The dynamic duo (1880–1990) who ruled the musical world.
The 19th century was kind to Great Britain. Thirty-three years after Queen Victoria’s coronation, the saying, “the sun never sets on Great Britain” due to an aggressive foreign policy. The Industrial Revolution created enormous wealth for the few, newfound leisure for middle class, and fresh depths of squalor for the lower classes. At the time, Britain’s musical stage entertainment was at a subpar quality. A man of driving ambition, British businessman Edward D’Oyly Carte (1844–1901) paved the way for artistic revolution as he was walking along London’s Strand in 1875.
A tale of two cities: Charles Dickens captured the contradictory spirit of the Victorian Era: “It was the best of times and the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness…” Carte was a booking agent for concert artists. He was meticulous in his business dealings, adopting the name “Oily Carte.” An American proverb by Josh Billing in 1870: squeaky wheel gets the grease. After attending a performance of Thespis, a Christmas specialty thrown together by playwright William S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and promising classical composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842–1900). Thespis’ plot involves bored gods of Olympus vacationing and temporarily handing their powers over to a troupe of actors. Leggy chorus girls were also present.
Did Thespis point in the direction of operetta or Offenbach? Would British operetta eclipse the French version? Probably, as the Franco-Prussian War decreased the number of operettas from Paris. With waiting audiences, Carte rose to the opportunity and was hired to produce Offenbach’s La Perichole. La Perichole needed a one-act curtain raiser. With a three-week deadline approaching, Carte already had a stage and budget; could Gilbert and Sullivan write and stage a new piece in such a short period?
During this time, Gilbert has been publishing comedic poetry in magazines using his childhood name, Bab. A Bab Ballad involved a jilted bride suing her former fiancée for a “breach of promise of marriage” — ac common preceding where women relied on marriage for their livelihood. Luckily, Gilbert had already adpated it into a one-act libretto. Sullivan jumped at the opportunity to write the music. Three weeks later, Trial by Jury debuted at the Royalty Theatre (1875). Only 35 minutes in length, it is the only sung-through piece in the Gilbert & Sullivan canon, but it established several themes that would often appear in the team’s future collaborations.
Gilbert & Sullivan Themes
- Topsy-turvydom: a wacky approach that places accepted reality on its ear
- Realistic settings and costumes: made topsy-turvydom funnier
- At least one patter song for the lead comedian
- Unqualified men in high public office
- Course of true love running in surprising directions
- Appalling distain for women over 40 years old
- Lyrics making an unprecedented use of creative rhyme
What is a patter song? The word “patter” derives from the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster). It is originally in Latin and recited by Catholics. The habit of rushing through the words as quickly as possible gave rise in England to the term “patter.” Patter was not exclusive to the English. In Greek comedy, the parabasis is a point in the play when all of the actors leave the stage and the chorus is left to directly address the audience. The chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and talk to the audience on a topic irrelevant to the subject of the play.
The Royal Theatre was packed for months. People came solely to see Trial by Jury. Carte moved it to the end of evening as La Perichole, Offenbach’s operetta, was playing to a half empty theatre. Two and a half years after TBJ, Carte leased the Opera Comique. Opera Comique was a London theatre that could only be entered via underground tunnels. Opera Comique hosted Gilbert and Sullivan’s first full-length comic operetta The Sorcerer (1877). TS opened to favorable response. George Grossmith (1847–1912) waas cat in the title role but protested that it should be played by a “fine actor with a fine voice.” Gilbert replied with: “That’s precisely the sort of actor we don’t want!”
Patter song: “My name is John Wellington Wells”
Gilbert used rhymes like no other lyricist had done before. He turned words into playthings. He gave listeners delight while simultaneously helping to tell the story and define a character (autobiographical patter songs). G&S referred to their collaborations as “comic operas.” They are different than Offenbach’s operetta comique by two distinct traits: Gilbert wrote in English and there were no sexual references. In turn, comic plots and accessible melodies drove these operettas.
One of G&S’s operettas is HMS Pinafore (1878) which is a send up of the British class system. Gilbert realized that the same Victorians who cried over novels or melodramas suggested that “love levels all rank” would be outraged if a member of their family were to marry someone from a lower social class. Gilbert expanded another one of his Bab Ballads about the story of Captain Corcoran. Corcoran was a naval social climber who arranges a match between his unwilling daughter and the wealthy, but elderly, First Lord of the Navy. As long as his daughter is “marrying up” the Captain insists that “love levels all rank” but the daughter has other plans.
G&S were a sensation in the US. There was a lack of international copyright agreements so American producers could stage a British show without paying royalties. Unfortunately, G&S saw none of the US profits. These pirated productions took liberties with the material. They added and deleted umbers and characters. Eight companies, at one point, were simultaneously offering Pinafore on Broadway with dozens of productions across the US. Some of the infamous lines from Pinafore’s Captain Corcoran: when he sings he’s never sick at sea and never swears, his crew challenges him, “What, never? No, never. What, never? Well, hardly ever.”
To beat the American pirates, D’Oyly Carte brought G&S and a full comapny to New York to introduce the original version of HMS Pinafore. They also opened their next work simultaneously in the US and England, establishing copyright in both countries. The Pirates of Penzance or called Pinafore on land is more sophisticated and aims its barbs at grand opera and the principle of personal duty. Paula Rockwell played the role of Ruth when she was a student at UofT: “A piratical maid of all work!”
William Gilbert was born in a wealthy family. He was well educated and comfortable. Before rehearsals, he worked out every scene on a model stage using small blocks of wood to represent performers. This allowed him to fixate on dramatic and technical details. He believed actors performed the best when they were not trying to “act funny.” The funniest situations were funny when it was sincere and natural. Rehearsals under Gilbert lasted 6 weeks, 11am-4pm every day but Sunday. He was known to be calm but would be rude. For example, during a rehearsal a hefty actress tripped on stage and landed on her butt. Gilbert retorted, “I knew you’d make an impression on the stage some day!” Gilbert always demanded clear diction as a missed word could kill a laugh.
Arthur Sullivan was born into poverty near Lambeth, the heart of cockney London. Despite coming from meager backgrounds, he sang in Queen Victoria’s private chapel choir. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. Initially, critics and colleagues tried to convince him to give up operetta and devote his time to more serious compositions. “Operetta-ing” paid the bills and helped Sullivan maintain his expensive lifestyle.
Sullivan did not begin composing until Gilbert had completed the libretto. Sullivan wanted precision. He would conduct premiers at the Savoy Theatre owned by D’Oyly Carte- which was the first public building in Britain to feature electric lightning. He demanded the exact adherence to tempi, orchestration, harmony from musicians and singers. The audience was the one authority that G&S always recognized.
Oscar A. Hammerstein III put it best: “When we are starting at an actor on stage, what are they staring at? … Us!!
As a result, G&S would delete or revise material based on the audience’s response. Thus, the real star was the show itself.
A list of Savoy Theatre’s extensive G&S Operetta showings:
- Trial by Jury
- The Sorcerer
- HMS Pinafore
- Pirates of Penzance
- Iolanthe
- Patience
- The Mikado (talked about in class)
The Gondoliers
Fun fact: the Savoy Theatre carpet bill almost destroyed a collaboration that had given new life to the English musical theatre (ask what this means).
Regretfully, Sullivan succumbed to bronchitis in 1900 at 58 years old. Gilbert received knighthood in 1907. Three years later while saving a young woman from drowning, he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 74. D’Oyly Carte died in 1901 but the D’Oyly Opera Company thrived under the shrewd management of his wife Helen and their descendants. They revived the G&S favorites through most of the 20th century. In the 1930s, Broadway say two G&S updates: The Hot Mikado and The Swing Mikado. In 1981, a centennial production of the Pirates of Penzance ran for more than a year. In Canada, an energetic staging of The Mikado garnered Tony nominations in 1987.
One of D’Oyly’s most well known innovations: making performance rights for G&S operettas available to amateur groups and schools in North America and throughout the British empire. This encouraged the development of amateur theatre, and these groups still present hundreds of G&S productions each year. Whenever young actors discover PoP or Mikado, it is a living tribute to the first men of the English-speaking world to take the “light” art of musical theatre in a serious manner.
