THE BOHEMIAN GIRL Opera in 3 acts. Music by Michael Balfe. Text by Alfred Bunn, based on a story by Cervantes as used in the ballet La Gypsy by Vernoy de Saint-Georges. First performance: London - Drury Lane - November 27, 1843. Revived Sadler's Wells (1932), Covent Garden Company in Liverpool 1951 and then at Covent Garden in a new version by Dennis Arundell. The lilting, memorable melodies and generally uncomplicated score pleased the opera-going public of the day. The opera was a success and created a craze for gypsy songs, novels and art. According to Kobbé's Complete Book of Opera, there are no subtleties in the libretto but the action of the piece is vigorous and as remote from everyday life as one could well imagine. The chief characters are either noblemen or gypsies - noblemen who have the power of life and death over people, and gypsies who may rob and cheat but also number amongst there companion beings as innocent and pure as the hero and heroines of the story. The action takes place at Presburg in Poland. STORY: Act 1 Count Arnheim, loyal to the Austrian Empire, entertains certain guests at his castle, where they raise the National Standard above the Emperor's statue, the Count meanwhile extolling a soldier's life. The guests depart for the chase without him. His daughter, Arline, a child six years old, accompanying them with her nurse. Thaddeus, an exiled Polish rebel, enters seeking refuge, which he finds in the company of a tribe of passing gipsies, who disguise him by order of their leader, Devilshoof, just in time to escape his pursuers. The huntsmen, with Florestein, a foolish nephew of Count Arnheim, return in terror with the tidings that Arline is attacked by a stag; Thaddeus rushes to her assistance, and restores her unhurt to the Count, whose gratitude induces him to invite the apparent gipsy to join the feast of rejoicing. At this feast Arnheim proposes the Emperor's health, which is declined boldly by Thaddeus, whose life is in danger for this act, but he is protected by the Count; Devilshoof, however, who has shared the republican enthusiasm of Thaddeus, is arrested and confined in the castle. He escapes, and is seen by the distracted company bearing away in his arms Arline, whose abduction suggests his revenge. Act 2 Twelve years have been past in sorrow by the Count; the gipsies are stationed at Presburg ready for a fair, led still by Devilshoof, who catches and robs Florestein, an incautious intruder; the Gipsy Queen, however, commands the restoration of his property; Devilshoof obeys, but reserves a diamond medallion for himself. Arline, reared among the gipsies and tended gently by Thaddeus, wakes from a sleep, and relates a strange dream, which Thaddeus knows is retrospective. She asks the history of her birth, which he hesitates to relate fearing lest her love should leave him. The Gipsy Queen who also loves Thaddeus now irritates Arline into jealousy, whereupon Thaddeus implores her to marry him. Their betrothal is witnessed by the tribe, who now set out for the fair. Here Arline attracts hosts of admirers, amongst them Florestein, who recognises his medallion on Arline's neck, where it has been cunningly placed by the Gipsy Queen. In spite of Thaddeus and the tribe, she is seized and conveyed to the Count's castle. Here an accident reveals to the father that the prisoner is his child. Act 3 Thaddeus implores Arline in a secret interview not to desert him, but the Count spurns the supposed vaga-
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