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).
