Walter Parke Walter Parke i(A100387 works by)
Gender: Male
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1 6 y separately published work icon Bobadil : Comic Opera in Three Acts Walter Parke , Luscombe Searelle (composer), 1884 Sydney : J. Miller , 1884 Z1329076 1884 single work musical theatre opera

Comic opera.

A comic opera that has also been described as 'opera bouffe', the story is taken from the Arabian Nights' story 'The Sleeper Awakened'. The storyline concerns Bobadil, a young Englishman who has fallen amongst the Philistines and been ruined by an Armenian money lender. He longs to be Sultan for a day if only to get revenge on his tormenters, a wish which by coincidence of fate he manages. The action also includes the swapping, disguising, and mistaking of identities, lust and love, escape from the executioner's blade, and of course, a happy ending. One review notes that the introductory section was not disimilar to Shakespeare's beginning in The Taming of the Shrew.

The opera's settings were:

Act 1. A Bazaar in an Eastern city;

Act 2. The Audience Chamber in the Sultan's Palace; and

Act 3. The Courtyard of an Eastern Lunatic Asylum.

The songs known to have been written for Bobadil are 'I'm a Man of a Very Old Nation', 'The Secret of the Rose is Sweet', 'Good Night' (unaccompanied quintette), 'Am I Sleeping' (quartet), and 'Ah Me! I would I were a Peasant Born' (sung by Princess Zorayda).
1 7 y separately published work icon Estrella : Opera Comique in Three Acts Walter Parke , Luscombe Searelle (composer), 1883 Sydney : Williamson Garner and Musgrove , 1884 Z1413986 1883 single work musical theatre opera Set in Venice, the action moves from the shore of the Adriatic to the Palace of the Count, and finally to the Doge's Palace of Justice. The narrative concerns Estrella, betrothed to a Count, but actually in love with Lorenzo, a young advocate. The Count schemes to test his wife-to-be's affection, and having found this out Lorenzo makes a plan with his friends to carry the Count off disguised as pirates. In the second act the count (disguised as a Hebrew moneylender) tells of his own capture and death, and that he was obliged to bring his last words to the young fiancée of the count. A second ceremony is performed, now between Lorenzo and Estrella. The third act, set in the Doge's Palace, which settles the problem once and for all, has been described as being influenced by the trial scene in The Merchant of Venice (Sydney Morning Herald 29 September 1884, p.8).
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