Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

with her at once, and sets to work to woo her in a rough and ready manner, declaring to her friends
that he will certainly marry her, and undertake to transform her into a sweet-tempered and gentle
wife, quite unheedful of the angry protests of Katherina. The rest of the opera follows on the same
lines as the spoken comedy, Petruchio failing to turn up early at the wedding, finally appearing in
shabby garments, and, after the ceremony, carrying off the reluctant Katherina in sorry fashion.
Meanwhile, Lucentio and Hortensio, still prohibited from paying their suit to Bianca, hatch
separate plots for gaining access to their ladylove, the one disguising himself as a teacher of
music, and the other as a professor of Latin. They are admitted to the presence of Bianca, who
quickly penetrates their disguise, and has a merry time, playing one off against the other, finally,
however, giving preference and the avowal of her love to the happy Lucentio. Meanwhile
Petruchio and his bride are having a stormy honeymoon, the former engaging in various devices
for subduing the latter's haughty demeanour and resistance to his love; and by keeping from her all
those things she expresses a desire or liking for declaring none of them are worthy of her regardhe
leads her into a more amenable frame of mind. Finally, Katherina admits herself defeated, a
growing love for her masterful husband asserting itself above all feelings of pride and
independence, and in the last scene the triumphant and happy Petruchio presents her to her friends
in Padua as a gentle, sympathetic and loving wife.
60. THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH
Opera in Three Acts By Carl Goldmark
Libretto adapted from Charles Dickens' Fairy Story by A. M.Willner
First Produced Berlin, June, 1896
Chief Characters Dot, May, John, Edward, Tackleton, The Fairy-Cricket
THE subject-matter of this opera is adapted from Dickens' charming little domestic fairy-tale of
the same name, which it follows pretty closely in its main outlines, though the characters of Caleb
Plummer and his blind daughter and Mrs Fielding are left out. The scene is laid in a village in
England, and the first act takes place inside the cottage of honest John, the postilion; and the pretty
little Fairy-Cricket on the Hearth comes forth and sings a merry, cheerful song, relating how it
brings good-luck to all who will give it a welcome. It describes the sweet love of John and his
pretty wife, Dot, who, though married for some years, are still lovers; and it goes on to divulge the
beautiful secret which Dot is even now rejoicing over that at last a child will be born to them,
which will make their joy complete, the absence of children having been their one crumpled roseleaf.
As the Cricket retires to its nook, Dot enters, and gives vent to the mother's joy with which
she is possessed; but, wishing to preserve her precious secret a little longer, she resolves to give no
hint of it at present. Her pleasant thoughts are interrupted by the entrance of May, a pretty young
girl, a toy-maker, who is, however, weeping and full of woe because she has to be married next
day to old Tackleton, her master, who desires to take a young wife, and whose wealth will save
her old foster-father from want. May still loves her first and only sweetheart, Edward Plummer,
who, however, went off to South America to seek his fortune a few years ago, and is regarded as
lost, or dead. Dot comforts her, and as she retires with a gift of food for her foster-father, John the
Postilion now enters, glad to reach his cheery heart once more, and to kiss his pretty wife; and he
brings with him a stranger in the garb of an old sailor, who is in reality the long-lost Edward
Plummer, who has lust returned, and has come to his native village in disguise to see how matters