Gilbert and Sullivan: Interviews and Recollections

230 Pages·1994·22.12 MB·English

by  Harold Orel (eds.)

Gilbert and Sullivan
Interviews and Recollections
MACMILLAN INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS
Morton N. Cohen (editor)
LEWIS CARROLL
Philip Collins (editor)
DICKENS (2 vols)
THACKERAY (2 vols)
A. M. Gibbs (editor)
SHAW
J. R. Hammond (editor)
H.G. WELLS
David McLellan (editor)
KARL MARX
E. H. Mikhail (editor)
THE ABBEY THEATRE
BRENDAN BEHAN (2 vols)
JAMES JOYCE
SHERIDAN
GOLDSMITH
Harold Orel (editor)
KIPLING (2 vols)
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
Norman Page (editor)
BYRON
HENRY JAMES
DR JOHNSON
D. H. LAWRENCE (2 vols)
TENNYSON
Martin Ray (editor)
JOSEPH CONRAD
J. H. Stape (editor)
E. M. FORSTER
VIRGINIA WOOLF
R. C. Terry (editor)
TROLLOPE
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
Interviews and Recollections
Edited by
HAROLDOREL
University Distinguished Professor
University of Kansas
~
MACMILLAN
Editorial matter and selection © Harold Orel1994
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
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First published 1994 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-63905-4 ISBN 978-1-349-13769-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13769-5
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95
To Marion Epstein, with love
Contents
Preface to the 1995 Reprint ix
Introduction xi
INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS
PART I Gilbert, Mostly without Sullivan 1
William Schwenck Gilbert, 'William Schwenck Gilbert:
an Autobiography' 3
John Hollingshead, My Lifetime [extract] 17
Horace G. Hutchinson, Portraits of the Eighties [extract] 19
Alfred E. T. Watson, A Sporting and Dramatic Career
[extracts] 22
George Washburn Smalley [IL London Letters and Some
Others [extract] 31
George Washburn Smalley [2L Anglo-American Memories,
Second Series [extract] 32
Malcolm C. Salaman: 'William Schwenck Gilbert: the Man,
the Humorist, the Artist' 37
William Archer, Real Conversations [extracts] 42
Mrs Clement Scott, Old Days in Bohemian London
(Recollections of Clement Scott) [extracts] 48
, "Fallen Fairies": Sir W. S. Gilbert on the New Savoy Opera;
Amusing Reminiscences' 51
DeWolf Hopper and Wesley Winans Stout, Once a Clown,
Always a Clown [extract] 55
PART II Sullivan, Mostly without Gilbert 57
Clara Kathleen Rogers (Clara Doria), Memories of a
Musical Career [extracts] 59
R. E. Francillon, Mid-Victorian Memories [extract] 66
Charles L. Graves, The Life and Letters of Sir George Grove,
CB [extract] 67
Charles Willeby, Masters of English Music [extracts] 69
Nellie Melba, Melodies and Memories [extracts] 74
Edward Dicey, 'Recollections of Arthur Sullivan' 76
Vll
viii CONTENTS
J. Comyns Carr [1], Coasting Bohemia [extract] 88
J. Comyns Carr [2], Some Eminent Victorians: Personal
Recollections in the World of Art and Letters [extracts] 92
C. V. Stanford, Studies and Memories [extract] 97
Arthur Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life Story, Letters, and
Reminiscences [extracts] 99
Sir Francis C. Burnand, Records and Reminiscences, Personal
and General [extract] 106
S. Baring-Gould, Further Reminiscences, 1864-1894 [extract] 108
Joseph Bennett, Forty Years of Music, 1865-1905 [extracts] 109
Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, A Musician's Narrative
[extract] 113
Ethel Smyth, Impressions that Remained: Memoirs [extract] 116
Fred R. Spark, Memories of My Life [extracts] 117
Hermann Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London,
1870-1900 [extracts] 121
Earl of Dunraven, Past Times and Pastimes [extract] 128
Benjamin W. Findon, Sir Arthur Sullivan: His Life and Music
[extracts] 129
PART III Gilbert and Sullivan: Collaborators 139
Walter J. Wells, Souvenir of Sir Arthur Sullivan: A Brief Ske1ch
of his Life and Works [extracts] 141
H. G. Hibbert, A Playgoer's Memories [extract] 149
Fran<;ois Cellier and Cunningham Bridgeman, Gilbert and
Sullivan and Their Operas [extracts] 151
Vernon Blackburn, 'Arthur Sullivan' [extract] 165
Edith A. Browne, W. S. Gilbert [extract] 166
Rutland Barrington [1], Rutland Barrington: A Record of
Thirty-five Years' Experience on the English Stage [extracts] 177
Rutland Barrington [2], 'W. S. Gilbert' 181
Henry A. Lytton, The Secrets of a Savoyard [extract] 184
'New Stories of Gilbert and Sullivan' [extracts] 196
James M. Glover, Jimmy Glover, His Book [extracts] 205
Index 208
Preface to the 1995 Reprint
The enthusiastic response of readers on both sides of the Atlantic to
the first appearance of this anthology suggests the existence of a
large audience that continues to find delight in the comic operas -
sometimes called operettas - of Gilbert and Sullivan. Despite the
dissolution of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1982 and the
failure of the New D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (established in
1988) to win universal favour with its updated versions, a very
large number of professional and amateur productions have been
mounted around the world during the past half-century, while
recordings of Sullivan's music, often without Gilbert's lyrics, con
tinue to divert radio listeners, many of whom have never seen live
performances of Gilbert and Sullivan.
It seems clear that the day of a professional operetta company
devoted largely to the staging of the comic operas has passed.
Nevertheless, several 'light opera' companies try to stage one of
them annually, and occasional productions, such as Joseph Papp's
inventive version of The Pirates of Penzance, produced for the New
York Shakespeare Festival, achieve a very respectable commercial
success. Radio 2, the 'light music' station of the BBe, played record
ings of all the operettas in 1989-90, and television adaptations keep
turning up. (The series shown on BBC TV in the early 19805, and
then re-broadcast in the US, was particularly memorable.) Jazz
versions of The Mikado - The Hot Mikado, The Swing Mikado, The
Black Mikado - exploit audience familiarity with the scores. Scholars
like David Mackie and David Russell Hulme have devoted major
portions of their lives to the task of ascertaining the ways in which
Sir Arthur Sullivan's autograph scores deviate from the traditional
arrangements played by D'Oyly Carte orchestras. In addition, we
can look forward to more full-score publications such as that of The
Gondoliers, which was edited by David Lloyd-Jones and published
in 1984. (For fuller details about Gilbert and Sullivan on the inter
national scene up to 1992, see Arthur Jacobs's fine biography, Arthur
Sullivan: A Victorian Musician, 2nd edn (Aldershot, Hampshire:
Scolar Press, 1992), chapter 37.)
Taken altogether, these developments vigorously combat the
notion that Gilbert and Sullivan may have outlived their day. The
comic operas, along with Oscar Wilde's plays, remain triumphant
ix
x PREFACE TO THE 1995 REPRINT
evidence of what Victorian theatre, at its best, was capable of pro
ducing. The selections reprinted herein document the ways in
which the contemporaries of Gilbert and Sullivan reacted to the
emergence and development of a theatrical tradition that gave
delight then, and continues to do so to this day.
HAROLDOREL