Recordings of Patience

Background

Contemporary Drawing of Scenes from Patience

While The Pirates of Penzance ran successfully in London throughout most of 1880, W. S. Gilbert was hard at work on his next opera. His initial thought was a dramatization of his Bab Ballad, "The Rival Curates." As his plot developed, however, he began to worry about adverse reaction to a comic opera that appeared to be mocking the clergy. Luckily, he found that he could transform the opera into a story about rival poets (which apparently had been his original idea) without having to abandon much of what he had written. Thus was Patience born.

The opera makes fun of the so-called Aesthetic Movement that was the rage in 1880. Gilbert had his fears that the opera would seem dated when it was first revived in 1900, but it once again scored a brilliant triumph, and Patience has been a favorite of G&S fans ever since. Aestheticism may be a long-gone fad, but the characters' blind devotion to passing tastes will be recognized by audiences of any era.

Patience has fared well on records. The D'Oyly Carte recording, with dialogue complete, is an excellent choice and is available on CD. Two videos (Brent Walker (1982) and Australian Opera (1995) are both based on the respected English National Opera production first seen in the 1970s.

Recordings

	1921 HMV	Acou
	1930 D'Oyly Carte	Elec
	1951 D'Oyly Carte	Mono
	1961 D'Oyly Carte	Ster Dial
	1962 Sargent/Glyndebourne	Ster
NR	1965 D'Oyly Carte TV Broadcast	Dial
NR	1966 BBC	Dial
	1982 Brent Walker Productions	Dial
NR	1989 BBC	Ster Dial
	1994 New D'Oyly Carte	Dig Bonus
	1995 Australian Opera	Dig Video

Of these, the 1961 recording has the benefit of complete dialogue, while the 1995 New D'Oyly Carte recording features reconstructions of the Duke's song and an earlier version of the Act II finale.