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Robert Reece
Robert Reece (2 May 1838 – 8 July 1891) was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-language adaptation of the operetta ''Les cloches de Corneville'', which became the longest-running piece of musical theatre in history up to that time. He sometimes collaborated with Henry Brougham Farnie or others. Early life and career Reece was born in the island of Barbados, West Indies. His father, Robert Reece (1808–1874), was a barrister of the Inner Temple. Reece matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1857 and received his B.A. in 1860 and his M.A. in 1864. He was admitted a student at the Inner Temple in 1860 but was not called to the bar. For a short time he was a medical student. Between 1861 and 1863, he was an extra clerk in the office of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and from 1864 to 1868 an extra temporary clerk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henrietta Hodson
Henrietta Hodson (26 March 1841 – 30 October 1910) was an English actress and theatre manager best known for her portrayal of comedy roles in the Victorian era. She had a long affair with the journalist-turned-politician Henry Labouchère, later marrying him. Biography Hodson was born at Upper Marsh in St Mary's parish, Westminster, London. She was the eldest daughter of George Alfred Hodson (1822–1869), an Irish-born comedian, singer and innkeeper, and Henrietta Elizabeth Noel, an actress and singer. Her two sisters, Kate (later Mrs Charles Henry Fenton, but known on stage as Kate Gordon) and Sylvia (Mrs J. Stripling Blythe), were also actresses. Hodson's cousin was the theatre producer George Musgrove. Early career Hodson made her first professional stage appearance at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, in 1858. In 1860, she and Henry Irving worked together in Manchester in ''The Spy, or, A Government Appointment''. She joined J. H. Chute's Bath and Bristol companies in 186 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentine And Orson
''Valentine and Orson'' is a romance which has been attached to the Carolingian cycle. Synopsis It is the story of twin brothers, abandoned in the woods in infancy. Valentine is brought up as a knight at the court of Pepin, while Orson grows up in a bear's den to be a wild man of the woods, until he is overcome and tamed by Valentine, whose servant and comrade he becomes. In some versions, the pair discover their true history with the help of a magical brazen head. The two eventually rescue their mother Bellisant, sister of Pepin and wife of the emperor of Greece, by whom she had been unjustly repudiated, from the power of a giant named Ferragus. Early Modern Versions The tale is probably based on a lost French original, with Orson originally described as "sans nom" i.e. the "nameless" one. A 14th-century French ''chanson de geste'', ''Valentin et Sansnom'' (i.e. ''Valentin and "Nameless"'') has not survived but was translated/adapted in medieval German as ''Valentin und Name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meyer Lutz
Wilhelm Meyer Lutz (19 May 1829 – 31 January 1903) was a German-born British composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well-known works. Emigrating to the UK at the age of 19, Lutz started as an organist and soon became a theatrical conductor in London. After serving from 1850 to 1855 as music director of the Surrey Theatre, Lutz conducted touring opera companies and composed some serious music and music for the Christy Minstrels. In 1869, he was engaged as the music director of the Gaiety Theatre, London, arranging and later composing a series of popular burlesques over the next 25 years. Lutz continued to compose songs into the 20th century. Life and career Lutz was born in Münnerstadt, Bavaria, Germany. His parents were Joseph Lutz (1801–1879), a music professor, and Magdalena (1809–1862). His older brother, Baron Johann Lutz, became the prime minister of Bavaria under King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Lutz studied music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Burnand
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera ''Cox and Box''. The son of a prosperous family, he was educated at Eton and Cambridge and was expected to follow a conventional career in the law or in the church, but he concluded that his vocation was the theatre. From his schooldays he had written comic plays, and from 1860 until the end of the 19th century, he produced a series of more than 200 Victorian burlesques, farces, pantomimes and other stage works. His early successes included the burlesques ''Ixion'', ''or the Man at the Wheel'' (1863) and ''The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan''; ''or'', ''the Little Bill that Was Taken Up'' (1866). Also in 1866, he adapted the popular farce '' Box and Cox'' as a comic opera, ''Cox and Box'', with music by Sullivan. The piece became a popular favourite and was later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Forty Thieves
''The Forty Thieves'' is a "Pantomime Burlesque" written by Robert Reece, W. S. Gilbert, F. C. Burnand and Henry J. Byron, created in 1878 as a charity benefit, produced by the Beefsteak Club of London. The Beefsteak Club still meets in Irving Street, London. It was founded by actor John Lawrence Toole and others in 1876, in rooms above the Folly Theatre, King William IV Street. It became an essential after theatre club for the bohemian theatre set, such as Henry Irving, Toole, John Hare, W. H. Kendal, F. C. Burnand, Henry Labouchère, W. S. Gilbert and two hundred of their peers. It soon moved to Green Street. The Club occasionally performed amateur plays for their own amusement and to raise funds for charities. The story of ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' was a popular subject for pantomime. This entertainment was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre by its proprietor, John Hollingshead (also a member of the Club), as the Wednesday matinee on 13 February 1878.Holling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking countries, especially during the Christmas and New Year season. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing. It employs gender-crossing actors and combines topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale.Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline. "Pantomime", ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature'', Jack Zipes (ed.), Oxford University Press (2006), Pantomime is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is encouraged and expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. Pantomime has a long theatrical history in Western culture dating back to the era of classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Strand Theatre
The Royal Strand Theatre was located in the Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps. It was demolished in 1905 to make way for Aldwych tube station. History From 1801, Thomas Edward Barker set up a rival panorama to his father's in Leicester Square, at 168/169 Strand. On the death of Robert Barker, in 1806, his younger brother, Henry Aston Barker took over management of the Leicester Square rotunda. In 1816, Henry bought the panorama in the Strand, which was then known as Reinagle and Barker's Panorama,Sherson, Erroll, ‘Lost London Playhouses’, ''The Stage'', 28 June 1923, p. 21. One of a series of articles later published in a book of same name in 1925. and the two panoramas were then run jointly until 1831. Their building was then used as a dissenting chapel and was purchased by Benjamin Lionel Rayner, a noted actor, in 1832.''From Stage to Platf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederic Clay
Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for songs and his music written for the stage. Although from a musical family, for 16 years Clay made his living as a civil servant in HM Treasury, composing in his spare time, until a legacy in 1873 enabled him to become a full-time composer. He had his first big stage success with ''Ages Ago'' (1869), a short comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert, for the small Gallery of Illustration; it ran well and was repeatedly revived. Clay, a great friend of his fellow composer Arthur Sullivan, introduced the latter to Gilbert, leading to the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. In addition to Gilbert, Clay's librettists during his 24-year career included B. C. Stephenson, Tom Taylor, Thomas William Robertson, T. W. Robertson, Robert Reece and George Robert Sims, G. R. Sims. The last of his four pieces with Gilbert was ''Princess Toto'' (1875), which had short runs in the West End theat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building opened in 1926, and the capacity is now 690 seats. Rare ''thunder drum'' and ''lightning sheets'', together with other early stage mechanisms, survive in the theatre. History Origins The theatre was designed by prolific architect C. J. Phipps, and decorated in a Romanesque style by George Gordon. It opened on 16 April 1870 with Andrew Halliday's comedy, ''For Love Or Money'' and a burlesque, ''Don Carlos or the Infante in Arms''. A notable innovation was the concealed footlights, which would shut off if the glass in front of them was broken. The owner, William Wybrow Robertson, had run a failing billiard hall on the site but saw more opportunity in theatre. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence. Along with three other Victorian era, Victorian theatres (Opera Comique, Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street), Globe and Gaiety Theatre, London, Gaiety), the Olympic was eventually demolished in 1904 to make way for the development of the Aldwych. Newcastle and Wych streets also vanished. 1806-1849: Early days and Madame Vestris The first Olympic theatre was built in 1806 on the site of Drury House (later Craven House), for the impresario Philip Astley, a retired cavalry officer. The original name of the house was the Olympic Pavilion. It was said to be built from the timbers of the French warship ''French ship Ville de Paris (1764), Ville de Paris''. It opened on 1 December 1806 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street)
The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name, following Shakespeare’s Bankside house, which closed in 1642, and the former Rotunda Theatre in Blackfriars Road, which for a few years from 1833 was renamed the Globe. The new theatre was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows. The theatre's most famous production was ''Charley's Aunt'' by Brandon Thomas, which enjoyed a record-setting run there, having transferred from the Royalty Theatre. Other long-running pieces included the opéra-comique ''The Chimes of Normandy'' (1878) and the farce ''The Private Secretary'' (1884). History Background and first years In the 16th century Lyon's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery attached to London's Inner Temple, stood on the site. By the 1860s the area had deteriorated greatly and the old inn had been c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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