'Beware of Earworms' warning from operatic society

This Spring, the Bristol Gilbert & Sullivan Operatic Society (BGSOS) is following up its 2022 success with HMS Pinafore by staging Patience: “The best Gilbert & Sullivan opera you’ve never heard of”.

The Gilbert & Sullivan operettas are an ancestor of the musical, and of all the G&S collaborations, Patience is the show where this is most clear. Composed directly after Pirates of Penzance and before Iolanthe, but a little less “operatic” than either, Arthur Sullivan was at the very top of his comic-opera game and Patience is packed with whistle-worthy tunes. “You’ll go home humming something from the show, ” said BGSOS Chair Hannah Long, “be warned that Patience contains a lot of high-class earworms”.

WS Gilbert’s storyline mocks the nineteenth century Aesthetic Movement – it is sometimes claimed that the character of pretentious poet, Reginald Bunthorne, was based on Oscar

Wilde. It sets a chorus of aesthetic maidens, smitten with a pair of rival poets, against a military chorus of cavalrymen, highly indignant at being abandoned.

But the wider theme is about the surface appearance that we all present to the world. The poets are only in it for the adoration, the maidens change their romantic allegiance at the drop of a hat, the blunt soldiers are well aware how sexy their uniforms look.

Even the down-to-earth heroine, Patience herself, is persuaded to fall in love in the socially-approved manner.

This theme – social image versus sincerity – is one that goes beyond its Victorian origin and resonates in any age.

“Today, Bunthorne would be a social media influencer and the regiment would feature in a Gareth Malone TV series,” suggests Hannah. “Our production doesn’t bring it quite that up-to-date but sets it in the 1920’s – which apart from anything else gives us a great sequins-opportunity!”

Patience will be showing at the Redgrave Theatre, Clifton, from 30 March to 1 April 2023 (7.30pm Thursday, Friday; Saturday 2.00pm matinee and 6:30 evening). Tickets are available from www.bristolgsos. co.uk or directly through the Redgrave Theatre.

St. Peter's Ladies Group in Filton has been busy once again fundraising for BUST (Breast Cancer Unit Support Trust).

The Ladies Group were delighted to welcome to their recent meeting Jenny Wookey and Simon Cawthorn, both trustees of the charity, and were very pleased to present them a cheque for £500, which will be put towards a new scanner.

BUST is a local charity, formed in 1991 by three patients and it is based in Southmead Hospital. These patients heard that Consultant Surgeon, Simon Cawthorn needed £20,000 for an ultrasound scanner. They fund raised and achieved this in less than 2 years and from there the fund has grown and grown. There is now a whole team of unpaid volunteers who help. To date over £1,984,000 has been raised.

Simon told the group he had just returned from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe where breast cancer is common, not just in women but also in men. He went there