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Sweethearts (play)
''Sweethearts'' is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years. It was first produced on 7 November 1874 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in London, running for 132 performances until 13 April 1875. It enjoyed many revivals, thereafter, into the 1920s. The first professional production of ''Sweethearts'' in Britain in recent memory was given in 2007 at the Finborough Theatre in London, along with Arthur Sullivan's '' The Zoo''. Background This romantic comedy of manners was written for Squire Bancroft and his wife Marie (née Wilton), managers of the Prince of Wales's Theatre, and starred Mrs. Bancroft. Gilbert wanted his friend John Hare to play the male lead, to take advantage of Hare's naturally boyish appearance and of his talent for impersonating elderly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music. In the early 1880s, Herbert began a career as a cellist in Vienna and Stuttgart, during which he began to compose orchestr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Burlesque
Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza, is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-19th century. It is a form of parody in which a well-known opera or piece of classical theatre or ballet is adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical play, usually risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and often quoting or pastiching text or music from the original work. Victorian burlesque is one of several forms of burlesque. Like ballad opera, burlesques featured musical scores drawing on a wide range of music, from popular contemporary songs to operatic arias, although later burlesques, from the 1880s, sometimes featured original scores. Dance played an important part, and great attention was paid to the staging, costumes and other spectacular elements of stagecraft, as many of the pieces were staged as extravaganzas. Many of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie Edwardes
Annie Edwards (c. 1830–1896), also known as Annie Edwardes, was a popular English novelist in the Victorian era. Three of her 21 books were adapted for the theatre. Perhaps her best-known work is her 1866 novel, ''Archie Lovell'', which the playwright F. C. Burnand adapted in 1874. Life and career Annie Cook was born in approximately 1830, was married to John Edwards and had one known child, a son, born in 1859. No one has yet discovered her exact birthplace or hometown, although the location of her novels suggest that she spent part of her life in the Channel Islands. When she became an established author, she began to use the surname "Edwardes", perhaps to differentiate her work from her female contemporaries, Amelia Edwards and Matilda Betham-Edwards. Her literary career began in 1858 with the publication of her first novel, ''The Morals of May Fair''. '' The Examiner'' called it "one of the cleverest novels of the day," and the ''Literary Gazette'', though lamenting its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. ''Hamlet'' is considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others". There are many works that have been pointed to as possible sources for Shakespeare's play—from ancient Greek tragedies to Elizabethan plays. The editors of the Arden Shakespeare question the idea of "source hunting", pointing out that it presupposes that authors always require ideas from other works for their own, and suggests that no author can have an original idea or be an originator. Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern (Gilbert)
''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloids'' is a short comic play by W. S. Gilbert, a parody of ''Hamlet'' by William Shakespeare. The main characters in Gilbert's play are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark, their son Prince Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia. Gilbert's play first appeared in ''Fun'' magazine in 1874 after having been rejected for production by several theatre companies.Ainger, p. 105Stedman, p. 127 The first performance of the work was not until June 1891, a benefit matinée at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. The play finally ran at the Court Theatre from 27 April 1892 to 15 July, about 77 performances, with Decima Moore as Ophelia, Brandon Thomas as Claudius and Weedon Grossmith as Hamlet. An amateur performance in 1900 featured P. G. Wodehouse as Guildenstern. The play also enjoyed a production in New York City at the Murray Hill Theatre in 1900. A charity performance in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broken Hearts
''Broken Hearts'' is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts styled "An entirely original fairy play". It opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 December 1875, running for three months, and toured the provinces in 1876. It was revived at the Savoy Theatre in 1882 (with Gilbert playing Florian, alongside Hermann Vezin as Mousta, after an accident incapacitated the actor who was originally to have played Florian).Stedman, Jane W"General Utility: Victorian Author-Actors from Knowles to Pinero" ''Educational Theatre Journal'', Vol. 24, No. 3, October 1972, pp. 289–301, The Johns Hopkins University Press Julia Gwynne played Melthusine. It was revived again in 1883, and yet again in 1888 starring Marion Terry in February and Julia Neilson in May, and also at Crystal Palace that year. There was also a New York City production at the Madison Square Theatre. Background and analysis ''Broken Hearts'' was the last of several blank verse "fairy comedies" created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charity (play)
''Charity'' is a drama in four acts by W. S. Gilbert that explores the issue of a woman who had lived with a man as his wife without ever having married. The play analyses and critiques the double standard in the Victorian era concerning the treatment of men and women who had sex outside of marriage, anticipating the "problem plays" of George Bernard Shaw, Shaw and Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen.Crowther, AndrewSynopsis of ''Charity'' It opened on 3 January 1874 at the Haymarket Theatre in London, where Gilbert had previously presented his 'fairy comedies' ''The Palace of Truth'', ''Pygmalion and Galatea (play), Pygmalion and Galatea'', and ''The Wicked World''. ''Charity'' ran for about 61 performances, closing on 14 March 1874, and received tours and revivals thereafter. Gilbert created several plays for the Haymarket Theatre, managed by John Baldwin Buckstone and starring William Hunter Kendal and his wife, Madge Kendal, Madge Robertson Kendal, sister of the playwright Thomas William Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wicked World
''The Wicked World'' is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 1873 and ran for a successful 145 performances, closing on 1873. The play is an allegory loosely based on a short illustrated story of the same title by Gilbert, written in 1871 and published in Tom Hood's ''Comic Annual'', about how pure fairies cope with a sudden introduction to them of "mortal love." Set in "Fairy Land", the action occurs within the space of 24 hours. Gilbert envisioned the set as resembling John Martin's 1853 painting '' The Plains of Heaven'': vaporous mountains and headlands around ethereal blue and a flowering slope on which sit white-clad angels. Gilbert also specified that the women characters 'in costume & general appearance – should suggest the idea rather of angels than of conventional fairies, and they exhibit an 'overweening sense of righteousness,' arising from their freedom from sin. Background W. S. Gilbert created several bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pygmalion And Galatea (play)
''Pygmalion and Galatea, an Original Mythological Comedy'' is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts based on the Pygmalion story. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 9 December 1871 and ran for a very successful 184 performances.Moss, Simon"Pygmalion and Galatea"at ''Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia'', c20th.com, accessed 16 November 2009 It was revived many times, including an 1883 production in New York starring Mary Anderson as Galatea, an 1883–84 revival at the Lyceum Theatre, again with Anderson, and an 1888 production at the Lyceum Theatre, with Julia Neilson as Cynisca. ''Pygmalion'' was Gilbert's greatest success to that date and is said to have earned him £40,000 during his lifetime. ''Pygmalion and Galatea'' was so popular that other Pygmalions were rushed to the stage. In January 1872, ''Ganymede and Galatea'' opened at the Gaiety Theatre. This was a comic version of Franz von Suppé's ''Die schöne Galathee' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Palace Of Truth
''The Palace of Truth'' is a three-act blank verse "Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 November 1870, adapted in significant part from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, ''Le Palais de Vérite''. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British provinces and enjoyed various revivals even well into the 20th century. There was also a New York production in 1910. After more than a century of inquiry, researchers in 2012 concluded that the three genera of Lemurs were named after characters in ''The Palace of Truth'' in 1870 by British zoologist John Edward Gray. Background Gilbert created several blank verse "fairy comedies" at the Haymarket Theatre for actor-manager John Baldwin Buckstone and starring William Hunter Kendal and his wife Madge Robertson Kendal (sister of the playwright Tom Robertson) in the early 1870s. These plays, influenced by the fairy works of James Planché, are founded upon the ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama (meaning spoken drama, as opposed to opera, concerts or plays with music) in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate. The Haymarket has been the site of a significant innovation in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Its managers have included Benjamin Nottingham Webster, John Baldwin Buckst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
