Patience

Inspired by the aesthetic movement in English arts and letters, this comic operetta is about the rivalry between two poets for the affections of a group of silly women. While the work was intended as ridicule, it in fact elevated the profiles of several of its targets, such as the painter James McNeill Whistler, the poet Algernon Swinburne, and the Pre-Raphaelite artists. It opened in April 1878 and enjoyed a long run, eventually transferring to the newly built Savoy Theatre, which it opened, becoming the first British theatrical production to be lit electrically.