Musicians - Gilbert and Sullivan

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	Musicians - Gilbert and Sullivan

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.

History

Their first collaboration was Thespis (1871). At the time, W. S. Gilbert was widely known for the Bab Ballads, a popular series of doggerel verse that explored the farthest reaches of topsy-turvydom, such as the ballad of Captain Reece, whose "sisters, cousins, aunts and niece" sailed on the H.M.S. Mantelpiece. He was a successful man of the London theatrical scene, with a string of sketches, comedies, pantomimes, burlesques and musicals which were accounted successful by the standards of the day. Arthur Sullivan was the most popular musician in Britain and regarded as the bright young hope of serious British music. He was much in demand as a conductor and composer of oratorios, anthems and hymns. He was also earning a considerable income by churning out popular ballads, the Victorian equivalent of Top Forty hits.

Thespis was an extravaganza in which the gods of the classical world, now become elderly, were temporarily replaced by a troupe of Nineteenth Century actors and actresses. In concept, the piece was consistent with the Offenbachian Orpheus in the Underworld and The Beautiful Helen which (in translation) then dominated the English musical stage. Thespis had a run estimated at between 64 and 80 performances at the small and not especially attractive Opera Comique Theatre. It was successful as such things were then measured, even moderately profitable, but perceived by no one at the time as the beginning of a great collaboration. The musical score was never published and, except for one song and one chorus, has entirely perished. However, some of the music was recycled by the collaborators into later works. Composers since then have attempted to fill in the gaps by supplying "Sullivan-like" music for the play.

Gilbert and Sullivan's first major hit was Trial by Jury (1875). Impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte had hit on the idea of creating an English national opera. He asked W. S. Gilbert for a one-act work to serve as an afterpiece for Offenbach's popular but short La Perichole. Gilbert had already written just such a short piece on commission from another producer, whose unexpected death had left Gilbert's work an orphan. He extracted the libretto of Trial by Jury from his pocket and handed it to Carte. Carte was delighted with it. He suggested that it be set to music by Sullivan and he brought the two men together. Sullivan was equally delighted. Trial by Jury, with Sullivan's brother, Fred, as the Learned Judge, was added to the bill with La Perichole and proved itself to be even more popular than Offenbach's work. Trial by Jury ran for 135 performances, a new record for an English musical, far outdistancing the former record holder, The Beggar's Opera (1728). It is rather self-evident, but is unique because it was the only operetta with no spoken dialogue.

The Sorcerer (1877) is the first full-length example of what came to be known as the Savoy operas (although the Savoy Theatre had yet to be built.) D'Oyly Carte asked Gilbert for a comic operetta that would serve as the centerpiece for an evening's entertainment. Gilbert rummaged around in his published comic verse and hit on the tale of a respectable Cockney businessman who happened to be a sorcerer, a purveyor of blessings (not much called for) and curses (very popular).

With The Sorcerer, the D'Oyly Carte repertory and production system came into being. Until this time, Gilbert had been forced to contend with casts built around one or two established stars, as had been the case with Thespis, a casually collected group of supporting players and a pick-up band of musicians. From The Sorcerer onwards, Gilbert would no longer hire stars, he would create them. Gilbert hired the performers, subject to veto from Sullivan on purely musical grounds. He oversaw the designs of sets and costumes. He directed the performers on stage. Sullivan oversaw musical preparation.

The result of all this was a wholly new crispness and polish in English musical theatre. A side-effect was that all subsequent Gilbert and Sullivan comic operettas with the exception of The Gondoliers, would have interchangeable casts. The Sorcerer established character types associated with vocal range, some of which were familiar from European opera: the heroic protagonist (tenor) and his love-interest (soprano); the patter baritone, usually the leading comic role of the operetta; the villainous bass; the elderly woman with designs on the protagonist (alto); and a supporting bass-baritone. The two other important stock types were the heads of the male and female choruses (e.g. the Boatswain in HMS Pinafore) who sometimes had solo numbers of their own. The repertory system ensured that the comic patter man who would perform the role of the sorcerous John Wellington Wells, would go from his desk to be ruler of the Queen's navy as Sir Joseph Porter, then join the army as Major General Stanley and so on. Lady Sangazure would transform into Little Buttercup, then Ruth, the piratical maid-of-all-work . . . Two relative unknowns hired by Gilbert for The Sorcerer would stay with his opera company for many years to become great stars of the Victorian stage: George Grossmith, a comic patter man, and Rutland Barrington, bass-baritone and character actor. Gilbert was a tireless taskmaster, seeing to it that The Sorcerer opened as a fully polished show--in marked contrast to the under-rehearsed Thespis.

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Musicians - Gilbert and Sullivan

History

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