''Dora's Dream'' is a one-act

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

, with music composed by

Alfred Cellier Alfred Cellier (1 December 184428 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing th ...

and a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Arthur Cecil Arthur Cecil Blunt (1 June 1843 – 16 April 1896), better known as Arthur Cecil, was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of ''Cox a ...

. The piece was first performed at the

Royal Gallery of Illustration The Royal Gallery of Illustration was a 19th-century performance venue located at 14 Regent Street in London. It was in use between 1850 and 1873. The gallery was built in the 1820s by the architect John Nash as part of his own house, to displa ...

on 3 July 1873, with Fanny Holland and Arthur Cecil starring in the two roles. It was performed again with the same cast on 5 May 1876 at the

Princess's Theatre The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europ ...

in London for

Pauline Rita Pauline Rita (1 June 1842 – 28 June 1920), born Margaret Glenister, was an English soprano and actress. During her early career, she was best known for her performances in operettas and comic operas at the Opera Comique and was associated wit ...

's benefit. The opera was revived on 17 November 1877 at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

as a

curtain raiser A curtain raiser is a short performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raised the curtain". The fashio ...

to ''

The Sorcerer ''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas story, ''An Elixir of Lo ...

'', which opened on the same night. It then ran until 7 or 8 February 1878, starring

Giulia Warwick Giulia Warwick (15 January 1857 – 13 July 1904) was an English opera and concert singer and professor of music in the last quarter of the 19th century. She is best known for roles with Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy Opera Company and with the Carl ...

and Richard Temple. The curtain raiser debuted to a warm review from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', which wrote, "This pleasant and sparkling ''bagatelle'' at once put the house in good humour." No printed libretto or vocal score is found in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, but the license copy of the libretto resides in the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...

's collection, Add. MS. 53194, play no. A, NovDec 1877. Only dialogue is given, not the lyrics of the songs, and in Cecil's original draft, it was apparently not intended to be performed with music.

Background

The fashion in the late

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so producer

Richard D'Oyly Carte Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establi ...

preceded his

Savoy opera 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 impr ...

s with

curtain raisers A curtain raiser is a short performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raised the curtain". The fashio ...

such as ''Dora's Dream''.

W. J. MacQueen-Pope Walter James MacQueen-Pope (11 April 1888 – 27 June 1960), known familiarly as Popie, was an English theatre historian and publicist. From a theatrical family which could be traced back to contemporaries of Shakespeare, he was in management for ...

commented, concerning these curtain raisers: :This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers. It would play to empty boxes, half-empty upper circle, to a gradually filling stalls and dress circle, but to an attentive, grateful and appreciative pit and gallery. Often these plays were little gems. They deserved much better treatment than they got, but those who saw them delighted in them. ...

hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...

served to give young actors and actresses a chance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser, but to them dinner was more important.MacQueen-Pope, Walter James. ''Carriages at Eleven'' (1947), London: Robert Hale and Co., p. 23 A memorable line in the play is Fred's opinion of the perfect woman: "Order is a first rate quality in a wife. I maintain that if a girl cannot be born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she ought to be born with a bunch of keys at her waist."

Synopsis

''Setting: A drawing room in a villa in Putney.'' Fred Fancourt, a stockbroker, courts his cousin, Dora. He seeks a comfy, capable, dumpy little wife. Dora, on the other hand, has begun reading great literature and declares that she will only marry a poet. They play charades, and Fred takes the opportunity to show that poets are impossible to live with, while Dora shows how insufferable stockbrokers can be to their wives. Both dreams shattered, and the couple agrees to part. Eventually, however, they make up and (presumably) get married and live happily ever after.

Roles and cast

*Dora Leslie, a romantic young lady - Fanny Holland (1873 and 1876);

(1877-78) *Fred Fancourt, her cousin, of the Stock Exchange -

(1873 and 1876); Richard Temple (1877-78) *a voice outside, supposed to be Dora's father *a servant's voice outside (identified as that of Jennie Sullivan in a programme reproduced in Leslie Baily)

Notes

References

List of Savoy Curtain Raisers

External links

Listing of ''Dora's Dream'' in ''A Dictionary of the Drama''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doras Dream English-language operas English comic operas 1873 operas Operas One-act operas Operas by Alfred Cellier