A few weeks ago I
posted a couple of reviews of the premiere of Gilbert & Sullivan classic
opera The Pirates of Penzance along with a brief overview of the reasons why
the performance took place in Paignton. I did not include this review from The
Glasgow Herald. I do not believe that the reviewer actually witnessed the
performance. However it is worth quoting for completeness. I include a picture
of the vessel which brought the score from New York.
Yesterday afternoon [1] Messrs. Sullivan and Gilbert’s new
extravaganza The Pirates of Penzance
was announced to be performed for the first time on any stage at the theatre of
the little town of Paignton, in Devonshire. The representation was, of course,
a purely formal one, and was in compliance solely with our curious copyright
law, which declares that, to secure the various rights attending to it, a work
by English subjects must be first performed in England.
Therefore one of Mr. D’Oyley Carte’s [2] travelling
companies was ordered to come across from Torquay, and, although the score was
only expected by the Bothnia from New
York yesterday, the provisions of the law will have been duly complied with.
The new piece, which will not succeed H.M.S.
Pinafore in this country till Easter, is a burlesque upon the sensational
stories and the sensational melodramas of the present day. The bold pirate is
represented as a very effeminate individual, who woos the daughter of a
Major-General — a part, by the way, destined to be played here by Mr. George
Grossmith. A policeman, a former nurse of the pirate, and two or three
subordinate buccaneers also figure in the dramatis personae. The piece
will be produced next Saturday [3] at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York — Mr.
Arthur Sullivan conducting.
Glasgow Herald January 2 1880 From our London
Correspondent, London, Wednesday 31 December
2012 (with minor edits)
Notes
[1] Tuesday 30th
December 1879
[2] This is a spelt wrongly: it
should read Mr.[Richard] D’Oyly Carte.
[3] It was in fact first heard at
the Fifth Avenue Theatre on the evening of Wednesday 31 December.
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