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The first of William Wallace's six operas by Wallace, Maritana is often cited as an inspiration for a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Yeomen of the Guard. While awaiting execution in a Spanish prison Don Caesar is induced to marry a heavily-veiled woman so that his death will be by firing squad rather than decapitation. The marriage is being arranged by Don Jose, a government minister who plans to later use the woman in a plot to compromise the King. When Don Caesar escapes he disguises himself as a monk and goes looking for the woman.
Wallace and Fitzball's opera is itself based on the 1844 play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir, which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don César de Bazan.
Maritana was first staged in Australia in 1849. It was revived on a number of occasions during the late-nineenth century and also became the source of several burlesque adaptations.
Adaptations
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Maritana
Mary Tanner
1866
single work
musical theatre
burlesque
humour
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts, composed by William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865) with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792-1873). It was adapted expressly for Christy's Minstrels by W. M. Akhurst and was described in the Argus as 'the nigger opera of Mary Tanner' (27 August 1866, p.5).
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Maritana
Bent and Bachelder’s Anglo-American Christy Minstrels
,
1881
single work
musical theatre
burlesque
humour
Set in Spain the storyline concerns Don Caesar who awaits execution in prison. While there he is induced to marry a heavily-veiled woman so that his death will be by firing squad rather than decapitation. The marriage is being arranged by Don Jose, a government minister who plans to later use the woman in a plot to compromise the King. When Don Caesar escapes he disguises himself as a monk and goes looking for the woman.
- Mary Turner F. E. Hiscocks , Hiscocks' Federal Minstrels , 1885 single work musical theatre burlesque humour
Notes
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In her entry on Wallace for the Australian Dictionary of Biography Catherine Mackerras writes ' there is no real evidence for the tradition that Wallace composed it either in Sydney or Tasmania.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Before the Curtain
1886
single work
review
— Appears in: Table Talk , 13 August 1886; (p. 13)
— Review of Maritana 1845 single work musical theatre
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Before the Curtain
1886
single work
review
— Appears in: Table Talk , 13 August 1886; (p. 13)
— Review of Maritana 1845 single work musical theatre
