Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

The New York Times recently remarked that "Gilbert's pen was rarely sharper" than when he first sketched the characters of Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride. Lampooning England's 19th century aesthetic movement, Patience is a comic opera that marked the sixth operatic collaboration between Gilbert and composer Sullivan when it debuted way back in 1881. Poking fun at the self-indulgent artistic output of England's poets circa the 1870s and '80s, this satire finds a gaggle of lovesick maidens falling for a smarmy poet, Bunthorne, who in turn finds himself smitten with a milkmaid by the name of Patience. But Patience is far more taken with cows than she is couplets, and the platoon of soldiers who have just returned home are none too happy to find their ladies -- the aforementioned lovesick maidens -- smitten with an artsy-fartsy fake.