Bard SummerScape 2007: The Sorcerer

THE SORCERER

Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by W. S. Gilbert

Conducted by James Bagwell
Directed by Erica Schmidt
David Korins, set designer
Mattie Ullrich, costume designer
David Weiner, lighting designer
Sean Curran, choreographer

Who can resist the rollicking, naughty, cynical, yet so seemingly innocent wit of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera? And how much poorer would our tradition of musical theater have been had it not originated in Gilbert’s transcendently clever word-magic? That magic was conjured for the first time in a full-length work in The Sorcerer, the 1877 opera in which Gilbert and Sullivan pioneered the delightful genre that would come to be universally known and loved as the Savoy Operas.
With their usual penchant for turning the world topsy-turvy, Gilbert and Sullivan casually introduce a sorcerer into English society. Our hero is Alexis, scion of a noble family, who entertains modern ideas that the world would be better off if everyone married entirely for love, with no respect for social class. To put this theory into practice, he visits Mr. Wells, a respectable sorcerer who trades in blessings (which don’t sell well), curses (a very popular item), and, most of all, love potions. As the entire village assembles to celebrate Alexis’s own upcoming wedding, Alexis empties enough love potion into their tea to affect everyone in town. The most absurd pairings ensue, and everyone seems happy, until Alexis’s fiancée Aline drinks the potion . . . well, as usual, it all works out in the end.

THEATER TWO
August 3, 8, 9 at 8 pm
August 5 at 7 pm
August 10 at 5 pm
August 4, 11, 12 at 3 pm
Tickets: $45 (General Admission)

OPERA TALK
With Byron Adams and Erica Schmidt
THEATER TWO
August 4 at 1:30 pm
Free and open to the public
Opera Talks are presented in
memory of Sylvia Redlick Green.