Patience (Bunthorne's Bride)

A deliciously sharp satire on the Aesthetic movement, Gilbert's 1881 operetta skewers the pretensions of artists who mistake affectation for art. Bunthorne, a smugly "idealized" poet draped in lilies and sensuality, has cultivated an elaborate aesthetic persona precisely to captivate the female masses. They adore him, everyone adores him, except Patience, the resolutely plain dairymaid who finds his entire existence profoundly boring. But Bunthorne's carefully constructed empire crumbles when Archibald Grosvenor arrives, more poetical, more aesthetic, more devastatingly fashionable than Bunthorne could ever dream of being. The women desert him in a flock. So Bunthorne does what any reasonable spurned poet would do: he curses Grosvenor with stoutness and terrible taste. What follows is a gloriously absurd battle of vanity, where love might finally break through the performance if anyone can remember what's real. The wit hasn't dimmed in over a century: Gilbert's target is anyone who has ever crafted a persona for applause, and his precision remains devastating.