The Mountebanks (opera)
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The Mountebanks is a comic opera in two acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced at the Lyric Theatre, London, on January 4 1892, for a run of 229 performances.
The story of the opera revolves around a magic potion that transforms is victims into whoever, or whatever, they pretend to be. The idea was clearly important to Gilbert, as he repeatedly implored his more famous collaborator, Arthur Sullivan, to set it. Sullivan objected, both because of the story's mechanical contrivance, and because they had already written an opera with a magic potion, The Sorcerer.
When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership temporarily disbanded after The Gondoliers, Gilbert tried to find another composer who would collaborate on the idea, eventually finding a willing partner in Alfred Cellier. Cellier died while the opera was still in rehearsals, leaving some of the score to be finished by the Lyric Theatre's musical director, Ivan Caryll, a successful composer in his own right.
Roles
- Arrostino Annegato, Captain of the Tamorras – a Secret Society
- Giorgio Raviolo, a Member of his Band
- Luigi Spaghetti, a Member of his Band
- Alfredo, a Young Peasant, loved by Ultrice, but in love with Teresa
- Pietro, Proprietor of a Troupe of Mountebanks
- Bartolo, his Clown
- Elvino di Pasta, an Innkeeper
- Risotto, one of the Tamorras – just married to Minestra
- Beppo
- Teresa, a Village Beauty, loved by Alfredo, and in love with herself
- Ultrice, in love with, and detested by, Alfredo
- Nita, a Dancing Girl
- Minestra, Risotto's Bride
- Tamorras, Monks, Village Girls.
Synopsis
Act I
Scene. A mountain Inn on a picturesque Sicilian pass.As the curtain rises, a procession of Dominican Monks passes by, singing a chorus (in Latin) about the inconveniences of monastic life. As soon as the coast is clear, the Tamorras enter. They are a secret society bent on revenge against the descendants of those who wrongly imprisoned an ancestor's friend five hundred years previously.
The Tamorras tell Elvino, the innkeeper, that they are planning to get married – one man each day for the next three weeks. The first is Risotto, who is marrying Minestra that day. Elvino asks them to conduct their revels in a whisper, so as not to disturb the poor old dying alchemist who occupies the second floor of the inn.
Arrostino, the Tamorras' leader, has learned that the Duke and Duchess of Pallavicini will be passing through the village. He suggests that the Tamorras capture the monastery and disguise themselves as monks. Minestra will dress as an old woman and lure the Duke into the monestery, where he will be taken captive and held for ransom.
Alfredo, a young peasant, is in love with Teresa, the village beauty. He sings a ballad about her, but it is clear that she does not love him in return. She suggests that he marry Elvino's niece, Ultrice, who follows Alfredo everywhere, but he wants nothing to do with her.
Elvino is concerned that he does not know the proper protocol for entertaining a Duke and Duchess. He suggests that Alfredo impersonate a Duke, so that he can practice his manners. Alfredo implores Teresa to impersonate the Duchess, but Teresa insists that Ultrice play the role.
A troupe of strolling players enters. Their leader, Pietro, offers the villagers a dress rehearsal of a performance to be given later to the Duke and Duchess. Among the novelties to be presented, he promises "two world-renowned life-size clock-work automata, representing Hamlet and Ophelia."
Nita and Bartolo, two of the troupe's members, were formerly engaged, but Nita became disenchanted with Bartolo's inability to play tragedy, and she is now engaged to Pietro. While they are discussing this, Beppo rushes in to tell Pietro that the clock-work automata have been detained at the border. Pietro wonders how his troupe will deliver the promised performance.
Elvino and Ultice have a problem of their own. Their Alchemist tenant has blown himself up, leaving six weeks' rent unpaid. All he has left behind is a bottle of medicine with a label on it. Believing the medicine to be useless, Elvino gives it to Pietro.
Pietro reads the label, and learns that the mysterious liquid "has the effect of making every one who drinks it exactly what he pretends to be." Pietro hatches the idea of administering the potion to Bartolo and Nita, who will pretend to be the clock-work Hamlet and Ophelia when the Duke and Duchess arrive. After the performance, Pietro will reverse the potion by burning the label.
While preparing for the performance, Pietro accidentally drops the label, which Ultrice retrieves. Ultrice realizes that if she and Alfredo drink the potion while they are pretending to be the Duke and Duchess, Alfredo's feigned love for her will become a reality.
Teresa, meanwhile, decides that, to taunt Alfredo, she will pretend to be in love with him, only to dash his hopes later on. Alfredo, who overhears this, declares that he will pretend to reject Teresa. When she learns this, Teresa says that she will feign insanity.
By this point, all of the major characters are pretending to be something they are not. Alfredo pretends to be a Duke, married to Ultrice and indifferent to Teresa. Ultrice pretends to be Duchess, married to Alfredo. Teresa pretends to be insane with love for Alfredo. Bartolo and Nita pretend to be clock-work Hamlet and Ophelia. The Tamorras pretend to be monks. Minestra pretends to be an old lady.
Alfredo and Ultrice enter in their guise as the faux Duke and Duchess. He proposes a toast, drawing wine from Pietro's wine-skin. Pietro, who has put the Alchemist's potion into the wine-skin, implores Alfredo to stop, telling him it contains poison from which he is already dying. Alfredo ignores the warning, and distributes the wine to everyone assembled.
Act II
Scene. Exterior of Monastery by moonlight.As the potion's label had predicted, everyone is now what they had pretended to be. Although Risotto and Minestra are married, he is disappointed to find that she is now an old woman of seventy-four. Teresa has gone completely mad with love for Alfredo. Bartolo and Nita are waxwork Hamlet and Ophelia, walking with mechanical gestures as if controlled by clockwork. Pietro, because he had pretended the wine was poisonous, is now dying slowly.
The Tamorras, who had pretended to be monks, have renounced their life of crime, and they no longer find the village girls attractive. They demand an explanation of Pietro, who explains that the wine was spiked. He promises to administer the antidote in an hour or two – as soon as Bartolo and Nita have performed for the Duke and Duchess.
Alfredo, now pretending to be a Duke, greets the monks. They tell him that he has chosen a fortunate time for his arrival, as the Tamorras had planned to kidnap him. But now he is safe, as they are all virtuous monks.
Teresa is still crazed with love for Alfredo. He replies that, although he used to love her, he is now "married" to Ultrice and is blind to her charms. They are grateful that the charm will last for only another hour or so. Left alone, Ultrice admits that she alone has the antidote, and she has no intention of administering it.
Pietro brings on Bartolo and Nita to entertain the Duke and Duchess, but quickly recognizes that his audience is only Alfredo and Ultrice. They explain that they are victims of a potion, and Pietro realizes that the only solution to the mess is to administer the antidote. When he realizes he has lost it, everyone accuses him of being a sorcerer. Bartolo and Nita discuss what it will be like to be Hamlet and Ophelia for the rest of their lives. Pietro steals the keys, so that neither one can touch the other's clockwork.
Ultrice confronts Teresa and gloats over her triumph. However, when Teresa threatens to jump off a parapet, Ultrice relents, and admits she has the antidote. Pietro seizes the label and burns it. The potion's effects expire, and the characters resume their original personalities.
External links
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