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The overture, songs, two duets, and glees in Shakespeare's _Comedy of Errors_, performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden; the words selected entirely from Shakespeare's Plays, Poems, and Sonnets. The music composed and the whole adapted and compressed from the score for the voice and pianoforte by Sir Henry R. Bishop, Composer and Director of the Music to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.
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Shakespeare's Plays, Poems, and Sonnets, with no reference to the play for which he was composing music. The overture is of the
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style. After four bars of slow music the theme of Ophelia's song in _Hamlet_,
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How shall I my true love know? , is played. A few bars afterwards a theme from _The Tempest_, then a very cheerful subject from _Macbeth_, followed by a bright little thing from _The Winter's Tale_. Then comes an old tune for
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When that I was {11} (_Twelfth Night_); next a melody from _The Tempest_ and
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St Valentine's Day lead pleasantly into the catch,
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Which is the properest day to drink, from _Twelfth Night_, all preparing the way for
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Under the greenwood tree (_As You Like It_). After this theme is given a fair chance, a subject from _The Winter's Tale_ is produced, followed by
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Blow, blow, from _As You Like It_. A sad little bit from _Macbeth_, succeeded by a very bright coda from _The Winter's Tale_, brings the overture to a conclusion. But why call it the
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Overture to _The Comedy of Errors_ ? There is not a suggestion or a line in this overture, except the one on the title-page, that has anything to do with the play to which that is supposed to be the opening, though it is beautifully printed as
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Shakespeariana, but why call it
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The Comedy of Errors
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It was a lover, from _As You Like It_. It is a simple but quite pretty song. The next is a song for Antipholus of Ephesus, words selected from Shakespeare's Sonnets; it is called
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Beauty's valuation, and is a good example of the composer's worst manner. Then comes a strange setting of
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Blow, blow, from _As You Like It_. The melody of the first part is by Dr Arne and the refrain by Mr Stephens, the whole arranged for four male voices by Bishop; it makes a strange medley! After this one is not surprised to find the
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Willow song from _Othello_ sung by Adriana to quite a cheerful tune. Dr Arne's
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Under the greenwood tree, arranged for a male quartet by Bishop, follows. The next number is a curious duet for Ceremon and Antipholus of Ephesus to the words beginning
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Saint Witnold footed thrice the world, from _King Lear_ (Act iii., Scene 4). There is no attempt to bring out the weirdness of these strange words. Bishop then composed a very obvious duet for tenor and baritone, with effective _cantabile_ {12} passages and plenty of pauses and shakes. Adriana now sings Bishop's setting of
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Come live with me (Marlowe), quite the prettiest number in the opera, though the words seem a little bold for her, and more suited to the nameless character, the last in Shakespeare's cast. Luciana then sings Sir Henry's
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Sweet rose, fair flower, words culled from _The Passionate Pilgrim_, but ascribed by Bishop to the Sonnets. Perhaps this was a
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What shall he have who killed the deer? The fourth act begins cheerfully by Adriana singing the composer's
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Take, oh take those lips away, which is really a very bad setting. _The Passionate Pilgrim_ is again drawn upon for the next number, a duet for Adriana and Luciana. This is a feeble affair rather in Horn's
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I know a bank manner, and the words are again attributed to
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The Sonnets. Sir Henry appears to have no more idea of what a sonnet really is than the London editor who asked a poet for a sonnet
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A pleasant change is caused by the glee party singing
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Come, thou monarch of the vine, from _Antony and Cleopatra_, as an unaccompanied trio. Luciana now sings
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The springtime of love, words from _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, a good florid vocal soprano solo; and the opera finishes with
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Lo, here the gentle lark,