[1/9/2011] "The Sorcerer": "Everyone's engaged to So-and-so" (continued)

"I rejoice that it's decided," the Act II quintet, from the Festival Youth Production of The Sorcerer at the 17th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, August 2010. The parts to note are the repetitions of the refrain, "She will tend him, nurse him, mend him, air his linen, dry his tears," at 0:16, 1:04, and 1:58. (Note that there are complete texts for the quintet below.)


I'm always reluctant to incorporate clips like the above, which for all the fine enterprise of their usually amateur performers represent so much of what I hate about G&S performances. What interests me about this one is that in the three repetitions of the refrain noted above the five performers really do capture some of the astonishing measure of human resonance Sullivan's music achieves, in a way that strikes me as positively Mozartean. (I think of some of the asides of the Act II finale of The Marriage of Figaro.) By comparison, there's a more extended clip in which the quintet is performed just quickly enough to ensure that these moments never happen.

Now, we still haven't had a proper hearing of Dr. Daly's Act I recitative and ballad. It's early in Act I, and the village maiden Constance has just confided to her mother, Mrs. Partlet, that she's smitten, she presumes hopelessly, with the vicar, who as fate would have it at that very moment happens along. So wrapped up is he in his melancholy thoughts that he doesn't even notice them, so wrapped up is he in his thoughts, for which Gilbert came up with some words and Sulivan some music that add up to pure magic, I think. The recitative seems to me to verge on the otherworldly. Note that the flute will now be Dr. Daly's instrument; in his Act II song, we will see him tootling on that quintessential shepherd's instrument the flageolet.

The Sorcerer, No. 3, Act I, Recitative and Ballad, Dr. Daly, "The air is charged with amatory numbers" . . . "Time was when love and I were well acquainted"

Recitative
The air is charged with amatory numbers --
soft madrigals, and dreamy lovers' lays.
Peace, peace, old heart! Why waken from its slumbers
the aching memory of the old, old days?

Ballad
Time was when Love and I were well acquainted.
Time was when we walked ever hand in hand.
A saintly youth, with worldly thought untainted,
none better-loved than I in all the land!
Time was, when maidens of the noblest station,
forsaking even military men,
would gaze upon me, rapt in adoration --
Ah me, I was a fair young curate then!

Had I a headache? Sighed the maids assembled.
Had I a cold? Welled forth the silent tear.
Did I look pale? Then half a parish trembled;
and when I coughed all thought the end was near!
I had no care --no jealous doubts hung o'er me --
for I was loved beyond all other men.
Fled gilded dukes and belted earls before me.
Ah me, I was a pale young curate them!

Leslie Rands (b), Dr. Daly; orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. EMI, recorded 1933
Jeffrey Skitch (b), Dr. Daly; New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1953
Alan Styler (b), Dr. Daly; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

As we noted before the click-through, Alexis puts his nutty scheme into effect, over Aline's objections, and when the villagers awaken, Mr. Wells's philtre works exactly as advertised. Each awakening villager falls madly in love with the first unmarried person of the opposite sex he or she lays eyes on, and Alexis himself is confronted with an outcome of just the sort he claimed to have been hoping for, with love leveling all ranks, as the process would be described in the next G&S opera, HMS Pinafore.

It seems that Alexis is about to acquire a new stepmama. Sir Marmaduke, who has long entertained a secret passion for Aline's mother, Lady Sangazure, which she shares but which neither can express -- because of their exceptional sense of decorum -- in any terms other than formal admiration, has been grouped with young Constance's mother, the pew-opener Mrs. Partlet. 

"My dear father, this is not altogether what I expected," Alexis acknowledges. "I am certainly taken somewhat by surprise. Still it can hardly be necessary to assure you that any wife of yours is a mother of mine." To Aline he allows, "It is not quite what I could have wished," but scientifically forward-minded thinker that he is, he embraces it. "After all, a faithful love is the true source of every earthly joy."

The Sorcerer: No. 18, Act II, Quintet (Alexis, Aline, Sir Marmaduke, Mrs. Partlet, Dr. Daly), "I rejoice that it's decided"

ALEXIS: I rejoice that it's decided,
happy now will be his life,
for my father is provided
with a kind and tender wife.
ALL: She will tend him, nurse him, mend him,
air his linen, dry his tears.
Bless the thoughtful fates that send him
such a wife to soothe his years!

ALINE: No young giddy thoughtless maiden,
full of graces, airs, and jeers --
but a sober widow, laden
with the weight of fifty years!
SIR MARMADUKE: No high-born exacting beauty
blazing like a jewelled sun --
but a wife who'll do her duty,
as that duty should be done!
ALL: She will tend him, nurse him, mend him, &c.

MRS. PARTLET: I'm no saucy minx and giddy --
hussies such as them abound --
but a clean and tidy widdy
well beknown for miles around!
DR. DALY: All the village now have mated,
and are happy as can be --
I to live alone am fated:
no one's left to marry me!
ALL: No one left to marry him.
She will tend him, nurse him, mend him, &c.

Derek Oldham (t), Alexis Pointdextre; Muriel Dickson (s), Aline Sangazure; Darrell Fancourt (bs), Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre; Anna Bethell (c), Mrs. Partlet; Leslie Rands (b), Dr. Daly; orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. EMI, recorded 1933
David Palmer (t), Alexis Pointdextre; Valerie Masterson (s), Aline Sangazure; Donald Adams (bs), Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre; Jean Allister (c), Mrs. Partlet; Alan Styler (b), Dr. Daly; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

As Dr. Daly notes in his quatrain, the last of the five, he has, alas, been left out of the village pairings, though not unfortunately by the philtre's arousal of a deep craving for a partner. After, he enters playing his trusty flageolet, and reflects on the melancholy situation whereby the village now appears to be bereft of available mates. "Every maiden in the village," he has discovered the hard way, by asking, "is engaged to so-and-so."

You'll note that in both our performances, taken from the 1953 and 1966 complete recordings of The Sorcerer, the song doesn't quite come to a full stop, as Dr. Daly receives quite a surprise.

The Sorcerer, No. 21, Act II, Song, Dr. Daly, "Oh, my voice is sad and low" . . . "All engaged to so-and-so"

Oh, my voice is sad and low
and with timid step I go --
for with load of love o'er laden
I enquire of every maiden,
"Will you wed me, little lady?
Will you share my cottage shady?"
Little lady answers "No! No! No!
Thank you for your kindly proffer --
good your heart, and full your coffer;
yet I must decline your offer --
I'm engaged to So-and-so!"
[flageolet solo] So-and-so! So-and-so!
[flageolet solo] So-and-so! So-and-so!
[flageolet solo] "I'm engaged to So-and-so!"

What a rogue young hearts to pillage;
what a worker on Love's tillage!
Every maiden in the village is engaged to So-and-so!
[flageolet solo] So-and-so! So-and-so!
[flageolet solo] So-and-so! So-and-so!
[flageolet solo] All engaged to So-and-so!

Jeffrey Skitch (b), Dr. Daly; New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1953
Alan Styler (b), Dr. Daly; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Isidore Godfrey, cond. Decca, recorded 1966

The surprise Dr. Daly encounters at the end of this song is yet another manifestation of the nuttiness of Alexis's experiment in village social engineering, yet another obstacle from which The Sorcerer has to recover. This is beyond the scope of our discussion today, but I can reveal that it all works out pretty well. One just hopes that, for the sake of their future marital happiness, Alexis understands that Aline's instincts in such matters are much more to be trusted than his.


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