The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers was an operetta written by William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. It had its premiere at the Savoy Theatre on December 7, 1889 and ran for 554 performances.
The Gondoliers, or The King of Barataria is one of the later Operettas written by William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan - really the last of their well known collaborations. Utopia Limited (or The Flowers of Progress) – 1893 and The Grand Duke (or The Statutory Duel) – 1896 were the only operettas written after The Gondoliers.
Plot
Act 1
The scene opens in Venice with a bevy of four and twenty young maidens declaring their undying love for a pair of gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri. The male chorus of gondoliers enters, trying to pry these young ladies from their loves, and they start to win the ladies hearts - but when the two gentlemen enter, the ladies go back to loving them. They offer to pick two as their brides and "As all are young and fair, and amiable besides", pick them with a game of chance - a game similar to blind man's buff. They, undoubtably, cheat and eventually grab their favourite maidens out of the four and twenty (Guiseppe picks Tessa, and Marco Gianetta - "Just the very girl I wanted!"). The rest of the maidens content themselves with marrying the other gondoliers, and leave to get married.
Enter His Grace the Duke of Plaza Toro (Count Matadoro, Baron Picadoro), Her Grace the Duchess, their beautiful daughter Casilda, and their drummer boy, Luiz. They have come to meet Don Alhambro de Bolero, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, whose palace is in Venice. As Luiz goes to announce the Duke's presence, the Duke and Duchess tell their daughter a secret they have kept for twenty years - namely that when she was only six months old, she was married to the infant son of the king of Barataria, a fictional island off the coast of Spain. She is indignant, especially as the union was conducted without her knowledge, and, as we soon discover, she is secretly in love with Luiz. However, the young prince was stolen from his home by the Grand Inquisitor after the king of Barataria became "a Wesleyan Methodist of the most bigoted and persecuting type", and taken to Venice. The king was recently killed in an insurrection, and as such, Casilda is now the queen of Barataria and the lost prince in now king. She breaks this news to Luiz when they are alone, and they resign themselves to a life forever apart.
When the Grand Inquisitor enters, he explains to them that the prince was adopted by a gondolier who already had a young son about the same age. The gondolier was a drunkard and eventually forgot which boy was his own son and which boy was the prince of Barataria. The two boys (naturally, Marco and Guiseppe) grew up and now were both working as gondoliers. Fortunately, the nurse who took care of the prince was Luiz's mother, who was now living in the mountains, married to a highly respectable brigand. Don Alhambro says that they will find her and she will surely know which gondolier is the lost prince. If not, he says, "then the persuasive influence of the torture chamber will jog her memory." The scene closes.
In the next scene, the two gondoliers marry their brides, and as they are rejoicing in the virtues of marriage, Don Alhambro arrives and informs them that one of them is the king of Barataria - but no one knows which. Despite being Republicans, the gondoliers and their wives are delighted, and agree to go to Barataria at once, acting as one individual until the actual king is identified. They are told that ladies are not admitted, but as soon as the king is identified, each couple can be reunited - the Inquisitor neglects to mention the marriage to Casilda, knowing that it would surely cause them to change their minds. As the two wives are revelling that one of them will be a queen, the chorus enters, and Marco and Guiseppe announce their discovery, and promise to reign in a Republican fashion. They announce that in their kingdom, "All shall equal be" and will create new posts such as "the Lord High Coachman on the Box, the Lord High Vagabond in the Stocks". The entire male cast then leaves for Barataria, leaving their wives behind them.
Act 2
The scene opens in Barataria, with the chorus of gondoliers telling the audience of the joys of living under "a monarchy that's tempered with republican equality". It turns out that Marco and Guiseppe have in fact been doing all the work for the past three months - far from doing the work of one man, they're doing the work of twenty! They are quite happy with this arrangement, with the notable exception of having to share single portion for dinner, and feel that life is perfect apart from the lack of women. As if on cue, the ladies rush on, having risked life and limb to sail from Venice to see them. In delight, the reunited couples have a magnificent banquet and a dance (a cachuca). After the dance, the Grand Inquisitor makes his entrance, and inquires why he saw unimportant servants dancing. Realising that the gondoliers have attempted to make everyone noble, he persuades them that there is a place for the common things and "when every blessed thing you hold, is made of silver or of gold, you long for simple pewter". He then breaks the news that one of the gondoliers married Casilda when a baby, and therefore is an unintentional bigamist. The gondoliers attempt to console their wives, who are distraught to discover that neither one will be queen.
The Duke and Duchess soon arrive with Casilda, and the Duke, appalled at the lack of pomp and ceremony in which he is received, attempts to educate the two monarchs in proper royal behaviour. When they finally begin to learn, they are left alone with Casilda. She agrees to be an obedient wife, but warns them that she is "over head and ears in love with someone else." Seizing this opportunity, the two men announce they are married, and the three ladies and two men sing about their woes.
At this point, Don Alhambro announces that the nurse who tended the prince, and Luiz's mother, has arrived. They beg her to reveal which one is the king - and she does. When the Grand Inquisitor came to steal the prince, she had loyally hidden him away and given Don Alhambro her young son instead. The king is neither Marco nor Guiseppe, but actually Luiz. As everything is resolved, the monarchs surrender their crown to Luiz, and become gondoliers again. There is a final dance, a reprise of the gondolier's first song mixed with the cachuca from earlier.