''The Sapphire Necklace, or the False Heiress'' (completed by 1867, and at least mostly completed by 1864), was the first opera composed by

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

. It was never performed, and most of the music and libretto are now lost.

Background

After his incidental music to '' The Tempest'' brought Arthur Sullivan early fame in 1862, he began to experiment with a wide variety of musical compositions. By 1864, the young Sullivan had written a ballet (''

L'Île Enchantée ''L'Île Enchantée'' (literally, The Enchanted Island) is an 1864 ballet by Arthur Sullivan written as a divertissement at the end of Vincenzo Bellini's ''La Sonnambula'' at Covent Garden. It was choreographed by H. Desplaces."Arthur Sullivan ...

''), orchestral pieces including ''

The Masque at Kenilworth ''Kenilworth, A Masque of the Days of Queen Elizabeth'' (commonly referred to as "The Masque at Kenilworth"), is a cantata with music by Arthur Sullivan and words by Henry Fothergill Chorley (with an extended Shakespeare quotation) that premier ...

'', several hymns, a few piano solos, and some

part song A part song, part-song or partsong is a form of choral music that consists of a song to a secular or non-liturgical sacred text, written or arranged for several vocal parts. Part songs are commonly sung by an SATB choir, but sometimes for an all ...

s and parlour ballads. He had also set to work on ''The Sapphire Necklace''. As with some of his other compositions in the 1860s, the libretto was provided by his friend Henry F. Chorley. However, this libretto proved particularly difficult to set. Later in life Sullivan would say that no other libretto had given him more difficulty, and an 1879 article suggests that he later decided to suppress the opera due to dissatisfaction with the libretto."Arthur Sullivan"
''Scribner's Monthly'', vol. XVIII, 1879, p. 906 Sullivan worked diligently at the four-act opera during 1863 and 1864, and in October 1865 the house journal of publisher Cramer & Co. advertised "A Grand Romantic Opera by A. S. Sullivan" as "ready", by contrast with operas by Balfe and Wallace described merely as "in preparation". ''The Sapphire Necklace'' was intended to be produced by the Pyne &

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

Opera Company, which specialised in such romantic English operas.Lamb, Andrew. "Sullivan and Victorian Romantic Opera", ''Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine'', No. 76, Summer 2011, pp. 23–31 However, the 1864–65 Pyne and Harrison season at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

proved to be the company's last, and so they never produced the opera. Sullivan found no one willing to produce ''The Sapphire Necklace'', though the overture and selections from it were performed at

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

and elsewhere.

Surviving, known music and performances

On 13 April 1867, a selection of songs from the opera were performed at

, arranged for military band by Charles Godfrey Jr. The overture proved popular and went on to appear in numerous further concerts. Like many of Sullivan's early pieces, the overture is in the style of

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

and shows that ''The Sapphire Necklace'' was a more serious work than the

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

s for which Sullivan later became famous. The two other songs, "Over the Roof" and a now-lost recitative and prayer, "Then come not yet," were less successful. Only the former went as far as publication, and neither would appear again at a major concert in Sullivan's lifetime. The madrigal, "When Love and Beauty to Be Married Go", was saved by the Victorian love of parlour ballads, but the rest of the score other than these two songs, as well as the libretto, was lost. Sullivan sold the score to Metzler in 1878, but bought it back again in 1880. He evidently made an effort to revise the score under a new title, ''The False Heiress''. He also mentioned, in an 1897 letter to his secretary,

Wilfred Bendall Wilfred Ellington Bendall (22 April 1850–16 June 1920) was an English composer, pianist, conductor, arranger and teacher. After musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, Leipzig Cons ...

, having part of the score in front of him when composing ''

Victoria and Merrie England ''Victoria and Merrie England'', billed as a "Grand National Ballet in Eight Tableaux" is an 1897 ballet by the choreographer Carlo Coppi with music by Arthur Sullivan, written to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, commemorating her s ...

''. In 2000, an amateur performance of the surviving music and lyrics from the opera was given, with a new libretto by Scott Farrell, in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

Surviving Lyrics

When Love and Beauty (Madrigal)

''(With Sullivan's repeats eliminated)'' :When Love and Beauty to be married go, :Pheobus, without a cloud, :Smiles on the pair. :Though rose-buds pant and blow, :The birds all sing aloud, :Tumultuous Boreas, whom the cedars bowed, :Tamed, like wane of gentle song doth flow, :Saying, till Echo doth repeat the sound, :"May all who wed in truth with happiness be crown'd." :It is not wealth and state that smooth the way, :Nor bid the desert bloom, :The ploughman at his furrow can be gay, :The weaver at his loom. :Where Honour's Lord content his wife hath room, :And hearts keep light if heads are gray, :Singing, till Echo doth repeat the sound, :"May all who wed in truth with happiness be crown'd."

Over the Roof

:Over the roof and over the wall, :Grow, grow, the jessamine grow. :For ever and ever more white and tall : (No matter the dwelling be high or low!) :For yet palace be lofty and moat be wide :And mailed the bridge and lordly the towers, :There love can prevail over pomp and pride :Like the cherished beauty of those sweet flowers! :Love, love, love. :Love will not alter under the sun :While the woods grow and the waters run! :Down by the meadow, down to the sea : (Flow, flow, the river will flow) :The turf may be green, or wither'd the tree : (But the heat is the same on the cobble below.) :For whatever the season around that deep stream, :Be it snow-white winter or summer hot, :There is love, tho' a wand'rer as some might dream :Who passes and passes, yet changes not. :Ah! Love, love, love. :Love will be master under the sun :While the wood grows and the waters run!

Recordings

*1972 – Fulham Light Operatic Society recorded the two surviving vocal numbers, "When love and beauty" and "Over the roof", as bonus tracks on their world premiere recording of Sullivan's ''

The Zoo ''The Zoo'' is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St. James's Theatre in London (as an afterpiece to W. S. Gilb ...

''. *1992 –

RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestr ...

(Andrew Penny, conductor), recorded a reconstruction of the overture by Sullivan scholar Roderick Spencer on theMarco Polo label. *1993 –

Gregg Smith Singers The Gregg Smith Singers is a mixed chorus from the United States, directed by Gregg Smith (August 21, 1931 – July 12, 2016). The group, which comprises 16 singers, was founded at an all-Japanese Methodist church in West Los Angeles, California in ...

recorded "When love and beauty," a CD called ''Madrigals – and All That Jazz'' on the Newport Classic label, NPD 85524. The disc also includes a doo-wop version of the number. *2000 – Alderley Singers & Festival Orchestra (Peter England, conductor) recorded both of the surviving vocal numbers together with other "forgotten" items by Sullivan and

Michael William Balfe Michael William Balfe (15 May 1808 – 20 October 1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas, especially ''The Bohemian Girl''. After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to co ...

. *2022 –

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...

(John Andrews, conductor) recorded the overture for

Dutton Vocalion Dutton Vocalion specialises in re-issuing on CD music recorded between the 1920s and 1970s, and in issuing albums of modern digital recordings. It was established by British recording and re-mastering engineer Michael J. Dutton. Dutton Laborator ...

, together with ''

'' and other Sullivan items. In a 2022 review for MusicWeb International, Nick Barnard wrote: "Both he 1992version and the 022recording orchestrated by Robin Gordon-Powell appear to have been based on the same surviving military band arrangement made by Charles Godfrey Jr. Because of the presence of two different orchestrators the work is essentially the same-but-different across the two recordings. Penny is a few seconds longer than Andrews but again both conductors are well in tune with the style and idiom and both performances are effective and well played. ere are tantalising hints in some of the melodic shapes, and the overture’s final grand peroration, of the musical path Sullivan would be taking in the years ahead."Barnard, Nick
"Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900); ''L’île Enchantée'' (1864); 'Procession March' (1863); 'Day Dreams' (1863, orch. 934, Herman Finck); ''The Sapphire Necklace'' – Overture (1863–64)"
MusicWeb International, August 2022

Notes

References

*

at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (includes Midi files and lyrics of surviving songs)

at The Gilbert and Sullivan Discography

External links

Recording of ''The Sapphire Necklace'' overture RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny conductor (1992)

* ttp://gilbertandsullivanonline.com/ Chris Browne's catalogue including availability of the new score and libretto {{DEFAULTSORT:Sapphire Necklace, The Operas by Arthur Sullivan English-language operas Operas 1867 operas