#the three sentence thing hits a SUDDEN DIFFICULTY SPIKE towards the end

[aporeticelenchus]

Gilbert and Sullivan three-sentence plot summaries

I’ve been promising @oceannocturne a brief Gilbert and Sullivan guide for a while, but it turns out that the “brief” part is tricky. I wanted to make a post with short summaries – no more that three sentences each – and a few song recs for each opera, but that quickly grew way too long for one post. So, here’s a post that’s just three sentence summaries for all the extant operas, for anyone who wants a quick idea of what’s going on in each of them. I’ll try to do a series of follow-ups with some specific songs linked and put in context.

The Sorcerer (aka The Love Potion AU) Alexis is marrying his beloved Aline, and he only wishes everyone else could be as happy and as in love as he. In fact, he wishes it so much that he hires the sorcerer John W. Wells to drug the entire town with a love potion! Chaos, predictably, ensues.

HMS Pinafore (aka Class Hierarchy and Boats) Captain Corcoran is the well-bred and well-mannered captain of the Pinafore, and he’s delighted when Lord Admiral Sir Joseph offers to marry his daughter Josephine and elevate the family station. But Josephine loves a member of her father’s crew, the simple sailor Ralph. Fortunately, love can level all rank (but not that much), and a British tar is any man’s equal – or so Sir Joseph always says!

The Pirates of Penzance (aka Look You All Probably Know This One Already) Frederic is the slave of duty, and in duty’s name he has served out an apprenticeship with a band of pirates, despite passionately longing to lead an honest life. When his term is up, he seeks out new love and plots to destroy his old piratical associates (in the name of duty). But the pirates still have a claim on Frederic, and he’s torn between his duty as pirate apprentice and his loyalty to his fiancée Mabel and her family.

Patience (aka ~*~Aesthetic~*~) The ladies of town all love the tragical aesthetic poet Bunthorne, who has in turn sworn his love to the milkmaid Patience, the only maiden in town who dislikes him. When Patience’s childhood friend (also turned poet) Archibald returns and confesses his love for her, Patience falls in love for the first time – but as she’s been told that love is completely selfless, she believes that she must love the odious Bunthorne rather than the too-wonderful Archibald. Meanwhile, a regiment of dragoons, who were all betrothed to the local ladies a year ago, are stationed in town and can’t figure out why the ladies are chasing a pair of poets instead of them.

Iolanthe (aka Parliament Fairies) The Arcadian shepherd Strephon has a secret – he’s half-fairy (from the waist up), and his mother Iolanthe was banished from the fairy court for daring to marry a human. Strephon loves Phyllis, but her guardian the Lord Chancellor is determined that she marry a peer (and secretly wishes to marry her himself!). A misunderstanding between Strephon and Phyllis leads to clash between the fairy court and the House of Peers, and the angry fairies makes Strephon a member of parliament and head of both parties, able to pass whatever legislation he chooses!

Princess Ida (aka #misandry) Twenty years ago, the infants Princess Ida and Prince Hilarion were betrothed, and Hilarion’s father Hildebrand is threatening war if Hilarion’s bride doesn’t appear. But when Ida’s father Gama arrives, he brings word that Ida has foresworn the company of men and converted Castle Adamant into a women’s college where no man is allowed. Hildebrand plans to march on Ida’s castle college with an army, but Hilarion hopes to infiltrate Castle Adamant himself and win Ida’s love first.

The Mikado (aka William S. Gilbert Discovers That Japan Is a Country That Exists) Runaway prince Nanki-Poo disguises himself as a wandering minstrel to escape an unwanted fiancée and search for his true beloved, Yum-Yum, only to find that she’s engaged to marry the village executioner Ko-Ko. Ko-Ko’s never performed an actual execution, and he’s been given notice that he’d better find a victim soon – and Nanki-Poo’s considering volunteering if it means he can marry Yum-Yum before he dies. And that’s all before his father, the Mikado, shows up in town with his “daughter-in-law-elect” in tow!

Ruddigore (aka SpooooOOOOOoooooky) The Baronet of Ruddigore suffers a terrible witch’s curse; the bearer of the title must commit a crime every day or else die in horrible agony. Lord Ruthven Murgatroyd should have inherited the title, but he faked his own death and lives as simple Robin, a timid and conscientious young man who (timidly) loves the beautiful Rose Maybud. But when Robin’s foster brother Richard becomes his rival for Rose, Robin’s true identity is revealed and he must live as the Bad Baronet he was born to be – or die a terrible death!

Yeomen of the Guard (aka The One That’s Almost a Grand Opera) Lord Fairfax, consigned to the Tower of London thanks to scheming relatives after his fortune, contrives to marry a random woman in the hour before his execution so that his wealth will pass to her instead. Poor Elise Maynard, fiancée of the wandering jester Jack Point, accepts the offe and marries Fairfax sight unseen, with a blindfold on. But Phoebe, who loves Fairfax, schemes with her father to free Fairfax and disguise him as her brother and a yeoman of the guard, leaving Elise torn between her old fiancé, her unknown husband, and the handsome new yeoman who’s started courting her…

The Gondoliers (aka Problems With Monarchy) Marco and Giuseppe are brothers and gondoliers, who have just chosen two beautiful ladies to marry. Right after their weddings, they’re informed that one of them (though no one knows which) is in fact the lost heir to the Kingdom of Barateria – and unbeknownst to them, that one was married at birth to Casilda, daughter of the Duke of Plaza Toro. The two agree to rule Barateria together until they can discover which of them is the true king, and as lifelong republicans they struggle to reconcile their ideals and their positions as monarchs.

Utopia, Limited (aka Corporations Are People) King Paramount of the island nation of Utopia is a king of autocratic power and absolute rule – aside from the minor fact that his two Wise Men have the authority to blow him up with a keg of dynamite if he steps a toe out of line. Paramount has decided to reform the entire nation of Utopia to be exactly like England, the country he admires most, and when his daughter Zara returns from her studies in England she brings back several Englishmen known as the Flowers of Progress. The Flowers devise a set of schemes to make Utopia more English than England itself, including turning the entire island and everyone one of its inhabitants into limited liability corporations!

The Grand Duke (aka A Not Very Good Revolution) The actor Ludwig is, along with his entire theatrical company, engaged in a revolutionary plot to assassinate the penny-pinching, hypochondriacal Grand Duke Rudolph and put their manager in his place. When Ludwig misinterprets their secret sign and spills the whole plot to the Grand duke’s detective, he pretends to inform on his fellow conspirators and convinces Rudolph to become legally dead for a day while Ludwig takes his place. But once Ludwig is in power, he changes the law to keep Rudolph “dead” and himself in charge forever, and has to deal with the ensuing tangle of obligations and commitments.

Bonus: Trial By Jury (aka The Short One) Edwin is being sued by his ex-fiancée Angelina for breach of promise of marriage after he threw her over for another woman. A completely impartial jury and wise and learned judge solve the ensuing legal tangle. This one is too short to even merit three sentences!