The Vicar of Bray (opera)

The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances.

[1] The opera is based on the character described in a satirical 18th-century English folk song "The Vicar of Bray", as well as on The History of Sandford and Merton, a series of 18th century moral tales.

Over this period he embraced whichever form of liturgy, Protestant or Catholic, that was favoured by the monarch of the day to retain his position as vicar of Bray.

In the opera, the vicar switches between "High" and "Low" Church, that is, from ritualistic Anglo-Catholic ceremonies to austere evangelical forms of worship.

"[2] The influential theatrical newspaper The Era found the plot "singularly deficient" in interest, but praised "the smartness of the dialogue" and the "easy and fluent" music, though judging it as having "but little originality.

[5] When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership disbanded after the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte was forced to find new works to present at the Savoy Theatre.

In the meantime, when The Nautch Girl closed after a modestly successful run, Carte revived The Vicar of Bray at the Savoy on 28 January 1892.

As The Times wrote, "The run of [Grundy's] The Private Secretary changed the views even of the most serious playgoers, and it may be remarked in passing that the clerical functions of the Rev.

Now that the Vicar and all his students have become High Church they are doomed to celibacy, and the chorus of lady Sunday School teachers is distraught at the loss of their matrimonial prospects.

Tommy Merton is prepared to marry Dorothy, but suddenly Sandford, who everyone supposed was devoured by cannibals, returns as an improved man – no longer pompous.