It opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 December 1875, running for three months, and toured the provinces in 1876.
[3] It was revived again in 1883, and yet again in 1888 starring Marion Terry in February and Julia Neilson in May, and also at Crystal Palace that year.
They won him artistic credentials as a writer of wide range, who was as comfortable with human drama as with farcical humour.
Broken Hearts is one of several Gilbert plays, including The Wicked World, Princess Ida, Fallen Fairies and Iolanthe, where the introduction of males into a tranquil world of women brings "mortal love" that wreaks havoc with the peaceful status quo.
[8] Some of the play's themes and plot devices resurface in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard and Princess Ida.
[10] Gilbert wrote Broken Hearts for his friend, John Hare of the Court Theatre.
[11] Gilbert sent an advance copy of the script to his old friend, the critic Clement Scott, who was then the editor of The Theatre.
Gilbert was hurt and called Scott's remark "Most offensive, and likely to cause a great deal of injury to my play.
[14] It was generally well reviewed, although it did not catch on with audiences and was not a financial success, but it remained one of Gilbert's two favourites among all the plays he had written (the other was Gretchen, an adaptation of the Faust legend).
Later, Gilbert had a line from the play engraved on the sun-dial at his home, Grim's Dyke: "even Time is hastening to its end.
"[6] At the time Broken Hearts was written, Gilbert and Sullivan had already produced their hit one-act comic opera Trial by Jury as well as their burlesque-style opera, Thespis, and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte was seeking funding to bring them together again.
Pinafore would become such a runaway hit that Gilbert would only produce five theatrical works away from Sullivan in the eleven years following.
Act I On a tropical island in the 14th century, a group of noblewomen have fled the world, their hearts having been broken through the loss of their lovers.
The only male allowed on the island is their servant Mousta, "a deformed ill-favoured dwarf, hump-backed and one-eyed" and therefore no threat to their maidenhood.
He weaves a tale of being a man enchanted into the sundial, who will be released if a maiden would love it truly for a year and a day.
She recognises his voice as that of the sundial, and believing him to be its disenchanted spirit, pours out her love for him, much to Florian's dismay.
Not knowing how to tell her he doesn't love her, and recognising that the blow would kill her, he sends her away with a promise to return presently.
Lady Hilda has come to tell her fountain about Vavir's now-incarnate lover, and begs it, if it can, to take human form.
As Hilda prays for her sister's strength, Florian pleads with her that the girl must live, but Vavir collapses in his arms.
Act III About a half-hour before sunset, Melusine and Amanthis watch as Vavir sleeps at the foot of the sundial.