The Mountebanks Totally Explained

Everything about The Mountebanks totally explained

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. It also had a short Broadway run in 1893. The original cast included Geraldine Ulmar and Furneaux Cook. The New York cast included Hayden Coffin and Lillian Russell. The work has rarely been revived, although the Lyric Theatre Company of Washington D.C. recorded it in 1964. The story of the opera revolves around a magic potion that transforms those who drink it into whoever, or whatever, they pretend to be. The idea was clearly important to Gilbert, as he repeatedly implored his famous collaborator, Arthur Sullivan, to set this story, or a similar one, to music. Sullivan objected, both because of the story's mechanical contrivance, and because they'd already written an opera with a magic potion, The Sorcerer.

Background

When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership temporarily disbanded due to a quarrel over finances after the production of The Gondoliers, Gilbert tried to find another composer who would collaborate on the idea, eventually finding a willing partner in Alfred Cellier. Cellier had been the music director for Gilbert and Sullivan's early operas, and his operetta (an early musical comedy, really), Dorothy, was a smash hit, opening in 1886 and playing for more than 900 performances, holding the record for longest-running piece of musical theatre in history until the turn of the century.
Cellier died of tuberculosis, however, 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, and the rest to be amended by Gilbert's rewriting the libretto around the gaps. Scholar Jane Stedman quotes Gilbert as writing to a Mrs. Stephenson on 7 January 1892 saying, "I had to make rough & ready alterations to supply gaps — musical gaps — caused by poor Cellier's inability to complete his work. It follows that Act 2 stands out as a very poor piece of dramatic construction... this is the worst libretto I've written. Perhaps I'm growing old." Nonetheless, The Mountebanks' initial run of 229 performances surpassed most of Gilbert's later works and even some of his collaborations with Sullivan. Caryll composed the entr'acte, "When your clothes from your hat to your socks," and probably another number or two, and chose one of Cellier's orchestral pieces, the Suite Symphonique for the overture. However, the exact responsibility for other parts of the final version remains uncertain.

Roles and original cast

Arrostino Annegato, Captain of the Tamorras – a Secret Society (baritone) – Frank Wyatt
Giorgio Raviolo, a Member of his Band (baritone) – Arthur Playfair
Luigi Spaghetti, a Member of his Band (baritone) – Charles Gilbert
Alfredo, a Young Peasant, loved by Ultrice, but in love with Teresa (tenor) – J. Robertson
Pietro, Proprietor of a Troupe of Mountebanks (comic baritone) – Lionel Brough
Bartolo, his Clown (baritone) – Harry Monkhouse
Elvino di Pasta, an Innkeeper (bass-baritone) – Furneaux Cook
Risotto, one of the Tamorras – just married to Minestra (tenor) – Cecil Burt
Beppo - A member of the Mountebanks' crew (speaking) – Gilbert Porteous
Teresa, a Village Beauty, loved by Alfredo, and in love with herself (soprano) – Geraldine Ulmar
Ultrice, in love with, and detested by, Alfredo (contralto) – Lucille Sanders
Nita, a Dancing Girl (mezzo-soprano or soprano) – Aida Jenoure
Minestra, Risotto's Bride (mezzo-soprano) – Eva Moore

Tamorras, Monks, Village Girls.

Synopsis

Act I

Scene. A mountain Inn on a picturesque Sicilian pass.
   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're 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 monastery, where he'll 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's clear that she doesn't love him in return. She suggests that he marry Elvino's niece, Ultrice, who follows Alfredo everywhere, but Alfredo wants nothing to do with Ultrice. Elvino is concerned that he doesn't 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's now engaged to Pietro. While they're 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's 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're 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'll pretend to be in love with him, only to dash his hopes later on. Alfredo, who overhears this, declares that he'll pretend to reject Teresa. When she learns this, Teresa says that she'll feign insanity.
   By this point, all of the major characters are pretending to be something they're 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's 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'd pretended to be. Although Risotto and Minestra are married, he's disappointed to find that she's 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'd 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's chosen a fortunate time for his arrival, as the Tamorras had planned to kidnap him. But now he's safe, as they're all virtuous monks.
   Teresa is still crazed with love for Alfredo. He replies that, although he used to love her, he's 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's 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're victims of a potion, and Pietro realizes that the only solution to the mess is to administer the antidote. When he realizes he's lost it, everyone accuses him of being a sorcerer. Bartolo and Nita discuss what it'll 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's the antidote. Pietro seizes the label and burns it. The potion's effects expire, and the characters resume their original personalities.

Musical Numbers

Overture: Cellier's Suite Symphonique

Act I

No. 1. "Chaunt of the Monks" and "We are members of a secret society" (Men's Chorus and Giorgio)

No. 2. "Come, all the Maidens" (Chorus)

No. 3. "If you please" (Minestra and Risotto)

No. 4. "Only think, a Duke and Duchess!" (Chorus and Minestra)

No. 5. "High Jerry Ho!" (Arrostino and Male Chorus)

No. 6. "Teresa, Little Word" and "Bedecked in Fashion Trim" (Alfredo)

No. 7. "It's my Opinion" (Teresa)

No. 8. "Upon my word, Miss" (Ultrice, Teresa, Alfredo, and Elvino)

No. 9. "Fair maid, take pity" (Alfredo, Teresa, Ultrice, and Elvino)

No. 10. "Tabor and Drum" (Female Chorus, Pietro, Bartolo, and Nita)

No. 11. "Those days of old" and "Allow that the plan I devise"(Nita, with Bartolo and Pietro)

No. 12. "Oh luck unequalled" ... "I'm only joking" .... "Oh, whither, whither, whither, do you speed you?" (Ultrice, Teresa, and Alfredo)

No. 13. "Finale Act I" (Ensemble)

Act II

No. 14. "Entr'acte" (By Ivan Caryll)

No. 15, "I'd be a young girl if I could" (Minestra and Risotto)

No. 16. "All alone to my eerie" (Teresa)

No. 17. "If I can catch this jolly Jack-Patch" (Teresa and Minestra)

No. 18. "If our action's stiff and crude" (Bartolo and Nita)

No. 19. "Where gentlemen are eaten up with jealousy" (Bartolo, Nita, and Pietro)

No. 20. "Time there was when earthly joy" (Chorus (with Soprano and Contralto solo), Arrostino, and Pietro)

No. 20a. OPTIONAL SONG: "When your clothes, from your hat to your socks" (Pietro) (By Ivan Caryll)¹

No. 21. "The Duke and Duchess hither wend their way" (Luigi, Arrostino, Alfredo and Chorus)

No. 22. "Willow, willow, where's my love?" (Teresa)

No. 23. "In days gone by" (Alfredo, Teresa, and Ultrice)

No. 24. "An hour? Nay, nay." (Ultrice)

No. 25. "Oh, please you not to go away" (Chorus, Pietro, Elvino, Alfredo, Ultrice, Bartolo, Nita)

No. 26. "Ophelia was a dainty little maid" (Pietro, Bartolo, and Nita)

No. 27. "Finale" (Ensemble) ¹ The placement of this song changed within the act before it was cut. "Ophelia was a dainty little maid" replaced it. However, it was included on the only commercial recording of The Mountebanks.

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