Gilbert and Sullivan

Kurt Gänzl

Description

In this, the first book to focus on the original cast members of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, world-renowned musical theater expert Kurt Gänzl provides a concise history of the writing and production of each opera, vividly colored by the often little-known life stories of these early performers. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, Gilbert and Sullivan: The Players and the Plays delves into the professional and personal lives of the British and American actors and singers who created the celebrated "famous fourteen" Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
List of Illustrations
Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Thespis

2. Trial by Jury

3. The Sorcerer

4. HMS Pinafore

5. The Pirates of Penzance

6. Patience

7. Iolanthe

8. Princess Ida

9. The Mikado

10. Ruddigore

11. The Yeomen of the Guard

12. The Gondoliers

13. Utopia (Limited)

14. The Grand Duke

Appendix: Recommended Reading

Index

Sujets

• Royaume-Uni
• Film
• États-Unis
• Great Britain
• History of Europe
• History of the Americas
• United Kingdom
• Visual culture
• Theatre
• 19th century
• Película fotográfica
• Reino Unido
• United States of America
• USA

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438485478
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
The Players and the Plays
Works by Kurt Gänzl
1967: The Women of Troy (one-act play), volume 3 of New Zealand Play Library
1986: The British Musical Theatre , 2 vols. (Macmillan Press)
1988: Gänzl’s Book of the Musical Theatre , with Andrew Lamb (Bodley Head/Schirmer)
1989: The Blackwell Guide to the Musical Theatre on Record (Blackwell)
1990: The Complete “Aspects of Love” (Aurum Press)
1994: The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre , 2 vols., expanded in 2001 to 3 vols. (Blackwell/Schirmer)
1995: Musicals: The Illustrated Story (Carlton, UK) / Song and Dance: The Complete Story of Stage Musicals (Smithmark, US) / Die Welt der grossen Musicals (Bertelsmann, Germany)
1995: Gänzl’s Book of the Broadway Musical (Schirmer; Macmillan)
1997: The Musical: A Concise History , forthcoming 2nd ed. (Northeastern University Press)
2002: Lydia Thompson: Queen of Burlesque (Routledge)
2002: William B. Gill: From the Gold Fields to Broadway (Routledge)
2007: Emily Soldene: In Search of a Singer (Steele Roberts)
2017: Victorian Vocalists (Taylor and Francis)
2021: Petrus Borel: Rapsodies , with John Gallas (Carcanet)
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
The Players and the Plays
Kurt Gänzl
Illustrations from the Collections of DAVID B. LOVELL and DAVID STONE
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gänzl, Kurt, author.
Title: Gilbert and Sullivan : the players and the plays / Kurt Gänzl.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2021. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021030214 (print) | LCCN 2021030215 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438485454 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438485478 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sullivan, Arthur, 1842–1900—Performances. | Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck), 1836–1911—Performances. | Operetta—Great Britain—19th century. | Operetta—United States—19th century. | Singers—Great Britain. | Singers—United States.
Classification: LCC ML410.S95 G35 2021 (print) | LCC ML410.S95 (ebook) | DDC 782.1/2092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030214
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030215
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Thespis
2 Trial by Jury
3 The Sorcerer
4 HMS Pinafore
5 The Pirates of Penzance
6 Patience
7 Iolanthe
8 Princess Ida
9 The Mikado
10 Ruddigore
11 The Yeomen of the Guard
12 The Gondoliers
13 Utopia (Limited)
14 The Grand Duke
Appendix: Recommended Reading
Index
Illustrations
1 Paul Knüpfer and Julius Lieban in Der Mikado (Königliche Oper, Berlin) .
2 Program for The Mikado , directed by “Doc” Gallas .
3 My rendering of a scene from The Mikado , a precocious debut by Kurt Gänzl, aged six .
4 Lilian La Rue: Who are you?
5 Amdrams: Quintin Twiss, Arthur Blunt, and George du Maurier in Cox and Box.
6 Gaiety Theatre star comedian Johnnie Toole in La Vivandière.
7 The fate of a too-well-loved volume .
8 Madeleine Clary: Sparkeion of Croydon .
9 An 1858 trial by judge and jury for breach of promise of marriage .
10 Nellie Bromley: The blighted bride .
11 The Happy Land : Messrs. Fisher, Hill, and Righton .
12 Fred Sullivan: “I am a Judge, and a good judge, too.”
13 Cissie Durrant: The bridesmaid who got the bouquet .
14 Linda Verner: The cheerleader of the bridesmaids .
15 Julia Barber: A Chorine in High Demand .
16 Charley Campbell in early Trial by Jury days .
17 Isabelle Paul: Musical-theater blue blood .
18 Fred Clifton as the Notary .
19 George Bentham: A tenor of no fixed abode .
20 Giulia Warwick: “Happy Young Heart.”
21 Emma Howson: A prima donna on four continents .
22 George Power: A right aristocratic Ralph Rackstraw .
23 Harriet Everard: “Sweet Little Buttercup, I.”
24 Aeneas Dymott (Bob Beckett): “A British Tar.”
25 George Temple as Samuel .
26 Nellie Duglas Gordon as Josephine .
27 Henri Laurent as “Ralph Wreckstraw.”
28 George K. Fortescue as an American travesty dame of a Little Buttercup .
29 An Irish King Hildebrand: John Brocolini né Clark .
30 Blanche Roosevelt: “The best thing about her singing was her looks.”
31 George Grossmith: “Yes, yes, he is a Major General.”
32 Richard Temple: An orphan Pirate King .
33 Emily Cross: A piratical maid of unexpected work .
34 Rutland Barrington as Pooh-Bah, the Lord High Everything Else .
35 Marion Hood: “Yes! ’Tis Mabel.”
36 Wannabe aesthetes: Messrs. Thornton, Lely, and Temple .
37 Leonora Braham as Patience: “I Cannot Tell What This Love May Be.”
38 Augusta Roche as Lady Jane: “There Will Be Too Much of Me, in the Coming By and By!”
39 Jack Ryley as Bunthorne: “Ultrapoetical, superaesthetical.”
40 Carrie Burton: A less innocent-looking Patience .
41 Alice Barnett: “Who taught me to curl myself up inside a buttercup?”
42 W. T. Carleton: But half a fairy, and a member of Parliament .
43 Jessie Bond: Iolanthe, thou drippest!
44 Durward Lely as Lord Tolloller: “Spurn not the nobly born.”
45 Lithgow James: six feet four inches of sentry or sailor .
46 Sybil Grey as Sacharissa: “Cut off real live arms and legs?”
47 Team Hildebrand (UK): Messrs. C. Ryley, Bracy, and Lely .
48 Florence Bemister and the girls of Castle Adamant: “Man Is Nature’s Sole Mistake.”
49 Mary Beebe: The Boston “Ideal” of a Josephine .
50 Team Hildebrand (US): Messrs. Lang, McCreery, and Rising .
51 Team Gama (US): Messrs. Earley, Scott, and Cloney .
52 Three Little Maids: Misses Grey, Braham, and Bond .
53 Bovill the Pickler .
54 Bovill as Pish Tush. The same man?
55 George Thorne as Ko-Ko .
56 Fred Federici as The Mikado .
57 Courtice Pounds as Nanki-Poo .
58 The Mikado at the Standard Theatre, New York .
59 Elsie Cameron as Katisha: “A left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness.”
60 Richard Temple as Sir Roderic: “When the night wind howls …”
61 George Grossmith as Robin Oakapple: “A pure and blameless peasant.”
62 George Grossmith as Jack Point: “I’ve jibe and joke, and quip and crank.”
63 W. H. Denny (Shadbolt) and Jessie Bond (Phoebe): “Were I thy bride …”
64 Kate (Rose Hervey) is the lass who spills the beans .
65 W. R. Shirley: The dauntless Leonard Meryll .
66 Rosina Brandram as the Duchess of Plaza-Toro: “Baxtaberry, baxtaberry ba!”
67 Frank Wyatt as the Duke of Plaza-Toro: “He led his regiment from behind, he found it less exciting.”
68 Decima Moore (Casilda) and Wallace Brownlow (Luiz): The King and Queen of Barataria .
69 Geraldine Ulmar: The first of the fifteen Gianettas .
70 Nellie Lawrence (Fiametta): Only the understudy!
71 Esther Palliser as a Gianetta looking out for low-flying lagoon birds .
72 Leonore Snyder as Gianetta in The Gondoliers .
73 Kate Talby (Lady Sophy) with her charges: Aileen Burke and Millicent Pyne .
74 The Flowers of Progress jam session .
75 Ilka Pálmay: International Megastar .
76 Rosina Brandram (Lady Sophy) with her Utopian charges: Florence Perry and Emmie Owen .
Preface
Gilbert and Sullivan. Magical words. Like ham and eggs, bread and cheese, cakes and ale or fish and chips … wonderful separately, but together … something sensational.
The “comic operas” that these two men wrote together have a preeminent place in the history of the English-language musical theater … and they have, since forever, also had a place in my life. When I was barely emerging from babyhood, the piano (which neither mother nor father could play!) in our green salon featured, on its stand, the German edition of selections from The Mikado —you know, the brown one, with Pooh-Bah and Ko-Ko on the front—and when my skinny fingers had mastered Teaching Little Fingers to Play , they were tested, next, on the vocal score of The Pirates of Penzance. The living room bookshelf held, I remember, alongside The Search for Bridey Murphy and The Black Girl in Search of God , a book titled The Savoy Operas ; father’s study housed red-bound libretti of several of the shows, marked up with all the “approved” stage moves, by the D’Oyly Carte management; and the first LP recording that replaced our Austrian 78s was The Gondoliers. I sang