Lyric Theatre: The Sorcerer

Alexis, a well-meaning but misguided young man in love with Aline, believes that true love would solve all the world’s problems.  He engages a sorcerer to create a love potion for all the villagers to drink.  The spell puts them to sleep for 12 hours after which they will fall in love with the first unmarried person of the opposite gender they meet (after all, this IS Victorian England).

The resulting pairings are unexpected and intolerable.  How can the spell be reversed?

Premiering in 1877, The Sorcerer was Gilbert and Sullivan’s third collaboration, and their first surviving full length work.  It was an early example of Gilbert’s so-called “magic lozenge” plot, in which a supernatural agent causes illogical behavior in people.  He would propose variations on this plot to Sullivan many times in later years, but once was enough for Sullivan (although he would set the similarly-themed The Beauty Stone for other librettists in 1898).

The operetta underwent major revisions for its 1884 revival.  The wait time for the potion had been 30 minutes; it became 12 hours in 1884.  As a result, Sullivan had to revise the opening of Act II.  This is the version we will perform.