Robert the Devil (Gilbert)
Encyclopedia
Robert the Devil, or The Nun, the Dun, and the Son of a Gun is an operatic parody by W. S. Gilbert
of Giacomo Meyerbeer
's romantic opera Robert le diable
, which was named after, but bears little resemblance to, the medieval French legend of the same name
. Gilbert set new lyrics to tunes by Meyerbeer, Hérold, Bellini
, Hervé
, Offenbach
and others, arranged by Mr. Kettenus, the theatre's music director.
Robert the Devil was part of a triple bill that opened John Hollingshead
's new Gaiety Theatre
in London on 21 December 1868. Also on the programme, preceding Gilbert's piece, were a one-act adaptation by Gilbert Arthur à Beckett
of a French operetta by Émile Jonas, called The Two Harlequins, and a three-act parody of L'Escamoteur by Paulin Meunier, adapted by Alfred Thompson, called On the Cards. All three of these were parodies of operas written between 1830 and 1840. Alfred Thompson also designed the sets of the triple bill. Robert the Devil was Gilbert's biggest success to date, running for over 120 performances and playing continuously in the provinces for three years thereafter. It was an extravaganza
played on a very large scale. By 29 March 1869, it was preceded by T. W. Robertson's play Dreams and The Two Harlequins and sometimes ran with Letty the Basketmaker, an obscure opera by Michael Balfe. The work was revived at the Gaiety Theatre several times over the next few years, and a tenth anniversary revival was staged at the Gaiety in 1878.
The piece starred Nellie Farren
in the title role and also featured women as Ferdinando, Bertuccio and Albert and Constance Loseby (as Raimbault), making five actresses playing male roles, a practice that Gilbert would later disclaim. The piece also featured Emily Fowler
as Alice, and, in his stage debut, Richard Barker, later Richard D'Oyly Carte
's long-serving stage manager. The principal dancer was Anna Bossi, from the Opera-house, St Petersburg, and the pantomimists (playing mysterious fiddlers who accompany Bertram) were John D'Auban
(who was later Gilbert's choreographer) and John Warde (brother of Willie Warde
), who had previously worked with Hollingshead at the Alhambra Theatre
.
an 1866 musical spoof of Donizetti
's L'elisir d'amore
. The second was La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps
!, a parody of Donizetti
's La fille du Régiment
(1867). The others were The Merry Zingara
; or, the Tipsy Gipsy and the Pipsy Wipsy (Royalty Theatre
, 1868), a burlesque of Balfe's The Bohemian Girl
and The Pretty Druidess; or, the Mother, the Maid, and the Mistletoe Bough
(Charing Cross Theatre, 1869), a burlesque of Bellini's Norma
.
The libretto of Robert the Devil is set in rhyming couplets, as are the other Gilbert burlesques. The opening night performance was under-rehearsed, partly because the new Gaiety Theatre was not finished until the last moment, leaving no time for rehearsal on its stage. Therefore, the evening's entertainments received mixed reviews, except for the uniformly enthusiastic reviews of Nellie Farren. However, The Times
noted that "Like the other extravaganza
s from the same pen, Robert the Devil shows an endeavour to avoid the ordinary vulgarities of grotesque drama, and bring its most elegant contingencies into the foreground.... The burlesque has been received with a storm of approbation."
The success of Robert and Dulcamara showed that Gilbert could write entertainingly in this form and, together with his early pantomime
s and farces, full of awful puns (traditional in burlesques of the period), though they do, at times, show signs of the satire that would later be a defining part of his work. These led to Gilbert's more mature "fairy comedies", such as The Palace of Truth
(1870) and Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), which in turn led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan
operas. Although Gilbert gave up direct parodies of opera soon after Robert, his parodic pokes at grand opera
continued to be seen in the Savoy opera
s.
The title character, a breeches role
, was played as an insouciant "swell" by Nellie Farren
, who became famous as the theatre's "principal boy." Gilbert later renounced travesti roles and revealing dresses on his actresses, and made publicly known his disapproval of them. In January 1885 Hollingshead crossed swords him on the subject, writing to the Pall Mall Gazette
, "Mr. Gilbert is somewhat severe on a style of burlesque which he did much to popularise in the old days before he invented what I may call burlesque in long clothes. … Mr Gilbert never objected to the dresses in Robert the Devil nor to the dresses in Thespis."
The supporting cast changed for revivals at the Gaiety. The 1871 revival cast included "the Misses Farren, Dolaro
, Loseby, Tremaine, Wilson, Messrs Maclean, Taylor etc." It is possible that the cast list in the libretto mistakenly refers to one of the revival casts.
In 1872 the Gaiety company took the piece on tour in England and Ireland, where it was played in double or triple bills, sometimes in tandem with Sullivan
and Burnand
's Cox and Box
. In that company were Farren, Alice Cook, J. G. Taylor, T. Sullivan, Marian West, Miss Wallace, Miss Berend, and Miss Gordon.
, consuming an enormous meal and smoking cigarettes (a cheeky piece of business, as Robert was played by a woman), accompanied by a sinister companion, Bertram. The crowd expresses their doubts about Robert's creditworthiness (to the tune of Meyerbeer's opening brindisi
). Among them is Albert, the Prince of Granada. Robert leaves the bill for Bertram to pay. Bertram, a "devil by compulsion" says that he is the "Town traveller for the Gentleman Below" and must 'secure one victim every day'. He asks for a volunteer. Of course, no one steps forward. Rambaldo, a minstrel, arrives and offers to sing about Robert. He circulates his cap. Then he sings a catalogue of Robert's misdeeds, much to the annoyance of Robert and Bertram. Rambaldo also has "a work in verse, three volumes long" about Robert's "latest scandals". The saintly Alice then arrives, whom Robert claims as his foster-sister.
Bertram advises Robert to steal a magic branch that will give him great powers. All Robert has to do is sign an indenture for his soul. This branch turns out to be in the Chamber of Horrors in Madame Tussaud's wax museum. A chorus of wax figures of famous dead people come to life at midnight and sing about being wax works (to the tune of 'A fosco cielo' from Vincenzo Bellini
's La sonnambula
). The magic branch turns out to be a policeman's staff with a scroll attached, stating that the staff can grant the bearer invisibility and freezes people in their places (including politicians). Robert, Bertram and Bertram's henchman, Gobetto, conspire.
Before Robert can seize the branch, Bertram insists that he sign the contract. Robert agrees. The wax works perform a naughty ballet recalling the ballet in a "cloister by moonlight" of faithless, deceased nuns that created a sensation at the time of the Meyerbeer opera including, according to the stage directions, "the usual business between Robert and the Lady Abbess". Robert wishes to use the power of the branch to marry, against Bertram's wishes. Bertram reveals that he is Robert's father. Robert says, "My father? Then of course I must submit! But are you sure?" Bertram points out that a note from his mother confirms the fact. However, the wax-works reappear to drag Bertram, not down to Hell as in Meyerbeer's opera, but instead to a worse fate, to become an exhibit at Madame Tussaud's. A terrified Bertram pleads desperately to escape this, asking that one of the other wax works be disguised as him. But his appeals are in vain, and everyone tells him that he can't do "much more harm" in "the waxworks of Tussaud."
Other items listed in the programme were:
Songs for these numbers are not printed in the libretto. They may have formed the Grand Ballet, performed at the beginning of the last scene, before "Pity me, Robert, now you know".
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
of Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
's romantic opera Robert le diable
Robert le diable (opera)
Robert le diable is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. Originally planned as a three-act opéra comique, "Meyerbeer persuaded...
, which was named after, but bears little resemblance to, the medieval French legend of the same name
Robert the Devil
Robert the Devil is a legend of medieval origin. Robert is the devil's own child, for his mother, despairing of heaven's aid in order to obtain a son, has addressed herself to the devil...
. Gilbert set new lyrics to tunes by Meyerbeer, Hérold, Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, Hervé
Hervé (composer)
Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras...
, Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and others, arranged by Mr. Kettenus, the theatre's music director.
Robert the Devil was part of a triple bill that opened John Hollingshead
John Hollingshead
John Hollingshead was an English theatrical impresario, journalist and writer during the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered as the first manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London...
's new Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
in London on 21 December 1868. Also on the programme, preceding Gilbert's piece, were a one-act adaptation by Gilbert Arthur à Beckett
Gilbert Arthur a Beckett
Gilbert Arthur à Beckett was an English writer.-Biography:Beckett was born at Hammersmith, United Kingdom, the eldest son of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett and the brother of Arthur William à Beckett...
of a French operetta by Émile Jonas, called The Two Harlequins, and a three-act parody of L'Escamoteur by Paulin Meunier, adapted by Alfred Thompson, called On the Cards. All three of these were parodies of operas written between 1830 and 1840. Alfred Thompson also designed the sets of the triple bill. Robert the Devil was Gilbert's biggest success to date, running for over 120 performances and playing continuously in the provinces for three years thereafter. It was an extravaganza
Extravaganza
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus, revue, variety, vaudeville and mime...
played on a very large scale. By 29 March 1869, it was preceded by T. W. Robertson's play Dreams and The Two Harlequins and sometimes ran with Letty the Basketmaker, an obscure opera by Michael Balfe. The work was revived at the Gaiety Theatre several times over the next few years, and a tenth anniversary revival was staged at the Gaiety in 1878.
The piece starred Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
in the title role and also featured women as Ferdinando, Bertuccio and Albert and Constance Loseby (as Raimbault), making five actresses playing male roles, a practice that Gilbert would later disclaim. The piece also featured Emily Fowler
Emily Fowler
Emily Fowler was an English actress, singer and theatre manager. Beginning in musical burlesques, she later played in contemporary drama and English classics.-Career:...
as Alice, and, in his stage debut, Richard Barker, later Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
's long-serving stage manager. The principal dancer was Anna Bossi, from the Opera-house, St Petersburg, and the pantomimists (playing mysterious fiddlers who accompany Bertram) were John D'Auban
John D'Auban
Frederick John D'Auban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.After performing as a...
(who was later Gilbert's choreographer) and John Warde (brother of Willie Warde
Willie Warde
Willie Warde was an English actor, dancer, singer and choreographer. The son of a dancer, his first theatre work was with a dance company. He was engaged to arrange dances for London productions and was later cast as a comic actor in musical theatre...
), who had previously worked with Hollingshead at the Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra Theatre
The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...
.
History
Robert the Devil was part of a series of five operatic burlesques written early in Gilbert's career. The first was Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great QuackDulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack
Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack, is one of the earliest plays written by W.S. Gilbert, his first solo stage success. The work is a musical burlesque of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, and the music was arranged by Mr. Van Hamme...
an 1866 musical spoof of Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
. The second was La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps
La Vivandière (Gilbert)
La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps! is a burlesque by W. S. Gilbert, described by the author as "An Operatic Extravaganza Founded on Donizetti's Opera, La figlia del regimento." In the French or other continental armies a vivandière was a woman who supplied food and drink to troops in the...
!, a parody of Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La fille du Régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
(1867). The others were The Merry Zingara
The Merry Zingara
The Merry Zingara; Or, The Tipsy Gipsy & The Pipsy Wipsy was the third of W. S. Gilbert's five burlesques of opera. Described by the author as "A Whimsical Parody on The Bohemian Girl", by Michael Balfe, it was produced at the Royalty Theatre, London, on 21 March 1868.As in his four other operatic...
; or, the Tipsy Gipsy and the Pipsy Wipsy (Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
, 1868), a burlesque of Balfe's The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
and The Pretty Druidess; or, the Mother, the Maid, and the Mistletoe Bough
The Pretty Druidess
The Pretty Druidess; Or, The Mother, The Maid, and The Mistletoe Bough is an operatic burlesque by W. S. Gilbert. It was produced at the opening of the new Charing Cross Theatre on 19 June 1869 and ran until September of that year....
(Charing Cross Theatre, 1869), a burlesque of Bellini's Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
.
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noted that "Like the other extravaganza
Extravaganza
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus, revue, variety, vaudeville and mime...
s from the same pen, Robert the Devil shows an endeavour to avoid the ordinary vulgarities of grotesque drama, and bring its most elegant contingencies into the foreground.... The burlesque has been received with a storm of approbation."
The success of Robert and Dulcamara showed that Gilbert could write entertainingly in this form and, together with his early pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
s and farces, full of awful puns (traditional in burlesques of the period), though they do, at times, show signs of the satire that would later be a defining part of his work. These led to Gilbert's more mature "fairy comedies", such as The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth is a three-act blank verse "Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 November 1870, partly adapted from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, Le Palais de Vérite. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British...
(1870) and Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), which in turn led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas. Although Gilbert gave up direct parodies of opera soon after Robert, his parodic pokes at grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
continued to be seen in the Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s.
The title character, a breeches role
Breeches role
A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...
, was played as an insouciant "swell" by Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
, who became famous as the theatre's "principal boy." Gilbert later renounced travesti roles and revealing dresses on his actresses, and made publicly known his disapproval of them. In January 1885 Hollingshead crossed swords him on the subject, writing to the Pall Mall Gazette
Pall Mall Gazette
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...
, "Mr. Gilbert is somewhat severe on a style of burlesque which he did much to popularise in the old days before he invented what I may call burlesque in long clothes. … Mr Gilbert never objected to the dresses in Robert the Devil nor to the dresses in Thespis."
Cast
The Gaiety programme and the printed libretto differ markedly in their cast lists. The following list is from the programme. London press reports confirm these names. Where the libretto lists other names, they are given in footnotes.- Robert, Duke of Normandy (nicknamed "The Devil") – Nellie FarrenNellie FarrenNellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
- Bertram (his father, disguised as a Sicilian nobleman) – Richard Barker
- Raimbault (troubadour, betrothed to Alice) – Constance Loseby
- Alice – Emily FowlerEmily FowlerEmily Fowler was an English actress, singer and theatre manager. Beginning in musical burlesques, she later played in contemporary drama and English classics.-Career:...
- Prince of Granada – Annie Tremaine
- Gobetto (a Sicilian boor, afterwards Bertram's familiar) – Joseph Eldred
- Old Bailey (wax figure from Chamber of Horrors) – Joe Robins
- A Lady (wax figure from Chamber of Horrors) – Miss Ashton
- King John (wax figure from Chamber of Horrors) – Mr. Everet
- Richard III (wax figure from Chamber of Horrors) – Mr. Rae
- Queen Mary I (wax figure from Chamber of Horrors) – Miss Grundy
- Two mysterious fiddlers – John D'AubanJohn D'AubanFrederick John D'Auban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.After performing as a...
and John Warde - Ferdinando (Sicilian nobleman) – Miss Henri
- Bertuccio (Sicilian nobleman) – Miss Lister
- Lady Abbess – Miss Wood
- Princess Isabella – Lilian Hastings
- Principal dancer – Anna Bossi
The supporting cast changed for revivals at the Gaiety. The 1871 revival cast included "the Misses Farren, Dolaro
Selina Dolaro
Selina Dolaro was an English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer. During a career in operetta and other forms of musical theatre, she managed several of her own opera companies and raised four children as a single mother...
, Loseby, Tremaine, Wilson, Messrs Maclean, Taylor etc." It is possible that the cast list in the libretto mistakenly refers to one of the revival casts.
In 1872 the Gaiety company took the piece on tour in England and Ireland, where it was played in double or triple bills, sometimes in tandem with Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
and Burnand
Francis Burnand
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand , often credited as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and dramatist....
's Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
. In that company were Farren, Alice Cook, J. G. Taylor, T. Sullivan, Marian West, Miss Wallace, Miss Berend, and Miss Gordon.
Synopsis
In the port of Palermo, the crowd are watching Robert, Duke of NormandyDuke of Normandy
The Duke of Normandy is the title of the reigning monarch of the British Crown Dependancies of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. The title traces its roots to the Duchy of Normandy . Whether the reigning sovereign is a male or female, they are always titled as the "Duke of...
, consuming an enormous meal and smoking cigarettes (a cheeky piece of business, as Robert was played by a woman), accompanied by a sinister companion, Bertram. The crowd expresses their doubts about Robert's creditworthiness (to the tune of Meyerbeer's opening brindisi
Brindisi (music)
A is a song in which a company is exhorted to drink, a drinking song.The word is Italian, but it derives from an old German phrase, – " offer it to you", which at one time was used to introduce a toast...
). Among them is Albert, the Prince of Granada. Robert leaves the bill for Bertram to pay. Bertram, a "devil by compulsion" says that he is the "Town traveller for the Gentleman Below" and must 'secure one victim every day'. He asks for a volunteer. Of course, no one steps forward. Rambaldo, a minstrel, arrives and offers to sing about Robert. He circulates his cap. Then he sings a catalogue of Robert's misdeeds, much to the annoyance of Robert and Bertram. Rambaldo also has "a work in verse, three volumes long" about Robert's "latest scandals". The saintly Alice then arrives, whom Robert claims as his foster-sister.
Bertram advises Robert to steal a magic branch that will give him great powers. All Robert has to do is sign an indenture for his soul. This branch turns out to be in the Chamber of Horrors in Madame Tussaud's wax museum. A chorus of wax figures of famous dead people come to life at midnight and sing about being wax works (to the tune of 'A fosco cielo' from Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
). The magic branch turns out to be a policeman's staff with a scroll attached, stating that the staff can grant the bearer invisibility and freezes people in their places (including politicians). Robert, Bertram and Bertram's henchman, Gobetto, conspire.
Before Robert can seize the branch, Bertram insists that he sign the contract. Robert agrees. The wax works perform a naughty ballet recalling the ballet in a "cloister by moonlight" of faithless, deceased nuns that created a sensation at the time of the Meyerbeer opera including, according to the stage directions, "the usual business between Robert and the Lady Abbess". Robert wishes to use the power of the branch to marry, against Bertram's wishes. Bertram reveals that he is Robert's father. Robert says, "My father? Then of course I must submit! But are you sure?" Bertram points out that a note from his mother confirms the fact. However, the wax-works reappear to drag Bertram, not down to Hell as in Meyerbeer's opera, but instead to a worse fate, to become an exhibit at Madame Tussaud's. A terrified Bertram pleads desperately to escape this, asking that one of the other wax works be disguised as him. But his appeals are in vain, and everyone tells him that he can't do "much more harm" in "the waxworks of Tussaud."
Musical numbers
The musical numbers used in the piece consist of lyrics by Gilbert to existing music as noted below:- "Oh dear – oh dear – his soup is vermicelli" – Chorus (MeyerbeerGiacomo MeyerbeerGiacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, Robert le diableRobert le diable (opera)Robert le diable is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. Originally planned as a three-act opéra comique, "Meyerbeer persuaded...
, "Versiamo a tazza piena") - "Before I sing, my cap I circulate" – Raimbault (Hérold, Le pré aux clercsLe Pré aux clercsLe pré aux clercs is an opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.-Performance history:...
, "Les rendez-vous de noble compagnie") - "Soon my falchion, so tempered and trusty" – Robert, Raimbault, Bertram (BelliniVincenzo BelliniVincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, I Capuleti e i MontecchiI Capuleti e i MontecchiI Capuleti e i Montecchi is an Italian opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini.The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo. This was based on Italian sources rather than taken directly from Shakespeare...
, "La tremenda ultrice spada", and Trad. "Hunting the Hare") - "One, two, three, four" – Alice, Bertram, Robert, Raimbault, Gobetto (ArbanJean-Baptiste ArbanJoseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet...
, "Bibi bamban", and Offenbach, "Ah! Quelles etaient bonnes les pommes") - "One moment more, and then you know" – Robert, Isabella, Alice, Raimbault (Marc Chautagne, "Le château de Caoutchou")
- "Oh, he's tricky – tricky – tricky – tricky – trick – tricked him" – Robert, Bertram, Raimbault, Gobetto, Alice (OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, L'île de TulipatanL'Île de TulipatanL'île de Tulipatan is an opéra bouffe , in one act by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru....
, "Et dig et dig et dig et don," and finale) - "We're only wax-work" – Chourus of wax figures (Bellini, La sonnambulaLa sonnambulaLa sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
, "A fosco cielo") - "Oh, animosity and villainous verbosity" – Robert, Bertram, Gobetto (Daniel AuberDaniel AuberDaniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
, Le dieu et la bayadère) - "Pity me, Robert, now you know" – Robert and Bertram (Trad. "My Father's Farm" and "Miller's Legacy")
- Finale: "Among the dead men down you go" – Company (Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de GérolsteinLa Grande-Duchesse de GérolsteinLa Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe , in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
, "Logeons-le donc et dès ce soir")
Other items listed in the programme were:
- HervéHervé (composer)Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras...
, L'œil crevé, "Allons gaies chasseurs" - Robillard, Le trouvaille du p'tit Ivon
- Offenbach, Les bavardsLes bavardsLes bavards is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter based on a story originally by Cervantes, ‘Los dos habladores’.-Performance history:...
- Offenbach, Barbe-bleue, "Proclamation de Popolani"
- Jules Javelot, "Mon Oscar"
Songs for these numbers are not printed in the libretto. They may have formed the Grand Ballet, performed at the beginning of the last scene, before "Pity me, Robert, now you know".