1.
Alfred Cellier
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Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. He composed over a dozen operas and other works for the theatre, as well as for orchestra and it became the longest-running piece of musical theatre in the nineteenth century. Cellier was born at Hackney, in London and his parents were Arsène Cellier from France, a professor of languages at Hackney Grammar School, and his wife Mary Ann. He was educated at the school in Hackney. From 1855 to 1860, he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St. Jamess, under the Rev. Thomas Helmore, Celliers brother, François, also became a conductor. Celliers first appointments were as organist at All Saints Church, Blackheath, in 1866 he succeeded Dr. Chipp as organist and director of the Ulster Hall concerts, Belfast, at the same time acting as conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society. In 1868 he returned to London as organist of St Albans Church, in January 1871, Cellier became the first conductor and music director at the Royal Court Theatre in London. From 1871 to 1875 he was conductor and music director at the Princes Theatre, during this period he composed many comic operas and operettas, the most successful of which was The Sultan of Mocha, produced at Princes Theatre, Manchester, in 1874. Another success was Charity Begins at Home, with librettist B. C, the piece was played more than 200 times. He also wrote numerous songs and composed for orchestra and the piano. His stage works, however, were more successful than his serious concert music, most of Celliers early works for the theatre, however, including Topsyturveydom, The Tower of London, Nell Gwynne, Two Foster Brothers, and Bella Donna, had only modest success. In December 1877 Cellier joined the DOyly Carte company as director at the Opera Comique in London. There he conducted The Sorcerer, H. M. S, Pinafore, Trial by Jury, George Grossmiths Cups and Saucers, and three of his own one-act works, Doras Dream, The Spectre Knight, and After All. His brother, François, succeeded him as director at the Opera Comique in 1879. Alfred Cellier was a conductor of a series of concerts at the Queens Theatre, Long Acre and, in 1878–1879 he was joint conductor, with Sullivan. In 1879, he travelled with Gilbert, Sullivan, and Carte to America, Cellier prepared the overture to Pirates using Sullivans music from the rest of the score. Back in London in July 1880, he directed the music at the Opera Comique for Pirates and another of his own pieces with Desprez, in April 1881, he left the DOyly Carte company, ceding the baton to his brother. Cellier composed a grand opera, Pandora, a version of Longfellows The Masque of Pandora that was presented in Boston in 1881
2.
Ivan Caryll
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Félix Marie Henri Tilkin, better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language. He composed some forty musical comedies and operettas, carylls career encompassed three eras of the musical theatre, and unlike some of his contemporaries, he adapted readily to each new development. He also wrote some operetta scores, such as The Duchess of Dantzic, after this, he moved to New York City where his post-war works, incorporating new fox-trot and one-step rhythms, included The Girl Behind the Gun. At the peak of his career, he had the distinction of having five musicals running at the same time in the West End. Caryll was born in Liège, Belgium, the son of Henry Tilkin and he studied at the Liège Conservatoire, where he was a fellow student of Eugène Ysaÿe. He then moved to France to study singing at the Paris Conservatoire and he moved to London in 1882. He was married for a time in the 1890s to Gilbert and he had a daughter named Primrose Caryll, who became an actress. The dashing, moustachioed Caryll was known as one of the best dressed men in London and he was an extravagant spender and a popular and lavish host, entertaining his theatrical friends in princely style. Carylls free spending ways caused him trouble occasionally, and he had a few narrow escapes from his creditors, at first, Caryll earned a poor living by giving music lessons to women in the suburbs. Then he sold some songs to George Edwardes, who hired him as the musical director for the Gaiety. He attempted to raise orchestral standards by banning the deputy system, carylls first theatre piece was Lily of Léoville in 1886. He sent the score to Camille Saint-Saëns, who used his influence to have it staged at the Bouffes Parisiens, violet Melnotte secured the English rights, and it was presented in London featuring a young Hayden Coffin. This was followed the year by Monte Cristo Jr, a burlesque for the Gaiety and then by a number of shows produced for the Lyric. Caryll, known as a very expressive conductor, conducted W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Celliers The Mountebanks at the Lyric in 1892. Also in 1892, with George Dance, Caryll adapted an opera called Ma Mie Rosette, based on a French piece by Paul Lacôme, starring Jessie Bond. Caryll recalled of this production that he had been criticised for adding numbers to Lacomes original score. Carylls first big success at the Gaiety was The Shop Girl, the composer conducted the piece himself. Meanwhile, Caryll also had success elsewhere, the Gay Parisienne, written with George Dance, ran for 369 performances at the Duke of Yorks Theatre, played in New York as The Girl from Paris and toured internationally
3.
W. S. Gilbert
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Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. The most famous of these include H. M. S, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that they founded. Eleven of the Savoy operas continue to be performed in the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools. Lines from these works have become part of the English language, such as short, sharp shock, What, and Let the punishment fit the crime. Gilberts creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous stories, poems and lyrics. He also began to write burlesques and his first comic plays, developing a unique absurdist and he also developed a realistic method of stage direction and a reputation as a strict theatre director. M. S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, in the 1880s, Gilbert focused on the Savoy operas, including Patience, Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Gondoliers. Gilbert won the lawsuit, but the argument caused hurt feelings among the partnership. Although Gilbert and Sullivan were persuaded to collaborate on two last operas, they were not as successful as the previous ones, in later years, Gilbert wrote several plays, and a few operas with other collaborators. He retired, with his wife and ward, Nancy McIntosh, to a country estate, Gilbert died of a heart attack while attempting to rescue a young woman to whom he was giving a swimming lesson in the lake at his home. Gilbert was born at 17 Southampton Street, Strand, London and his father, also named William, was briefly a naval surgeon, who later became a writer of novels and short stories, some of which were illustrated by his son. Gilberts mother was the former Anne Mary Bye Morris, the daughter of Thomas Morris, Gilberts parents were distant and stern, and he did not have a particularly close relationship with either of them. They quarrelled increasingly, and following the break-up of their marriage in 1876, his relationships with them, especially his mother, Gilbert was nicknamed Bab as a baby, and then Schwenck, after his fathers godparents. As a child, Gilbert travelled to Italy in 1838 and then France for two years with his parents, who returned to settle in London in 1847. He then attended Kings College London, graduating in 1856, instead he joined the Civil Service, he was an assistant clerk in the Privy Council Office for four years and hated it. In 1859 he joined the Militia, a volunteer force formed for the defence of Britain, with which he served until 1878. In 1863 he received a bequest of £300 that he used to leave the service and take up a brief career as a barrister
4.
Arthur Sullivan
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Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. The best known of his hymns and songs include Onward Christian Soldiers, the son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at age eight. He was selected as soloist in the choir of the Chapel Royal. His graduation piece was a suite of music to Shakespeares The Tempest. When it was performed in London in 1862, it was an immediate sensation, Sullivan began his composing career with a series of ambitious works, interspersed with hymns, parlour ballads and other light pieces. Among his best received early pieces were a ballet, LÎle Enchantée, from 1861 to 1872, he supplemented his income by working as a church organist and music teacher, and writing hymns and songs. In 1866, Sullivan composed a comic opera, Cox and Box. His most successful work, the Overture di Ballo, premiered in 1870. Sullivans talent and native charm earned him friends in musical and social circles, including Queen Victorias son Alfred. In 1871, Sullivan wrote his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Sullivan then produced his Festival Te Deum, an oratorio, The Light of the World, and incidental music for West End productions of several Shakespeare plays. He also had conducting and academic appointments, in 1875, producer Richard DOyly Carte reunited Gilbert and Sullivan to create a one-act piece, Trial by Jury, which was a surprise hit. Pinafore became a sensation, as did The Pirates of Penzance and Patience. Sullivan never married but had a love affair with an American socialite. After the death of his brother Fred in 1877, Sullivan supported Freds large family financially for the rest of his life, effectively adopting his nephew Bertie. Carte used his profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership to build the Savoy Theatre in 1881, later hits in the series were Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Gondoliers. Sullivan was knighted for his contributions to music in 1883 and his infrequent serious pieces during the 1880s included two cantatas, The Martyr of Antioch and The Golden Legend, his most popular choral work. Sullivans only serious opera, Ivanhoe, though successful in 1891, was little-heard after that
5.
Edwardian musical comedy
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Between In Town in 1892 and The Maid of the Mountains in 1917, this new style of musical theatre became dominant on the musical stage in Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world. The Gaiety Theatres well-loved but racy burlesques were coming to an end and these two genres had dominated the musical stage since the 1870s. A few lighter, more comic operas, beginning with Dorothy found success. The father of the Edwardian musical was George The Guvnor Edwardes and he took over the Gaiety Theatre in the 1880s and, at first, improved the quality of the old Gaiety Theatre burlesques. Perceiving that their time had passed, he experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter and these drew on the traditions of Savoy opera and also used elements of burlesque and of Americans Harrigan and Hart. Their plots were simple, and they included displays of contemporary fashion and scenery. These shows were widely copied at other London theatres and then in America. The first Edwardian musical comedy was In Town in 1892 and its success, together with the even greater sensation of A Gaiety Girl in 1893, confirmed Edwardes on the path he was taking. These musical comedies, as he called them, revolutionized the London stage and set the tone for the next three decades. According to musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb, The British Empire, Edwardes early Gaiety hits included a series of light, romantic poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds shows, usually with the word Girl in the title. After A Gaiety Girl came The Shop Girl, The Circus Girl, the heroines were independent young women who often earned their own livings. The stories followed a plot line – a chorus girl breaks into high society. There was always a misunderstanding during act one and an engagement at the end, in the words of a contemporary review, Edwardes’ musicals were Light, bright and enjoyable. Later Gaiety Theatre girl musicals included The Orchid, The Spring Chicken, The Girls of Gottenberg, Our Miss Gibbs, The Sunshine Girl and The Girl on the Film. The Geisha and San Toy each ran for more than two years and found international success, capitalizing on the British craze for all things oriental. Other Edwardes hits included The Girl from Kays, The Earl, the chief glories of Edwardian musical comedies lie in their musical scores. At their best, these combined the delicacy and sophistication of operetta with the robust tunefulness of the music hall, the major composers of the genre were Sidney Jones, Ivan Caryll, Lionel Monckton, Howard Talbot, Leslie Stuart and Paul Rubens. Scores were constantly refreshed and re-arranged, often by a number of different composers and lyricists, important writers included Adrian Ross, Harry Greenbank, Percy Greenbank, Owen Hall, Charles H. Taylor and Oscar Asche
6.
Lyric Theatre, London
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The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It was the theatre to be constructed on this stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue and is now the oldest in the street. The foyer and bars were refurbished in 1932–33, and the facade was restored in 1994, at present it seats 967 on four levels, although it originally was designed with a seating capacity of 1,306. The theatre still uses a pump to operate its iron curtain. Early in the history, it staged mostly comic operas. The theatre retains many of its features and the theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in September 1960. The Lyric Theatre still uses water to operate its iron curtain, the water was originally pumped from the river Thames to all West End theatres and hotels and used to hydraulically operate heavy machinery lilke lifts. Curtain in The Lyrics Theatre is now operated via electric pump, the Lyric Theatre is owned by Nimax Theatres from 2005 when Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer purchased it. In 2005 they established Nimax Theatres, 124–5 ISBN 0-7136-5688-3Whos Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, tenth edition, revised, London,1947, pps, 477–478. Lyric Theatre history with archive programmes and many images Lyric Theatre website
7.
Geraldine Ulmar
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Geraldine Ulmar was an American singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the DOyly Carte Opera Company. Annie Geraldine Ulmar was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts and she began singing in amateur concerts as a child. In 1879, she made her debut in the role of Josephine in Gilbert. Pinafore, aboard a ship in a lake in Bostons Oakland Garden and she joined a DOyly Carte touring company in England, singing Yum-Yum and Josephine for a few months, then Yum-Yum in the German company, before returning to America in the summer of 1886. In May 1887, she returned to London to play Rose at the Savoy and remained there to play the roles in the 1888 London revivals of Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance. The Times wrote, in 1887, that she is born to the manner of the form of art invented by. Her voice, although not very powerful, is capable of dealing with the composers short-skirted airs. Miss Ulmar’s style must be called a little prononcé, at the same time she eschews any approach to vulgarity. Ulmar originated the leading roles of Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard. She remained in London to play Marton in La Cigale by Edmond Audran, burnand, and next appeared as Teresa in W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Celliers The Mountebanks and Guinevere Block in Little Christopher Columbus. Beginning in 1896, she toured as O Mimosa San in The Geisha with George Edwardess touring company and her last stage role was Jane Jingle in Ladyland. Ulmar then turned to teaching singing, some of her students became well known, including Jose Collins and Evelyn Laye. For part of the 1890s, she was married to composer Ivan Caryll and she died in Merstham Surrey, England. London, W. H. Allen & Co Ltd, gänzls Book of the Broadway Musical,75 Favorite Shows, from H. M. S. Brief profile from The Theatre,1 August 1887 August Photographs
8.
Frank Wyatt
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Frank Wyatt was an English actor, singer, theatre manager and playwright. After beginning his career as an illustrator and painter, in 1877 Wyatt began a career in comedy, Victorian burlesque, pantomime. In 1884 he had success in a Shakespeare role in Henry Irvings company, and in 1885 he created the role of Ravennes in the comic opera Erminie, which went on to become an international sensation. In this production he met Violet Melnotte, who appeared in Erminie. Wyatt continued to perform in operas and comedies until about 1900. From the 1890s Wyatt and his wife owned and managed the Trafalgar Square Theatre and he also wrote plays and a grand opera. Wyatt was born Francis Nevill Gunning in Greenwich in London, the son of Thomas Wyatt Gunning, a barrister and he was christened on 29 December 1852 in St Alfege church in Greenwich. His sisters were Charlotte Augusta Gunning and Lucy Matilda Constance Gunning and he studied art at the Royal Academy, became an illustrator on the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and successfully exhibited and sold paintings. Over the next two decades, Wyatt appeared regularly before London audiences in burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in 1879 he appeared with Selina Dolaro in the melodramatic burlesque Another Drink at the Folly Theatre, caricaturing William Rignold and dancing a can-can with Dolaro. In 1880 he played Punch in the pantomime Mother Goose and the Enchanted Beauty at Drury Lane Theatre with Arthur Roberts, in 1884 he was praised for by far the best piece of comic character-drawing in creating his role of Captaine Coqueluche in H. B. Farnies adaptation of Edmond Audrans operetta The Grand Mogul, starring Florence St. John, Fred Leslie, also in 1884 he had a success in a Shakespeare role in Henry Irvings company, playing Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night at the Lyceum Theatre, London. He appeared in the 1888 burlesque of Atalanta at the Strand Theatre with Willie Warde, on 8 June 1889, W. S. Gilbert visited Arthur Sullivan at his home in London to read through the draft of their new opera, The Gondoliers. Satisfied by what they had seen, they invited Wyatt to join the DOyly Carte organisation on a contract to create the role of the Duke of Plaza-Toro at the Savoy Theatre in The Gondoliers. Wyatt appeared in the role from December 1889 to June 1891, H. M. Wyatt next created the role of Baboo Currie in The Nautch Girl by Dance and Solomon, playing the part from June to December 1891, when his contract with DOyly Carte ended. From January to July 1892 he appeared at the Lyric Theatre as Arrostino Annegato in The Mountebanks by Gilbert, wyatts reviews describe his effectiveness in the songs allotted to him. He then played Woodpecker Tapping in Haste to the Wedding, a comic opera by Gilbert. Also in 1892, he appeared in London in Ma Mie Rosette by Ivan Caryll and George Dance, together with Jessie Bond, on tour, Wyatt appeared in Mamzelle Nitouche in 1893. Later that year, he returned to London in a farce called A Screw Loose at the Vaudeville Theatre, in 1896, Wyatt was seen in The Star of India at Princesss Theatre, London
9.
Lionel Brough
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Lionel Brough was a British actor and comedian. After beginning a career and performing as an amateur, he became a professional actor. In the 1870s and 1880s, Brough was one of the comic actors in London. Although untrained musically, he appeared in several successful operettas in the 1880s and 1890s. He continued to contribute popular performances into the 20th century and ended his career in comedy roles with Herbert Beerbohm Trees company. Brough was born in Pontypool, Wales, the son of Barnabas Brough, a brewer, publican, wine merchant and later dramatist, and his wife Frances Whiteside and his brothers, William and Robert were also playwrights, and his brother John Cargill Brough was a science writer. His father was kidnapped by the Chartists in 1839 and was a prosecution witness at the trial of the Chartist leader John Frost. The family was ostracised and ruined financially as a result, Broughs first job was as an office boy at The Illustrated London News. He was then employed as assistant publisher by The Daily Telegraph, at the former, he introduced to England the American system of selling the newspaper in the streets using newsboys. Brough made his debut at age 18 with the company of Madame Vestris to play in an extravaganza written by his brother William. In 1858, he was again at the Lyceum but then left the stage to work at The Morning Star. He performed in amateur theatricals in the early 1860s and this burlesque was presented as a fund-raiser for the Lancashire Famine Relief Fund. Brough repeated The Forty Thieves in Liverpool, where Alexander Henderson, in his Whos Who entry, Brough recorded, joined theatrical profession at Prince of Waless, Liverpool,1863. The company there included Squire Bancroft and John Hare, in 1864, he performed there as Iago in Ernani opposite Lydia Thompson and Lavinia in The Miller and His Men. He also performed at other Liverpool theatres in the 1860s, including the Amphitheatre, Brough made his London debut in 1865 in Prince Pretty Pet by his brother William at the Lyceum Theatre but continued mostly in Liverpool until 1867. The Times wrote of him, Mr Lionel Brough, an accession from the Liverpool stage, in the part of Dard, showed the right. His appearance in other characters will be looked for with interest, in The Taming of the Shrew, he was cast as Grumio. The same company presented many adaptations of the novels of Charles Dickens, including Oliver Twist in 1868, the following year, at the St Jamess Theatres revival of She Stoops to Conquer, Brough played Tony Lumpkin for almost 200 nights
10.
Eva Moore
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Eva Moore was an English actress. Her career on stage and in film spanned six decades, in her 1923 book of reminiscences, Exits and Entrances, she describes approximately ninety of her roles in plays, but she continued to act on stage until 1945. She also acted in more than two dozen films and her daughter, Jill Esmond, was the first wife of Laurence Olivier. Moore was born and educated in Brighton, Sussex, the eighth of ten children and her parents were the chemist Edward Henry Moore and his wife, Emily Moore. She attended Miss Pringles school in Brighton and then studied gymnastics, returning to Brighton, she taught dancing. In 1891 she married actor/playwright Henry V. Esmond and they had three children, Jack, Jill and Lynette, who did not survive infancy. Her husband wrote more than a dozen plays in which she appeared, Moore made her first stage appearance at Londons Vaudeville Theatre on 15 December 1887, as Varney in Proposals. She next joined Tooles company and appeared at Tooles Theatre on 26 December of that year as the Spirit of Home in Dot, in 1888, she was back at the Vaudeville in a play with her sisters Jessie and Decima, Partners, by Robert Williams Buchanan. In 1890, she created the role of the countess of Drumdurris in the Arthur Wing Pinero play The Cabinet Minister at the Court Theatre, in 1892, she appeared as Minestra in the comic opera The Mountebanks by W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Cellier. The next year, she created the role of Pepita in the long-running Little Christopher Columbus, in 1894, she joined Charles Hawtrey and Lottie Venne in F. C. In 1907, she took the part in Sweet Kitty Bellaire and played Mrs. Errol in Little Lord Fauntleroy, Mrs. Crowley in The Explorer in 1908. Mrs. Bayle in Best People and Mrs. Rivers in The House Opposite in 1909, Moore was active in the suffrage movement, attending meetings and appearing in suffragist plays and films. After the First World War began, she continued acting at the Vaudeville in the evenings but worked as a volunteer during the day for the Womens Emergency Corps, based at the Little Theatre. She raised money for hospital and wartime causes and was honoured with the de la Reine Elisabeth for her wartime activities. At the Royalty Theatre, she played Mrs. Culver in the 1918 play The Title, by Arnold Bennett, where she also played Mrs. Etheridge in Caesars Wife by W. Somerset Maugham and the title role in Mumsie. From 1920 to 1946, Moore made over two films, beginning with The Law Divine. Some of her silent films were Flames of Passion, The Great Well, Chu-Chin-Chow. Her most popular talkies included Almost a Divorce, The Old Dark House, Leave It to Smith, I Was a Spy, Jew Süss, A Cup of Kindness, Vintage Wine, The Divorce of Lady X and Of Human Bondage
11.
Furneaux Cook
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Furneaux Cook, born John Furneaux Cook, was an English opera singer and actor best known for baritone roles in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan and Alfred Cellier on the London stage. Cook appeared on stage for over 30 years in London, the British provinces, Cook was the brother of opera singer T. Aynsley Cook and fellow Savoyard Alice Aynsley Cook. One of Cooks earliest professional engagements was in the obscure Michael Balfe opera, Letty the Basketmaker and this was played as part of the same programme with W. S. Gilberts burlesque Robert the Devil. Cook also played Peter the Watchman in the burlesque Cinderella the Younger at the Gaiety in 1871, farnie, based on Jacques Offenbachs Le Violoneau. From 1879 to 1880, he travelled to America with Gilbert, Sullivan and he also played Dr. Daly on this tour. On 23 April 1880, the gave a benefit for Cook consisting of Pinafore and the second act of Pirates, in which Cook played Deadeye, Corcoran. Cook left the company upon his return to England, appearing later in 1880 and 1881 in The Kings Dragoons in Manchester and Liverpool, re-joining the DOyly Carte organisation at the end of 1881, he played Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre in The Sorcerer and Corcoran in Pinafore. In 1883, Cook joined Kate Santleys company at the Royalty Theatre in The Merry Duchess by George R. Sims, in 1884, he also played Cox in a series of matinees of Cox and Box at the Royal Court Theatre with Richard Temple and Arthur Cecil. He then retired from the DOyly Carte company, after this, Cook created the role of Squire Bantam in the hit comic opera, Dorothy, by Cellier and librettist B. C. Stephenson in September 1886. In the show, he was assigned the song Heres a welcome to all at Chanticleer Hall and this show enjoyed a record-setting two-year run. Next, he appeared as Alderman Shelton in Cellier and Stephensons Doris in 1898, after this, Cook continued to act in London for another ten years. In 1892, he appeared in Gilbert and Celliers The Mountebanks as innkeeper Elvino di Pasta, in 1893, he played in Little Christopher Columbus, a very successful musical burlesque with music by Ivan Caryll and Gustave Kerker and a libretto by George Robert Sims and Cecil Raleigh. In 1894, Cook was in The House of Lords by Harry Greenbank with music by George Byng, Cook was the recipient of a benefit matinee performance of Dorothy at the Gaiety Theatre in June 1897, reviving his role as the Squire. His last appearance in London was as a juryman in Trial by Jury, at the Theatre Royal, Cook died in West Kensington, London and is buried in the West Norwood Cemetery. Furneaux Cook at Who Was Who in the DOyly Carte Ainger, Gilbert and Sullivan, a Dual Biography
12.
C. Hayden Coffin
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Charles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes. Hayden achieved fame as Harry Sherwood in Dorothy, which became the longest-running piece of theatre in history up to that time. In his later years, Coffin found success in Shakespearean roles such as Feste in Twelfth Night, and in musicals and his parents were from Maine in the U. S. and his father was a dentist. Coffin passed the examinations to enter the College of Surgeons. He then played Coriolon in Lily of Leoville by Ivan Caryll, Coffin rose to fame as Harry Sherwood in Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephensons record-setting hit Dorothy, in which he introduced the popular song, Coffins good looks and powerful voice made him one of the most popular stage baritones of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early in his career, he also had successes with the same teams Doris, Solomon and Henry Pottinger Stephens The Red Hussar, burnands adaptation of Edmond Audrans La Cigale, and Captain Therese, among others. He spent the 1892–93 season in New York City co-starring in several productions with soprano Lillian Russell and he also starred in a number of pantomimes. Coffin returned to London in 1893 to star in a series of hit Edwardian musical comedies produced by George Edwardes and composed by Sidney Jones and he also starred in Veronique, as Charlie Chetwynd in The Girl Behind the Counter and in the title role in Tom Jones. Coffin had a brief London run and tour in Two Merry Monarchs as Prince Charmis and then played Captain Charteris in another hit, in his later years, Coffin turned to serious drama, including Shakespearean roles, such as Feste in Twelfth Night at the Savoy Theatre in 1912. He also made appearances in musicals such as Young England. He made several films until 1930, including Its Always the Woman, in 1929, he played Sir Harry Bumper in The School for Scandal at the Kingsway Theatre, repeating the role in the 1930 film adaptation. Coffin was first engaged to the songwriter Hope Temple but married actress Adeline de Leuw, Coffin died in London at the age of 73. Coffin made a number of records for the Gramophone Company, as follows. 2-4385 Young Fresh England Young England in ensemble,10, coupled on E35, Young England, 1916–17,12, coupled on D200. Hayden Coffins Book, Packed with Acts and Facts
13.
Lillian Russell
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Lillian Russell, born Helen Louise Leonard, was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice, Russell was born in Clinton, Iowa but raised in Chicago. Her parents separated when she was eighteen, and she moved to New York with her mother and she began to perform professionally by 1879, singing for Tony Pastor and playing roles in comic opera, including Gilbert and Sullivan works. Composer Edward Solomon created roles in several of his comic operas for her in London, in 1884, they returned to New York and married in 1885, but, in 1886 Solomon was arrested for bigamy. For many years, she was the foremost singer of operettas and musical theatre in the United States, in 1899, she joined the Weber and Fields Music Hall, where she starred for five years. After 1904, she began to have difficulties and switched to dramatic roles. She later returned to roles in vaudeville, however, finally retiring from performing around 1919. Russell was married four times, but her longest relationship was with Diamond Jim Brady, in later years, Russell wrote a newspaper column, advocated womens suffrage, was a popular lecturer and contributed to the passage of the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. Her family moved to Chicago in 1865, where she studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart from age 7 to 15 and her father became a partner in the printing firm of Knight & Leonard, and her mother became active in the womens rights movement. Russell, called Nellie as a child, excelled at school theatricals, in her teens, she studied music privately and sang in choirs. In December 1877, she performed in a production of Time Tries All at Chickering Hall in Chicago. When Russell was eighteen, her parents separated, and she, her mother and her sister moved to New York City. Russell studied singing under Leopold Damrosch and considered pursuing a career, her very religious mother disapproved of her working in theatre. Russell began dating Walter Sinn, whose father owned the Brooklyn Park Theatre. Walters mother helped Russell get a job with Edward E. Rice. Russell soon began seeing the orchestra leader, Harry Braham, and they married in November, when the show moved to New York theatres. She gave birth to a son, Harry, in June 1880, in September, Russells husband got a prestigious job conducting at Tony Pastors Theatre on Broadway. Pastor, known as the father of vaudeville, was responsible for introducing many well-known performers, in November 1880, Russell was engaged by Pastor for his variety shows
14.
The Sorcerer
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The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duos third operatic collaboration, the plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876. A young man, Alexis, is obsessed with idea of love levelling all ranks, to promote his beliefs, he invites the proprietor of J. W. Wells & Co. Family Sorcerers, to brew a love potion and this causes everyone in the village to fall in love with the first person they see and results in the pairing of comically mismatched couples. In the end, Wells must sacrifice his life to break the spell, the opera opened on 17 November 1877 at the Opera Comique in London, where it ran for 178 performances. It was considered a success by the standards of that time and encouraged the collaborators to write their next opera, the Sorcerer was revised for an 1884 revival, and it is in that version that it is usually performed today. The Sorcerer was the first Savoy opera for which the author and composer had nearly total control over the production, several of the actors chosen went on to create principal roles in most of the later Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The modest success of The Sorcerer was overshadowed by the popularity of Gilbert and Sullivans later collaborations. The satire in the piece concerns Victorian-era class distinctions and operatic conventions with which audiences are less familiar. Nevertheless, the opera was important to the development of the Gilbert, in 1871, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan had written Thespis, an extravaganza for the Gaiety Theatres holiday season that did not lead immediately to any further collaboration. Carte was able to bring Gilbert and Sullivan together again to write the piece, called Trial by Jury. The piece was witty, tuneful and very English, in contrast to the bawdy burlesques, Trial by Jury proved even more popular than La Périchole, becoming an unexpected hit, touring extensively and enjoying revivals and a world tour. After the success of Trial by Jury, several attempted to reunite Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan continued their careers, though both continued writing light opera. Finally, in 1877, Carte organised a syndicate of four financiers and formed the Comedy Opera Company, by July 1877, Gilbert and Sullivan were under contract to produce a two-act opera. They chose talented actors, most of whom were not well-known stars, and so did not command high fees, Then, they tailored their work to the particular abilities of these performers. Carte approached Mrs Howard Paul to play the role of Lady Sangazure in the new opera, Mr and Mrs Howard Paul had operated a small touring company booked by Cartes agency for many years, but the couple had recently separated. She conditioned her acceptance of the part on the casting of her 24-year-old protege, when Barrington auditioned before W. S. Barrington was given the role of Dr Daly, the vicar, which was his first starring role on the London stage
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Gilbert and Sullivan
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Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H. M. S, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Sullivan, six years Gilberts junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos and their operas have enjoyed broad and enduring international success and are still performed frequently throughout the English-speaking world. Gilbert and Sullivan introduced innovations in content and form that influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century. The operas have influenced political discourse, literature, film. Producer Richard DOyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration and he built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works and founded the DOyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted Gilbert and Sullivans works for over a century. Gilbert was born in London on 18 November 1836 and his father, William, was a naval surgeon who later wrote novels and short stories, some of which included illustrations by his son. Director and playwright Mike Leigh described the Gilbertian style as follows, With great fluidity and freedom, First, within the framework of the story, he makes bizarre things happen, and turns the world on its head. Thus the Learned Judge marries the Plaintiff, the soldiers metamorphose into aesthetes, and so on and his genius is to fuse opposites with an imperceptible sleight of hand, to blend the surreal with the real, and the caricature with the natural. In other words, to tell a perfectly outrageous story in a deadpan way. Gilbert developed his theories on the art of stage direction. At the time Gilbert began writing, theatre in Britain was in disrepute, Gilbert helped to reform and elevate the respectability of the theatre, especially beginning with his six short family-friendly comic operas, or entertainments, for Thomas German Reed. At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, Ages Ago, the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, two years later, Gilbert and Sullivan would write their first work together. Those two intervening years continued to shape Gilberts theatrical style, Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842. His father was a bandmaster, and by the time Arthur had reached the age of eight. In school he began to compose anthems and songs, in 1856, he received the first Mendelssohn Scholarship and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then at Leipzig, where he also took up conducting. His graduation piece, completed in 1861, was a suite of music to Shakespeares The Tempest. Revised and expanded, it was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1862 and was an immediate sensation and he began building a reputation as Englands most promising young composer, composing a symphony, a concerto, and several overtures, among them the Overture di Ballo, in 1870
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Savoy opera
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Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard DOyly Carte built to house the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later, the Savoy operas were seminal influences on the creation of the modern musical. Most of the literature on Gilbert and Sullivan since that time refers to these works as Savoy Operas, comic operas. However, the Penguin Opera Guides and many other general music dictionaries and encyclopedias classify the Gilbert, to their contemporaries, the term Savoy Opera referred to any opera that appeared at that theatre, regardless of who wrote it. Aside from curtain raisers, the G&S operas were the works produced at the Savoy Theatre from the date it opened until The Gondoliers closed on 20 June 1891. Over the next decade, there were two new G&S pieces, both of which had comparatively brief runs. To fill the gap, Carte mounted G&S revivals, Sullivan operas with different librettists, Richard DOyly Carte died on 3 April 1901. If the nexus of Carte and the Savoy Theatre is used to define Savoy Opera, then the last new Savoy Opera was The Rose of Persia, after Cartes death, his wife Helen Carte assumed management of the theatre. She continued to new pieces in the G&S style, along with G&S revivals. Counting the pieces that Mrs. DOyly Carte and the DOyly Carte Opera Company produced, the last Savoy Opera was A Princess of Kensington and this is the point that Cyril Rollins and R. John Witts adopt as the end of the Savoy Operas. Workman assumed control of the theatre, producing three new pieces, including one by Gilbert himself, Fallen Fairies. The last of these Workman-produced works came in early 1910, Two Merry Monarchs, by Arthur Anderson, George Levy, the contemporary press referred to these works as Savoy Operas, and S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald regarded Workmans pieces as the last Savoy Operas. Fitz-Gerald wrote his book, The Story of the Savoy Opera, in 1924, but over time, all of the works produced at the Savoy by composers and librettists other than Gilbert and Sullivan were largely forgotten. The term Savoy Opera came to be synonymous with the thirteen extant works of Gilbert, given its lack of a DOyly Carte or Savoy connection, Thespis has a tenuous claim to be a Savoy Opera. However, Rollins & Witts include it in their compendium of the Savoy Operas, as does Geoffrey Smith, the following table shows all of the full-length operas that could be considered Savoy Operas under any of the definitions mentioned above. Curtain-raisers and afterpieces that played with the Savoy Operas are included in the table below. The fashion in the late Victorian era and Edwardian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, during the original runs of the Savoy Operas, each full-length work was normally accompanied by one or two short companion pieces. A piece that began the performance was called a curtain raiser, W. J. MacQueen-Pope commented, concerning the curtain raisers, This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers
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The Gondoliers
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The Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances and this was the twelfth comic opera collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan. The story of the concerns the young bride of the heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Barataria who arrives in Venice to join her husband. It turns out, however, that he cannot be identified, to complicate matters, the King of Barataria has just been killed. The two young gondoliers must now jointly rule the kingdom until the nurse of the prince can be brought in to determine which of them is the rightful king. Moreover, when the queen arrives to claim her husband. A last complicating factor is that she, herself, is in love with another man, the Gondoliers was Gilbert and Sullivans last great success. In this opera, Gilbert returns to the satire of class distinctions figuring in many of his earlier librettos, the Gondoliers was preceded by the most serious of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations, The Yeomen of the Guard. Moreover, to speak from my own point of view. Anybody — Hersee, Farnie, Reece — can write a libretto for such a purpose, personally. Again, the success of the Yeoman — which is a step in the direction of serious opera — has not been so convincing as to warrant us in assuming that the public want something more earnest still. On 12 March, Sullivan responded, I have lost the liking for writing comic opera and you say that in a serious opera, you must more or less sacrifice yourself. I say that this is just what I have been doing in all our joint pieces, Gilbert tried to encourage his collaborator, You say that our operas are Gilberts pieces with music added by you. Sullivans acceptance came with the proviso that we are agreed upon the subject. Can you not develop this with something we can go into with warmth and enthusiasm and thus give me a subject in which we can both be interested. The long opening number was the idea, and it gave Sullivan the opportunity to establish the mood of the work through music. The costumes were designed by Percy Anderson and sets were by Hawes Craven and they worked all summer and autumn, with a successful opening on 7 December 1889. Press accounts were almost entirely favourable, and the opera enjoyed a run longer than any of their joint works except for H. M. S
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Topsyturveydom
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Topsyturveydom is a one-act operetta by W. S. Gilbert with music by Alfred Cellier. Styled an entirely original musical extravaganza, it is based on one of Gilberts Bab Ballads and it opened on 21 March 1874 at the Criterion Theatre in London and ran until 17 April, for about 25 performances. The musical score to Topsyturveydom does not survive, but amateur productions in recent decades have used newly composed scores or performed the work as a non-musical play, topsyturveydom is set in a quasi-utopia, where things are the opposite of the norm. Party politics is lampooned, much as it would be two decades later in Gilbert and Sullivans Utopia, Limited, as in that work, the king is a detested monarch. 1874 was a year for both Gilbert and Cellier. An adaptation from the French, Committed for Trial, another adaptation from the French called The Blue-Legged Lady, and he also wrote a Bab-illustrated story called The Story of a Twelfth Cake for the Graphic Christmas number. Cellier produced his most successful work, a full length comic opera called The Sultan of Mocha. Gilbert was either too busy to see his own show, or else, disappointed by its lack of success with audiences, he had put it out of his mind. In a letter to T. Edgar Pemberton, author of the 1903 book on the Criterion Theatre, Gilbert wrote, I am sorry to say that in my mind is an absolute blank to the opening of The Criterion. If you happen to have a copy of it and could lend it to me for a few hours it might suggest some reminiscences, the Athenaeum called the piece clever, but rather remote. An exercise rather than an amusement and his dramatic writing during this time was evolving from his early musical burlesques. Some of his work during this period exhibited a more restrained style, exemplified by a series of fairy comedies. Mr. Satis – J. Clarke King Patatra – F. Dewar Crapolee – E. W. Garden Wilkins – Mr. Smith Quop – Miss Montgomery Crambo – Miss C, however, this may be another Topsyturvey element. The Prime Minister of Topsyturveydom arrives at the home of old Satis and he describes his country as a land where everything is conducted on principles the very reverse of those in England. The people are born elderly and grow younger until they become infants and they start out wise and gradually forget everything, until at last their minds are a perfect blank. Folly is honoured, wisdom is despised, true beauty consists in making yourself ugly and he has been comparing customs in the two countries and invites Satis to accompany him to Topsyturveydom. From inside the Kings reception room in Topsyturvydom, a landscape is seen through the window. A chandelier sprouts from the middle of the floor, and chairs, a ridiculous celebration has been planned, for the king is coming of age
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Dorothy (opera)
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Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée and it was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886. After a rocky start, it was revised and transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre later that year and then transferred to the Lyric Theatre in 1888, Dorothy also toured in Britain, America and Australia and enjoyed numerous revivals until at least 1908. The piece was popular with theatre groups, particularly in Britain. The shows hit songs included the ballad Queen of My Heart, Be Wise In Time, with A Welcome To All, and The Time Has Come. Its libretto is more farcical than W. S. Gilberts satiric libretti, revolving around mistaken identities, in 1885, Cellier had composed a song, There once was a time, my darling, for a piece produced by Edwardes, Little Jack Sheppard. Cellier, who had been a lieutenant of Arthur Sullivan, re-purposed much of the music for Dorothy from his comic opera of ten years earlier. Though a flop, the music of Nell Gwynne had been praised, Stephenson wrote new lyrics and a libretto to fit the music. Shortly before the première, Celliers doctors advised him not to spend the winter in England, the sheet music sold over 40,000 copies, and the popularity of the song saved the opera from failure. The piece opened at the Gaiety Theatre on 25 September 1886 and it starred Marion Hood in the title role opposite the popular Hayden Coffin, with comedians Arthur Williams, Furneaux Cook and John Le Hay. This was the first production at the Gaiety by new managing director of the theatre, George Edwardes, the Gaiety was then known for burlesque, and its audiences were not looking for Gilbert and Sullivan style comic opera. The piece received lukewarm notices, and neither the nor the libretto attracted critical praise. The Times wrote, Gentility reigns supreme, and with it also a good deal of the refined feebleness. After a few months, Edwardes sold the production to his accountant, the piece reopened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 20 December 1886 and transferred to the Lyric Theatre on 17 December 1888, where it closed on 6 April 1889. Marie Tempest took over in the role, and Florence Perry made her London stage debut in 1887 in the role of Phyllis Tuppitt. It was also the second longest known run for a production of any kind, after Our Boys. The shows hit songs included the ballad Queen of My Heart, Be Wise In Time, with A Welcome To All, and The Time Has Come. Henry Leslie made so much money from Dorothy that he was able to build the Lyric Theatre, the success of the show also spurred revivals of some of Celliers earlier works
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The Mikado
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The Mikado, or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. Before the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, the Mikado remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera, and it is especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history. Setting the opera in Japan, a locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert to satirise British politics. Gilbert and Sullivans opera immediately preceding The Mikado was Princess Ida, which ran for nine months, on 22 March 1884, Carte gave Gilbert and Sullivan contractual notice that a new opera would be required within six months. Sullivans close friend, the conductor Frederic Clay, had suffered a stroke in December 1883 that effectively ended his career. Gilbert, who had started work on a new libretto in which people fall in love against their wills after taking a magic lozenge, was surprised to hear of Sullivans hesitation. Gilbert was much hurt, but Sullivan insisted that he could not set the lozenge plot, in addition to the improbability of it, it was too similar to the plot of their 1877 opera, The Sorcerer. Sullivan returned to London, and, as April wore on, Gilbert tried to rewrite his plot, but he could not satisfy Sullivan. However, by 8 May 1884, Gilbert was ready to back down, writing, am I to understand that if I construct another plot in which no element occurs. A consistent plot, free from anachronisms, constructed in perfect good faith & to the best of my ability, the stalemate was broken, and on 20 May, Gilbert sent Sullivan a sketch of the plot to The Mikado. It would take ten months for The Mikado to reach the stage. A revised version of their 1877 work, The Sorcerer, coupled with their one-act piece Trial by Jury, played at the Savoy while Carte, Gilbert eventually found a place for his lozenge plot in The Mountebanks, written with Alfred Cellier in 1892. A trifling accident inspired him with an idea, One day an old Japanese sword that, for years, had been hanging on the wall of his study, fell from its place. This incident directed his attention to Japan, Just at that time a company of Japanese had arrived in England and set up a little village of their own in Knightsbridge. The story is an one, but it is largely fictional. Gilbert was interviewed twice about his inspiration for The Mikado, in both interviews the sword was mentioned, and in one of them he said it was the inspiration for the opera, although he never said that the sword had fallen. Gilbert scholar Brian Jones, in his article The Sword that Never Fell, notes that the further removed in time the writer is from the incident and it suggested the broad idea, as he said later
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John D'Auban
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Frederick John DAuban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert, after performing as a child with his family, DAuban continued a career as a comic dancer in music hall and pantomime. He also served as master for the Alhambra Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre, London. In 1868, he began an association with W. S. Gilbert, staging the dances for most of the original productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Pinafore and The Mikado, as well as many other Savoy operas, between the 1860s and 1909, DAuban choreographed more than 150 productions, including pantomimes, burlesques, musical comedies and comic operas. He also taught dance to many who became famous performers, as adults, he and his sister appeared together in a comic dance double act at the Crystal Palace in 1863. They appeared together in a Harlequinade at the opening of the Surrey Theatre, as Harlequin and Columbine and they repeated their Harlequinade with variations during the Christmas seasons of 1868,1869 and 1871. DAuban quickly became popular as a dancer and star-trap performer in London music halls early in his career. From 1865 to 1868, he danced in many of the Alhambra Theatre burlesques and pantomimes under director John Hollingshead and he made a sensation in Paris in 1866, introducing that city to the star-trap. According to Hollingshead, DAuban was the champion of star-trap jumpers, able to spring through the trap, from below the stage, the other was John Warde, elder brother of Willie Warde. DAuban and John Warde were billed as the theatres principal grotesque dancers, DAuban then acted as ballet-master at the Gaiety, choreographing its famous burlesques, until 1891. In 1870 and in 1875 at the Gaiety, DAuban choreographed Charles Dibdins musical farce, from 1868 to 1909, DAuban arranged the dances for more than 150 productions in the West End, at 30 different theatres. DAuban married Wardes sister, Emma, in 1871, with whom he also performed, the next Christmas, DAuban and Warde appeared together as the eponymous Valentine and Orson at the Elephant and Castle Theatre. At the Gaiety, DAuban appeared in and choreographed Fiz-Gig, a new ballet in 1874. In 1876, DAuban arranged the dances for the Gilbert and Frederic Clay comic opera Princess Toto, in 1877, DAuban began working with Richard DOyly Carte, Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan by arranging the dances for their comic opera The Sorcerer. In 1878, DAuban trained Gilbert in his dances as Harlequin for the Harlequinade section of The Forty Thieves, DAuban arranged the dances for the next Gilbert and Sullivan opera, H. M. S. For the Christmas season in 1879, he choreographed the extravaganza burlesque of Gullivers Travels by H. J. Byron at the Gaiety. In 1880, DAuban choreographed and appeared with his wife and sister in E. L. Blanchards pantomime of Mother Goose at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
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Percy Anderson
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Beginning with The Yeomen of the Guard, Anderson designed the costumes for all the original productions of the Savoy Operas. He continued to design costumes for DOyly Carte revivals in the twentieth century, including for Trial by Jury. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe, Princess Ida, Ruddigore, The Yeomen of the Guard and he designed the costumes for Henry James’s ill-fated theatrical effort, Guy Domville, The Times was not impressed by either the play or the costumes. He designed the costumes for the hit musical San Toy in 1899, The Duchess of Dantzic in 1903, the Royal Opera House also commissioned Anderson to design costumes in 1900. Andersons designs were used in a number of Broadway productions. Described as a dainty, naughty, rococo man, Anderson had private means, and for a time roomed with Morton Fullerton and he was part of a circle of rich, artistic homosexual men, who included Lord Ronald Gower, the courtier Alec Yorke and Hamilton Aïdé. In the 1910s, Anderson was closely associated with the young novelist Hugh Walpole, as a painter, Anderson achieved a modest success, and his portraits hang in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Louvre, and the British Museum. He illustrated the 1907 book, Costume, Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical, Anderson died in Kings College Hospital, London, in 1928, aged 76 or 77. Hugh Walpole Sutton Publishing, Stroud, ISBN 0-7509-1491-2 Mainwaring, Marion, mysteries of Paris, the Quest for Morton Fullerton, University of New England Press,2001 Rollins, Cyril and R. John Witts. The DOyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas London, Michael Joseph Ltd
