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Howard Vernon (Australian Actor)
Howard Vernon (20 May 1848 – 26 July 1921) was an Australian actor best known for his performances in comic roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the J. C. Williamson company. In 1872, Vernon began to perform in a variety of operettas with several companies, including Alice May's company, in Australia and on tour in Asia and as far away as England and America. He joined the Williamson company in 1881, where he remained for 25 years, playing comic roles. After 1906, he toured and performed, mostly in England, retiring to Australia in 1914. Early life and career Vernon was born in Collins Street, Melbourne, and grew up in that city. His name was originally John Lett, and he was the son of Richard Prince Lett, a brickmaker who built the "Cricketer's Arms", one of Melbourne's first hotels, and his wife Jane Catherine, née Williamson. He was educated at the Richmond Church of England school, then worked as a clerk at the age of 15 and the next year as a tea-taster an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Cloches De Corneville
''Les cloches de Corneville'' (''The Bells of Corneville'', sometimes known in English as ''The Chimes of Normandy'') is an opéra-comique in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a libretto by Clairville (Louis-François Nicolaïe), Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet. The story, set at the turn of the 18th century, depicts the return of an exiled aristocrat to his ancestral castle, the machinations of the miserly steward to secure the family's fortune for himself, and the changing amorous pairings of the four juvenile leads. Aspects of the plot were criticised by contemporary critics as derivative of earlier operas. The opera was Planquette's first full-length stage work, and although he later wrote twelve more, including ''Rip Van Winkle (operetta), Rip Van Winkle'', which was a hit in London, he never equalled the international success of this first venture. It broke box-office records in Paris and London, where it set a new long-run record for musical theatre worldwid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iolanthe
''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert and Sullivan. In the opera, the fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal; this is forbidden by fairy law. Her son, Strephon, is an Arcadia (utopia), Arcadian shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward (law), Ward of Court of Chancery, Chancery. All the members of the House of Lords, House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis. When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman (not knowing that it is his mother – immortal fairies all appear young), she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satire, satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otago Daily Times
The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's ''The Press'', six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863. Its motto is "Optima Durant" or "Quality Endures". History Founding The ''ODT'' was founded by William H. Cutten and Julius (later Sir Julius) Vogel during the boom following the discovery of gold at the Tuapeka, the first of the Otago goldrushes. Co-founder Vogel had learnt the newspaper trade while working as a goldfields correspondent, journalist and editor in Victoria prior to immigrating to New Zealand. Vogel had arrived in Otago in early October 1861 at the age of 26 and soon took up employment at the ''Otago Colonist'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princess Ida
''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a run of 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. The prince to whom she had been married in infancy sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise themselves as women students, but are discovered, and all soon face a literal war between the sexes. The opera satirizes feminism, women's college, women's education and Charles Darwin, Darwinian evolution, which were controversial topics in conservative Victorian era, Victorian England. ''Princess Ida'' is based on a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called ''The Princess (Tennyson poem), The Princess'' (1847), and Gilb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mikado
''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 Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.The longest-running piece of musical theatre was the operetta ''Les Cloches de Corneville'', which held the title until ''Dorothy (opera), Dorothy'' opened in 1886, which pushed ''The Mikado'' down to third place. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.H. L. Mencken, Mencken, H. L.]Article on ''The Mikado'', ''Baltimore Evening Sun'', 29 November 1910 ''The Mikado'' is the most internationally successful Savoy opera and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rip Van Winkle (operetta)
''Rip Van Winkle'' is an operetta in three acts by Robert Planquette. The English language libretto by Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille and Henry Brougham Farnie was based on the short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) and "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) by Washington Irving after the play by Dion Boucicault and Joseph Jefferson. It first played at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1882 and ran for 328 performances, starring Fred Leslie in the title role. It then toured and was revived in Britain. It also played in New York, Vienna, Dresden, and in Paris, where it was revived in productions over the next 50 years. Background and performance history The piece was based on a non-musical adaptation of Washington Irving's stories presented by Dion Boucicault, which ran in London for 172 performances in 1865 and, in a revised version, 154 performances in 1875. The libretto for the operetta was by Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille and H. B. Farnie. The piece opened at the Comedy Theatre i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Taylor
''Billee Taylor, or The Reward of Virtue'' is "a nautical comedy opera" by Edward Solomon, with a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens. The piece was first produced at the Imperial Theatre in London on 30 October 1880, starring Arthur Williams as Sir Mincing Lane and Frederick Rivers as Billee. It played at the Standard Theatre in New York later that year, starring J. H. Ryley and Alice Burville. ''Billee Taylor'' was a strong success on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed many revivals both in Britain and in the United States. Early revivals included The Gaiety Theatre, London (1885, with Marion Hood as Phoebe and Arthur Roberts as Barnacle) and Toole's Theatre (1886).Adams, p. 159 The satiric, cynical risqué story is based on the nautical poem and song of the same title by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. A version of this adult-themed story was created for children and published in 1881. Roles and original cast *Billee Taylor ("a virtuous gardener", in love with Phoebe) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Grossmith
George Grossmith (9 December 1847 – 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. Grossmith created a series of nine characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 to 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter, in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' (1878), the Major-General in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' (1880) and Ko-Ko in ''The Mikado'' (1885–87). He also wrote, in collaboration with his brother Weedon, the 1892 comic novel ''The Diary of a Nobody''. Grossmith was also famous in his day for performing his own comic piano sketches and songs, both before and after his Gilbert and Sullivan days, becoming the most popular British solo performer of the 1890s. Some of his comic songs endure today, including " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Courier-Mail
''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, Queensland, Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Murarrie, Queensland, Murarrie, in Brisbane's eastern suburbs. It is available for purchase throughout Queensland, most regions of Northern New South Wales and parts of the Northern Territory. History The history of ''The Courier-Mail'' is through four Nameplate (publishing), mastheads. The ''Moreton Bay Courier'' later became ''The Courier (Brisbane), The Courier'', then the ''Brisbane Courier'' and, since a merger with the Daily Mail in 1933, ''The Courier-Mail''. The ''Moreton Bay Courier'' was established as a weekly paper in June 1846. Issue frequency increased steadily to bi-weekly in January 1858, tri-weekly in December 1859, then daily under the ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patience (opera)
''Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride'', is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in England and, more broadly, on fads, superficiality, vanity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness; it also satirises romantic love, rural simplicity and military bluster. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, ''Patience'' moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the world to be lit entirely by electric light. Henceforth, the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas would be known as the Savoy Operas, and both fans and performers of Gilbert and Sullivan would come to be known as "Savoyards." ''Patience'' was the sixth operatic collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan. It ran for a total of 578 performances, which was seven more than the authors' earlier work, ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', and the seco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
