Let me ask you a couple of questions. What do you know of Schikaneder and Mozart’s “Die Zauberflaute”? Can you whistle any of the tunes from Paive and Verdi’s “La Traviata”? When was “Orpheus Aux Enfers” by Halevy, Cremieux and Offenbach first performed? What is it that made Gilbert and Sullivan unique in the realm of classical music?

It is of course immediately clear that the three named operas (“The Magic Flute”, “Traviata” and “Orpheus in the Underworld”) have become known over time only as works by the composer; the contribution of the librettist is considered to be of minor secondary importance. It is perhaps astonishing – and a testament to the dominance of his personality and the forcefulness of his position as director – that history has favoured W.S. Gilbert (Librettist) in the pole position of the duo over Arthur Sullivan (Composer).

Coming from the twilight years of the partnership “The Grand Duke” was their final work. After its initial run in London in 1896 it was confined to the archives. Indeed the sleeve notes to this CD album confirm that there had been no further professional performances of this opera until 1975 when the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company revived it for their Centenary Season at the Savoy Theatre.

I came to this review with even more trepidation than my previous one – “Utopia Limited”. I knew nothing of the plot save some descriptions of its immense complexity. I had never heard anything from the operetta and there is no video performance. The CD recording excludes the spoken dialogue. So, I have had to piece it together for myself, stopping the CD at the end of each song and reading the plot from my copy of the libretto.

THE PLOT

The venue is Central Europe of the middle 1700s. The action takes place in the Market Place in Speisesaal – the Capital City of the Grand Duchy of Pfennig Halbpfennig. The cast of a theatrical company (managed by Ernest Dummkopf) are attending a wedding breakfast in honour of Ludwig and Lisa – but whose marriage has been delayed because Grand Duke Rudolph has summoned all the clergy to a meeting to plan his own wedding to Baroness von Krakenfeldt. At the same time the cast are also part of a plot to dethrone Rudolph (who is a miserly tyrant) and put Ernest on the throne in his place. Members of this secret plot recognise one another by eating a sausage roll. Ernest desires Julia Jellicoe, his English leading lady. She will have nothing to do with him, but because of duty, she will play the part of the Grand Duchess once he is on the throne.

Unfortunately Ludwig has mistaken Rudolph’s private detective for one of the conspirators after the latter had eaten three sausage rolls in his presence and unwittingly had revealed the details of the plot. Dr Tannhauser comes up with the solution in the ancient Act of Statutory Duelling which is due to be repealed the following day. The duellists draw a card and whoever draws the lower card is declared legally dead. The winner takes on all his rights, responsibilities, debts and poor relations. He suggests that whoever wins goes to Rudolph and reports the other as the instigator of the plot. The next day, the loser will be pardoned as no-one can die twice for the same crime and their slate has been wiped clean. Ernest draws a king and Ludwig an ace. Ernest withdraws to be ‘legally dead’. Ludwig goes off to find Rudolph to confess.

Rudolph has learned of the plot (which could involve being blown up by a bomb) and is sitting in the Market Square bemoaning his fate. On seeing this, Ludwig commiserates and then suggests to Rudolph a way out – that they should undergo a Statutory Duel but the result will be secretly rigged. Ludwig will win, take over the Duchy and face the plotters. Rudolph would come alive again the next day and take back the Dukedom. Rudolph agrees. He draws a king and Ludwig an ace. Rudolph leaves to become ‘legally dead’. Ludwig then declares the Act resurrected for another hundred years to stop his return. Far from celebrating he now finds that he has inherited Julia as Grand Duchess elect from Ernest – displacing Julia as his fiancée.

Act II takes place in the Palace. Ludwig and the cast have taken over the court and are wearing greek costumes which had been intended for their latest play. He describes how the Duchy will be run on the lines of Ancient Athens. While this is going on the Baroness arrives for her wedding to Rudolph. When she finds that he is ‘dead’ she insists that Ludwig marry her instead of Julia. Further complications arise when a herald from the Prince of Monte Carlo and his daughter arrives. It transpires that she had been betrothed in infancy to the Grand Duke. Rudolph had refused to accept the daughter as she was very poor. However the Prince invented Roulette and is now very rich indeed. The Princess has prior claim over the Baroness.

In the nick of time, Rudolph and Ernest reappear with Dr Tannhauser who has re-read the Act and discovered that in Statutory Duels aces always count low: therefore Ludwig did not win either duel and neither loser should have ‘died’. Rudolph reclaims the throne and finds that the Princess is both rich and “quite attractive”. Julia and Ernest are reunited and when the Act lapses so are Ludwig and Lisa.

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN HISTORY

“Utopia Limited” came about after a belated reconciliation between Gilbert, Sullivan and Richard D’Oyly Carte. After a gap of three years, the new opera was greeted with enthusiasm but ran for only 245 performances.

Both men were aging. Sullivan was repeatedly wracked with severely painful kidney problems. Historians note that his musical output was reducing, he gambled extensively and raced his own horses. He did write some incidental music for stage plays including “King Arthur”. Gilbert suffered from gout but was otherwise in good health.

It was Carte who brought them back together again and their fourteenth collaboration produced “The Grand Duke”. The staging for the first night was said to be spectacular and elaborate. The performance played in front of an enthusiastic audience. However, neither author is said to have been happy with the outcome. Gilbert is reported to have commented: “I’m not at all a proud mother and I never want to see the ugly misshapen little brat again.” Sullivan’s diary for the opening night records: “Parts of it dragged a little, dialogue too redundant, but success great and genuine I think”. The Press at the time were tolerant initially but there was a general feeling that the partnership had grown tired and the plot was perilously thin. After 123 performances (the shortest run of any G&S opera except for the lost “Thespis”) “The Grand Duke” closed.

Sullivan lived another three years. He sought solace in the sun and proposed marriage (and was turned down) to a young woman of 20 years. He composed three other (now lost) operettas without Gilbert. The pair made a guest appearance, taking bows from the audience, at a 21st anniversary performance of “The Sorcerer” in 1898, but did not speak to each other. It was to be the last time they met.

Carte suggested that the three of them should appear together in bath chairs at the end of a revival of “Patience”. Sullivan was too ill to attend. “Pray tell Gilbert how very much I feel the disappointment. Three invalid chairs would have looked very well from the front”. The last line in his diary (Monday October 15th 1900) reads “I am sorry to be leaving such a lovely day”. He died of bronchitis on November 22nd 1900 aged 58 years. He was given a State Funeral and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Richard D’Oyly Carte also died in the early months of 1901.

Gilbert lived for another ten years. He lived a life of a country squire at his house at Grim’s Dyke. He was a magistrate and later a Deputy Lieutenant of Middlesex. He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1907. He died in the lake at his home attempting to rescue a young woman who had got into difficulties. He was buried in the Parish Church in Stanmore. A commemorative plaque was raised on the Embankment in London close by the Savoy Theatre which contains the line: “His Foe Was Folly & His Weapon Wit”.

THE BACKGROUND

There is much less detail about the targets Gilbert had in mind in “The Grand Duke”. It is possible that he was thinking about the nature and involvements of the many secret societies of the day (the secret signs and the sausage rolls). The theatrical company (and its manager) could be construed as parodies of the D’Oyly Carte and his Company. It is also possible that he was gently commenting on Sullivan’s gambling habits (both with the allusions to Roulette and card games). He was also allowing his training in the Classics full sway – although many of the references in the text are difficult to follow and could well have been lost on contemporary audiences.

THE SONGS

The Overture is a bright and breezy affair quite the equal to any of the more popular operettas. All the main themes are presented with a gusto. This music is very obviously Sullivan and there is a very strong sense of déjà vu at times – snatches of other works keep flitting across the consciousness: “The Quintet “Strange The Views Some People Hold” (“The Mikado”); “By The Mystic Regulation” (“Pirates of Penzance”). It never does however quite reach the majestic peaks and climaxes of the “Big Five”. “The Grand Duke” again utilises a large cast of named soloists and the usual male and female choirs.

Gilbert did make a habit of filling many of his choruses with onomatopoeic utterances (for example: “Tan-tan-tara-tan-tara” from Iolanthe”). He seems to have gone overboard with these in this libretto with phrases that are both cumbersome and nonsensical (“Opoponax! Opoponax! Eloia” “Tol the riddle lol! Lol lol lay!” “Oh Jiminy! Miminy-piminy Innocent ingenoo!”).

In the CD set under review there is a moderate cut of several verses from the duet between Grand Duke Rudolph and Baroness von Krakenfeldt “As O’er Our Penny Roll We Sing” and a further small cut in the duel sequence in the finale of Act I. The libretto also notes that two songs from the second act (one by the Prince of Monte Carlo and one by the Grand Duke) are no longer used.

Songs of particular note are:

“Won’t It Be A Pretty Wedding” – The Full Chorus
“A Pattern To Professors Of Monarchical Autonomy” – Grand Duke Rudolph (A patter song)
“Oh, A Monarch Who Boasts Intellectual Graces” – Ludwig and Chorus
“For This Will Be A Jolly Court” – Ludwig and Chorus
“As Before You We Defile” – The Full Chorus
“Your Highness There’s A Party At The Door” – Ludwig, the Baroness and Chorus

STAGE PERFORMANCE

I saw an amateur performance of “Ruddigore” by the Tynemouth Gilbert & Sullivan Society last summer. The programme also listed their productions back to 1948. They have staged “The Grand Duke” once in that time (1970).

OTHER RESOURCES

This two-disc box CD set is part of the complete set of operas recorded by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and released by DECCA originally on vinyl in the 1960s. This recording is without the spoken dialogue. The cast assembled here is a somewhat transitional one featuring some of the stalwarts of the Company from the earlier decade. John Reed has the relatively small but important part of Grand Duke Rudolph; Kenneth Sandford is magnificent as Ludwig. The relatively large number of soloists are generally in good voice and the orchestra is in its usual sparkling form.

John Reed (born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham in 1916) is the only soloist who appears in every one of the productions in this series. He joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1951 as a member of the chorus and as understudy to the then comic baritone – Peter Pratt. When he took over the principal roles he could trace his lineage back to George Grossmith and Sir Henry Lytton. He was awarded an OBE in 1977 and retired from the Company in 1979.

This musical set is completed with two of Sullivan’s orchestral pieces. “Overture di Ballo” – is a stand-alone work (of about ten minutes) written for the Birmingham Festival of 1870. It is a light-hearted piece with typical Sullivan tunes and orchestration. Sullivan also wrote incidental music for a number of the stage productions of Sir Henry Irving. “Henry VIII” is one such piece and two of the themes (”March” and “Graceful Dance”) conclude the album


THE GRAND DUKE - Gilbert & Sullivan (1975)
The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Conducted by Royston Nash
Soloists: John Reed (Grand Duke Rudolph); John Ayldon (Prince of Monte Carlo)
Jon Ellison (Ben Hashbaz); Michael Rayner (Dr Tannenbaum)
Julia Goss (Julia Jellicoe); Meston Reid (Ernest Dummkopf)
Kenneth Sandford (Ludwig); Lyndsie Holland (Baroness von Krakenfeldt)
CD: LONDON 436813-2 (£19.99)

My rating is for the performance and production on the CD set. As a work I would probably give it a bare 3*

I bought mine from Windows of the Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne at a special offer price of £10.99

LIBRETTO

The Grand Duke or The Statutory Duel
International Music Publications Ltd. £ 4.99

G&S TRIVIA

Yes – as always the title of the review is taken directly from the libretto. I must assume that Gilbert was referring to wine derived from grapes grown on the Greek Island of Lesbos. There is a reference in the Classics to the life of Sappho – a female Greek poet in 600BC. She had a brother Charaxus who was involved in a lucrative trade in the wine (‘which is celebrated throughout Greece and to which many authors testify to its exceptional wholesomeness’) with the Egyptians.

More recent references are less forthcoming. My “World Atlas of Wine – 5th Edition” (edited by Johnson and Robinson) is unhelpful, spelling the name of the island ‘Lesvos’ in its more modern version. “The Eyewitness Travel Guide: The Greek Islands” notes that the island is rich in olives and the town of Plomàri produces Ouzo. I’ll leave you to discover what happens if you search for “Lesbian Wine” with an internet search engine!!

This is the twelfth and last in a series of reviews of the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan to coincide with the reissue of the definitive series of recordings by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. Details of other posted reviews can be found at: An Appreciation of Gilbert & Sullivan (In Fourteen Chapters!!)

I have also posted some late news about the D'Oyly Carte and the Strand Theatre on that page.

Recommended: Yes