Bobadil

Bobadil ("braggart") is a comic opera in three acts by Luscombe Searelle (1853-1907)[1], with a libretto by Walter Parke.

The original text

Based on The Sleeper Awakened, a story from the Arabian Nights, it also been described as opera bouffe in some cases, and was first produced at the New Opera House, Sydney by the Majeroni and Wilson Comic Opera Company on 22 November 1884.

Published in Sydney by Jas Miller & Co., 1884.

The opera had 223 performances in Australia, before being presented in South Africa.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1887: Presented in by the Searelle Opera Company at the Theatre Royal, Cape Town as part of a popular six-month season of opera. Also toured to Port Elizabeth.

Sources

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/19446898?q&versionId=22851227

https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C595244

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 385

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