|
''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 parodies written early in his career, Gilbert selected operatic and popular tunes from a variety of sources, and fitted new words to them. Although he used only one tune from Balfe's original, ''The Merry Zingara'' is the burlesque in which Gilbert's libretto stays closest to the original work. The cast of characters is nearly the same, as is the plot. In his lyrics, too, Gilbert paid great attention to the speech-patterns of his originals. Although, as contemporary critics repeatedly remarked, the libretti of Gilbert's burlesques were more literate and intelligent than those of most of the genre, he nonetheless followed the conventional formula of rhyming couplets and tortuous puns, together with plenty of young actresses in tights or short dresses, which were the mainstays of Victorian burlesque. ==Background== ''The Merry Zingara'' was the third of a series of five operatic burlesques written early in Gilbert's career, between 1866 and 1869. The first was ''Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack'', a musical spoof of Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore'' (1866). Next was ''La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps!'', a parody of Donizetti's ''La fille du régiment'' (1867). After ''The Merry Zingara'' came ''Robert the Devil'' (1868), parodying Meyerbeer's romantic opera ''Robert le diable'', and ''The Pretty Druidess; or, the Mother, the Maid, and the Mistletoe Bough'' (1869), a burlesque of Bellini's ''Norma''.〔Stedman, pp. 34–62〕 ''The Merry Zingara'' premiered as the centrepiece in a triple bill. It was preceded by a "domestic melodrama", entitled ''Daddy Gray'', and followed by a farce called ''A Quiet Family''.〔 The libretto is set in rhyming couplets of ten syllables each, as are all the Gilbert burlesques. ''The Merry Zingara'', the only one of Gilbert's burlesques to parody a work in English, stays closest to the original work, ''The Bohemian Girl''. The plot and cast of characters are essentially identical, except for the ending, where, in lieu of the accidental death of the Gypsy Queen, Gilbert turns her into Count Arnheim's long-lost wife. In his lyrics, too, Gilbert paid great attention to the speech-patterns of his originals, for example parodying "Voici le sabre de mon père" as "Tea in the arbour I'll prepare", and "Sound now the trumpet fearlessly" as "Brown now the crumpet fearlessly." In ''The Bohemian Girl'', when Thaddeus reveals to Count Arnheim that he is a Polish nobleman rather than a gypsy, he shows a parchment to prove the fact. The original libretto includes this couplet: "My birth is noble, unstained my crest/ As is thine own, let this attest". In Gilbert's version, Thaddeus produces a schedule of tax assessments, singing: "My men in livery, my horses, my crest/ Which is my own, were thus assess't" (Scene V).〔In the nineteenth century, licence fees were imposed on carriages, manservants, dogs, horses, and coats of arms (sometimes informally called crests).〕 The success of ''Dulcamara'' and ''La Vivandière'' had shown that Gilbert could write entertainingly in this form, peppered with the dreadful puns traditional in burlesques of the period. The libretti also, at times, show signs of the satire that would later be a defining part of his work.〔(See ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature'', Volume XIII, Chapter VIII, Section 15 (1907–21) ) and (Crowther, Andrew, ''The Life of W. S. Gilbert'' ).〕 They led to Gilbert's more mature "fairy comedies", such as ''The Palace of Truth'' (1870) and ''Pygmalion and Galatea'' (1871),〔(Article by Andrew Crowther ).〕 and Gilbert's six German Reed Entertainments which, in turn, led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Although Gilbert gave up direct parodies of opera within a couple of years of ''The Merry Zingara'', his parodic pokes at grand opera continued to be seen in the Savoy operas.〔("'The Nun, The Dun and the Son of a Gun', A burlesque of Scribe and Meyerbeer's ''Robert the Devil'', by W. S. Gilbert" ) in ''Jewry in Music''〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Merry Zingara」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|