The Importance of Being Earnest (opera)

Algernon Moncrieff's flat in London

Algernon is playing his own variations on Auld Lang Syne on the piano while his butler prepares afternoon tea. John "Jack" Worthing, whom Algernon knows as Ernest, arrives. 'Ernest' has come from the country to propose to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon, however, refuses his consent until 'Ernest' explains why his cigarette case bears the inscription "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack." 'Ernest' is forced to admit to living a double life. In the country, he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward Cecily, goes by the name of John or Jack, and pretends that he has a wastrel younger brother named Ernest in London. In the city, meanwhile, he assumes the identity of the libertine Ernest. Algernon confesses to a similar deception: he pretends to have an invalid friend named Bunbury in the country, whom he can "visit" whenever he wishes to avoid an unwelcome social obligation.

Gwendolen and her formidable mother Lady Bracknell (sung by a male bass) call on Algernon. Asserting the superiority of German music over French, Lady Bracknell gives a rendition of Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy. Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She accepts, but seems to love him mostly because of his professed name of Ernest. Jack resolves to himself that he will be rechristened "Ernest". Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to assess his worthiness as a suitor for Gwendolen. Horrified to learn that Jack was adopted after being discovered as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station, she forbids him further contact with her daughter. Gwendolen manages to secretly promise Jack her undying love. As Jack gives her his address in the country, Algernon surreptitiously notes it.

The garden of John Worthing's estate

Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, who extols the German language, also giving a rendition of the Ode to Joy. Algernon arrives, pretending to be Ernest Worthing, and soon charms Cecily. Long fascinated by her Uncle Jack's mysterious black sheep brother, she is predisposed to fall for Algernon in his role of Ernest (a name she, like Gwendolen, is apparently particularly fond of). Therefore, Algernon, too, plans for the rector, Dr. Chasuble, to rechristen him "Ernest". Meanwhile, Jack has decided to abandon his double life. He arrives and announces his brother's death in Paris, a story immediately undermined by Algernon's presence in the guise of Ernest. Gwendolen now enters. During the temporary absence of the two men, she meets Cecily, and each woman indignantly declares that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". The atmosphere between the two (in a dialogue effected via megaphones) grows chillier, accompanied in the orchestra by the rhythmic demolition of a stack of dinner plates.[2][5] When Jack and Algernon reappear, their deceptions are exposed; they immediately quarrel about each other's disastrous 'Bunburying'.

The morning-room of Worthing's estate

The girls forgive the men on learning that they are both prepared to undergo re-christening on their behalf. Arriving in pursuit of her daughter, Lady Bracknell is astonished to learn that Algernon and Cecily are engaged. The revelation of Cecily's fortune (£130,000) soon dispels Lady Bracknell's initial doubts over the young lady's suitability, but then Jack announces that, as Cecily's guardian, he forbids her engagement. Jack will consent to Cecily's marriage only if Lady Bracknell agrees to his own union with Gwendolen—something she declines to do. The impasse is broken when Lady Bracknell hears mention of Miss Prism, and recognises her as the person who, twenty-eight years earlier, as a family nursemaid, had taken a baby boy for a walk in a perambulator and never returned. Challenged, Miss Prism explains that she had absent-mindedly put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the perambulator, and the baby in a handbag, which she had left at Victoria Station. Jack produces the very same handbag, proving that he is the lost baby, whom Lady Bracknell identifies as the elder son of her late sister, and thus Algernon's elder brother after all. Having acquired such respectable relations, he is now acceptable as a suitor for Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell informs Jack that, as the first-born, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. The cast examines the Army Lists (via mobile phones) and discovers that his father's name—and hence his own real name—is in fact Ernest. Lady Bracknell complains to her newfound relative: "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality." "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta", he replies, "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being Earnest."