Walter Crane. The character of Reginald Bunthorne is a caricature of these affected culture heroes, and the opera which revolves around him a gentle satire of this aesthetic craze.
Two excellent internet resources for information about Patience:
Show Poster
“We’ve been thrown over, we’re aware
but we don’t care – but we don’t care!
There’s fish in the sea, no doubt of it,
as good as ever came out of it,
and some day we shall get our share,
so we don’t care – so we don’t care!”
Patience
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