Somerset Opera

Patience was the sixth G & S collaboration and opened in April 1881 at the Opera Comique, moving in October to D'Oyly Carte's new theatre, the Savoy, the first theatre in the world to be lit entirely by electric lights.

Patience satirizes the 'aesthetic craze' of the 1870s and '80s, when the output of poets, composers, and artists was prolific - but, some argued, empty and self-indulgent. This artistic movement was so popular, and easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad, that it made Patience a big hit.

In front of Castle Bunthorne, a group of 'lovesick maidens' are all in love with the aesthetic poet Bunthorne ('Twenty lovesick maidens we'). Lady Jane, the oldest and plainest of the ladies, informs them that Bunthorne, far from returning their affections, has his heart set on the simple milkmaid Patience.