The Sorcerer - Melbourne Operatic Society

The Sorcerer was the third collaboration between Sir Arthur Sullivan, 37 years old at the time and Sir WS Gilbert, aged 41. It was first performed at the Opera Comique, London in 1877 and an early example of English light opera to compete with bawdy burlesques and French operettas popular at that time. Gilbert used his own original story 'The Elixir of Love' about a love potion distributed to the residents of a small village by a Cockney businessman who was a sorcerer. Alexis, son of Sir Marmaduke, and Aline, daughter of Lady Sangazure, commission the sorcerer, John Wellington Wells, to administer a love potion to all the villagers, believing married people will be unaffected. The potion works well but has unintended consequences which can only be reversed by Alexis or the sorcerer yielding his life to Ahrimanes, leaving them with a conundrum.