|
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company staged performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas in the UK, Europe, America, South Africa and elsewhere from the nineteenth century to the twenty first. Playwright/lyricist Sir W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operettas or comic operas in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works known as the Savoy Operas. ...
The Savoy Operas are a series of operettas written by Gilbert and Sullivan. ...
History The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company officially celebrated its centenary in 1975 reckoning its first performances to have been in March 1875 when Trial by Jury received its first performance at the Royalty Theatre, London. In fact Richard D'Oyly Carte was not then an independent impresario but merely the manager for the directress of the theatre (Madame Selina Dolaro) and it would be more accurate to take a later date as the founding of his own opera company. Nevertheless, what is certain is that Carte brought W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan together to produce their first hit. (An earlier collaboration for a different management, Thespis, had not been unsuccessful but made only modest impact.) Trial by Jury is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in one act (the only single-act Savoy Opera). ...
Richard DOyly Carte (May 3, 1844 – April 3, 1901) was a London theatrical impresario during the latter half of the nineteenth century. ...
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (November 18, 1836 – May 29, 1911) was a British dramatist and librettist best known for his operatic collaborations with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. ...
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (May 13, 1842 – November 22, 1900) was a British composer best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist William S. Gilbert. ...
Thespis of Icaria (6th century BC) is claimed to be the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor in a play although the reality is undoubtedly more complex. ...
In 1876, Carte launched ‘the Comedy Opera Company’ which in 1877 staged Gilbert and Sullivan’s new operetta, The Sorcerer at the Opéra Comique theatre in London. This was enough of a success to prompt another collaboration, HMS Pinafore, which opened in May 1878. After a shaky start to the run (generally held to be due to a heatwave emptying theatres that summer) Pinafore became a smash hit, which led to the parting of the ways for Carte and the other directors of the Comedy Opera Company, who wished to have this new goldmine to themselves. After a public fracas in which the directors tried to seize the scenery during a performance, Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan on the one hand and the directors on the other staged rival productions of H M S Pinafore, until the public ended the argument by flocking to Carte’s staging and ignoring the rival. Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Sorcerer The Sorcerer is the earliest surviving two-act Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. ...
Wikisource has original text related to this article: HMS Pinafore H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass that Loved a Sailor is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in two acts, with music by composer Arthur S. Sullivan and libretto by William S. Gilbert. ...
This marks the undisputed start of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. From 1880 to 1896 Carte’s London company presented each new operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan (and many others besides). In addition, Carte maintained touring companies in the UK and, from time to time, in Europe and America too. Carte’s companies premièred The Pirates of Penzance practically simultaneously in New York and England. Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Pirates of Penzance The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta in two acts. ...
After Gilbert and Sullivan’s final new collaboration, The Grand Duke, in 1896 ran for only 123 performances (compared with 672 for The Mikado a decade earlier) Carte presented revivals of the earlier hits and a few novelties by other writers. After the deaths of Sullivan and Carte in 1900 and 1901, the latter’s widow Helen, an astute businesswoman, worked with Gilbert to stage repertory seasons of the operas in London, while touring companies continued to play them in the provinces. By 1904 there was, in effect, only a single company. The Grand Duke, or The Statutory Duel, was the final operetta written by William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. ...
The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in two acts. ...
Helen D’Oyly Carte died in 1913, and the company was inherited by Carte’s son Rupert. He let the existing touring continue during the Great War, but by 1920 he had re-established a small company to tour smaller towns and soon instigated newsworthy London seasons for the main company, bringing in new designers such as Charles Ricketts R A and the young Malcolm Sargent as musical director for the London seasons. Charles De Sousy Ricketts (1866 - 1931) was a versatile English artist and designer, best known for his work as book designer and typographer from 1896 to 1904 with the Vale Press, and his work in the theatre as a set designer. ...
Sir (Harold) Malcolm (Watts) Sargent (April 29, 1895 – October 3, 1967) was a British conductor, organist and composer. ...
The smaller company was disbanded in 1927 and thereafter there was a single D’Oyly Carte Opera Company until its dissolution in 1982.
The company’s musical director from 1929 was Isidore Godfrey, who retained the position until 1968 and last conducted the company in 1975. Guest conductors included Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Charles Groves, and Sir Charles Mackerras. Isidore Godfrey (born London 27 Sep 1900, died London 12 Sep 1977) was musical director of the DOyly Carte Opera Company from 1929 to 1968. ...
Sir (Harold) Malcolm (Watts) Sargent (April 29, 1895 – October 3, 1967) was a British conductor, organist and composer. ...
Sir Charles Groves (March 10, 1915 - June 20, 1992), was a British conductor. ...
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE (born November 17, 1925) is an Australian conductor. ...
Rupert D’Oyly Carte died in 1948 and his daughter Bridget took control. She too brought in new talent to redesign the productions. In 1961 the company’s monopoly of the operas lapsed with the end of the copyright on Gilbert’s words (Sullivan’s music had already come out of copyright at the end of 1950). Bridget D’Oyly Carte made the company and all its assets over to an independent trust with the aim of securing the company’s future.
The steady rise in the cost of touring gradually made the company unprofitable, until in the early 1980s it could no longer keep going, and on February 27, 1982 it gave its last performance, at the Adelphi Theatre in the Strand, London.
Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte died in 1985, leaving in her will a large legacy to enable the company to be revived. From 1988 to 2003 the new company staged the operas, and on occasion operettas by Offenbach and Johann Strauss. Once again costs outran receipts, public subsidy was denied by the English Arts Council, and the company suspended productions in May 2003. Offenbach holds many meanings. ...
Johann Strauss is the name of three famous Austrian composers: Johann Strauss I (1804-1849), composer, popularizer of the waltz Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), composer, son of Johann I, known as the Waltz King Johann Strauss III (1866-1939), composer, son of Eduard Strauss See also: Strauss This is...
Eras Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados frequently use the names of the principal comedians of the Company as shorthand for its different eras. Thus, after the sudden death of Sullivan's brother, who had created the role of the Learned Judge in ‘’Trial by Jury’’, the unknown George Grossmith was recruited, and though he left the company before the last three operas were written all the principal patter parts are traditionally called the 'Grossmith' roles. George Grossmith, as illustrated in The Idler magazine, 1897 George Grossmith (December 9, 1847 - March 1, 1912) was an English actor and comic writer, best remembered for his work with Gilbert & Sullivan. ...
After Grossmith left the most notable players of his roles during the rest of Gilbert's lifetime were Walter Passmore and Charles Herbert Workman. Both these singers made recordings of songs from the Savoy operas, Passmore using a parlando style and Workman displaying a firm but not especially characterful baritone voice. No complete recordings of the operas were made in these early years.
From 1909 to the 1930s the patter man was Sir Henry Lytton. The fact of his receiving a knighthood indicates the high profile of the D'Oyly Carte Company in the inter-war era. Nevertheless, Lytton was very much an actor rather than a singer, and when HMV embarked on a series of complete recordings of the operas Lytton was not invited to record most of his roles, the concert singer George Baker being brought in to substitute. Another name remembered from this period was Darrell Fancourt, whose portrayal of the Mikado was thought definitive in its day. Sir Henry Lytton (born London, 3 January 1865, died London 15 August 1936) was the leading exponent of the patter roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century. ...
There have been a number of people named George Baker: George Pierce Baker - US drama professor George Fisher Baker - US philanthropist George Baker (politician) - a Canadian Senator George Baker (cartoonist) - Sad Sack comic strip George Baker (actor) - a British actor George Baker (Dutch singer and songwriter) - Dutch recording artist, best...
Lytton was succeeded in 1934 by Martyn Green who (with a gap during the Second World War, covered by Grahame Clifford) played the parts until 1951, when he and several other company members left to work in America. Green's time with the company is remembered for the early Decca recordings of the operas. Martyn Green (1899 - 1975) was an actor primarily known for his work in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. ...
Green was succeeded by Peter Pratt, a fine comic actor but unusually in these roles a bass-baritone rather than a light baritone. He left the company after a comparatively short time, in 1959. His successor was John Reed, regarded by several generations of Savoyards as the finest of all. Other stars from this era were Thomas Round, Donald Adams, Gillian Knight, Valerie Masterson and Kenneth Sandford, all of whom except the last left the company for the wider operatic stage of Covent Garden, Sadlers Wells, Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere. Peter Pratt (March 21, 1923 – January 11, 1995) was a British actor and bass singer who started his career in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas but later moved to radio and television work. ...
John Reed, (1751-1831), U.S. politician John Reed, (1781-1860), U.S. politician, son of the above John Reed, (1887-1920), journalist and activist, subject of the 1981 film Reds John F. (Jack) Reed, (1949- ), U.S. politician, senator John Shepard Reed, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange...
Valerie Masterson (soprano) was born in Birkenhead and after studying at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool and the Royal College of Music, she made her debut as Frasquita in Carmen in Salzburg in 1963. ...
Covent Garden is a district in central London and within the easterly bounds of the City of Westminster. ...
Sadlers Wells theatre, 2005 Sadlers Wells Theatre is located on Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London. ...
Aix (prounounced eks), or, to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, Aix-en-Provence is a city in southern France, some 30 km north of Marseille. ...
On Reed's retirement in 1979 his understudy James Conroy-Ward took over until the closure of the company in 1982.
From 1988 the revived company was less settled in its casting, using guest artists for each production. The most regularly seen patter men were Eric Roberts and Richard Suart, both of whom regularly perform the ‘Grossmith’ roles for other opera companies. Others have included Sam Kelly, Jasper Carrott, Paul Barnhill, Paul Bentley and Simon Butteriss. Eric Roberts Eric Anthony Roberts (born on April 18, 1956, in Biloxi, Mississippi) is an American film actor. ...
Sam Kelly (born in Manchester, England, December 19, 1943) is a British actor. ...
Jasper Carrott - (Audio tape cover) Jasper Carrott OBE (born Robert Davis, March 14, 1945) is an English comedian. ...
Well-known Gilbert & Sullivan actors Martyn Green (1899 - 1975) was an actor primarily known for his work in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. ...
George Grossmith, as illustrated in The Idler magazine, 1897 George Grossmith (December 9, 1847 - March 1, 1912) was an English actor and comic writer, best remembered for his work with Gilbert & Sullivan. ...
Sir Henry Lytton (born London, 3 January 1865, died London 15 August 1936) was the leading exponent of the patter roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century. ...
Valerie Masterson (soprano) was born in Birkenhead and after studying at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool and the Royal College of Music, she made her debut as Frasquita in Carmen in Salzburg in 1963. ...
Dennis Olsen (born February 28, 1938 in Adelaide, South Australia), is an accomplished pianist, actor, director and is Australias leading exponent of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. ...
Peter Pratt (March 21, 1923 – January 11, 1995) was a British actor and bass singer who started his career in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas but later moved to radio and television work. ...
John Reed is an English baritone singer and actor, known for his performances in the comic leads of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. ...
Reference - Robin Wilson & Frederic Lloyd:
-
- Gilbert & Sullivan - The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History - Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, USA (1984)
|
Feeds |
Contact