Sir Arthur SULLIVAN

SULLIVAN Ballet Music L’Île Enchantée • Thespis RTÉ Concert Orchestra • Andrew Penny Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842 –1900) Ballet Music Arthur Sullivan returned to England from his studies at the rest, he has eyes for no one but the queen, and eventually Otherwise, even in Sullivan’s lifetime the music was The designation ‘Act 2’ shows this ballet belonged to Leipzig Conservatory in 1861. His diploma work – a set of makes her mortal by a kiss. known to have ‘disappeared’. He is believed to have some kind of opera, for Sullivan divided his early ballets incidental music to Shakespeare’s Tempest – was It is in 13 sections and must certainly have formed claimed that the best part of it had been used up in other into ‘scenes’, while his incidental music for plays is well performed the following year and won immediate quite a large part of the evening’s performance. Sullivan works. Consequently many attempted reconstructions have documented. Indeed the only opera – if we can call it that recognition for the 19-year-old composer. His success left a delightful description of the way such music had to simply re-set Gilbert’s original words to Sullivan’s – to which this could belong is Thespis . Final confirmation was something of an embarrassment to the musical be tailored to fit the movement of scenery at Covent melodies from later operas, but true fragments of the of this piece of detective work comes in the only establishment – how should they capitalise on such Garden, and he even responded to a request to include a original score have been sought in vain. undoubted part of Thespis – the opening of the chorus achievements? He soon established a reputation for few bars to depict the beautiful scenery. It was while assembling the papers referring to his Climbing over Rocky Mountains which forms part of the ballads and art songs and took the post as organist of a Sullivan began his famous collaboration with W.S. second ballet Victoria and Merrie England that his autograph score of The Pirates of Penzance , and that is fashionable West End church. He was known to be Gilbert at the Gaiety Theatre in 1871. The Gaiety subsisted secretary Wilfred Bendall included a manuscript whose in the hand of the same copyist. Examining drawings of working on a symphony and there were rumours of a on a mixture of extravaganza and burlesque, the theatre’s heading read ‘Act 2. Ballet No. 1’. In the L’Île Enchantée the Thespis rehearsals revealed the presence of a harp, grand opera. Despite this his only regular musical staging and spectacle being particularly lavish at collection he also included – in the hand of the same most unusual in an orchestra at the Gaiety, and also of a employment was as an organist and general music Christmas when a new operatic novelty was produced – copyist as the part included in Victoria – two pieces comic dragon scene. There is another dragon scene in factotum behind the scenes at Covent Garden. effectively a superior pantomime. On Boxing Day 1871 describing themselves as ‘Act 2. Ballet No. 3’ and ‘Galop’. Victoria which used the music from scene four of L’Île , In the late 19th century it was Covent Garden’s policy Gilbert and Sullivan produced Thespis: or The Gods Of these only the Galop was known to belong to L’Île , but while the use of harp and solo clarinet, and the length of to insert a ballet in any opera that did not possess one, Grown Old , an ‘opera’ which dealt flamboyantly with a here it appears in a truncated score for a small pit orchestra the piece, would fit perfectly with the Pas de Chales in the and either used an existing work or commissioned a new troupe of strolling players required to assume the duties of rather than in the version for large forces used at Covent second section of L’Île . The lost ballet from Thespis could one. This led to Sullivan’s second work, a ballet score the gods of Mount Olympus for a year. The famous Garden. These three pieces, though they were now at last be reconstructed. entitled L’Île Enchantée , and it made its debut on Monday comedian-singer, J.L. Toole, starred as Thespis, the leader separated, were clearly identified by their page numbers as 16 May 1864 as the divertissement at the end of Bellini’s of the troupe, with a railway song that was an enormous being Nos. 1 , 3 and 5 of a ballet, but from the page Selwyn Tillett La sonnambula . It attracted much favourable comment success. Nelly Farren, another popular member of the numbers the length of Nos. 2 and 4 could be calculated. and Sullivan decided to shorten its 13 sections, changed Gaiety Theatre, was the chirpy Mercury, while Sullivan’s the order, and managed to have it included in concert brother Fred was the ageing Apollo. In common with all programmes at Crystal Palace. However, within three mock opéra bouffes , an interpolated ballet allowed the years, Covent Garden, Crystal Palace and the composer theatre’s professional dancers to show off their legs. had between them totally lost the autograph score. The speed with which the work had to be produced – Fortunately, a set of orchestral parts existed, and these Gilbert indicated that writing, rehearsal and production took have now been edited by Roderick Spencer and Selwyn no longer than five weeks – demanded that Sullivan should Tillett, and they have restored the passages cut by plunder his previous compositions to find sufficient music Sullivan for concert performances in order to recreate the for the evening. How much was original we will never know. original ballet score. In June 1990 the Sir Arthur Sullivan Despite playing longer than most of that year’s Society Festival staged the first performance since 1867, London pantomimes, Thespis was not a lasting success. and this is the world premiere recording. Charitable critics complained that Gilbert’s text was too The story of the ballet is a slight one. A shipwrecked erudite for a Gaiety audience, while the costumes were mariner is washed up on the shore of an enchanted island ‘more than usually indecent’. In the following heyday of peopled only by gnomes and fairies. The fairy queen is so their ultra-respectable Savoy Theatre, both Gilbert and taken with him that she transports him to her magic Sullivan conveniently forgot their earlier days in burlesque . bower, where most of the other fairies also fall in love with One song from Thespis did find its way into print and a him. Despite temptations by one more persistent than the chorus was transplanted into The Pirates of Penzance . RTÉ Concert Orchestra Photo: Andres Poveda The RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Conductor Laureate Proinnsías Ó Duinn; Leader Mia Cooper) is part of RTÉ, Ireland’s national public service multimedia organisation. Introducing orchestral music to new audiences since 1948, it was voted World’s Favourite Orchestra in 2015. Committed to eclectic programming , the orchestra has performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Lang Lang and Cleo Laine, and Irish artists such as Declan O’Rourke, Sinéad O’Connor and Imelda May. A recent hugely successful strand of 90s dance music events brought a new following and won the IMRO Outstanding Achievement Award 2018. The RTÉ CO has performed in seven Eurovision Song Contests. Its film soundtrack credits include Stephen Rennicks’s score to Room and Brian Byrne’s Golden Globe-nominated score to Albert Nobbs . Recent recordings include Howard Shore’s A Palace upon the Ruins and Flicker with Niall Horan. In the fields of opera, ballet and choral performances, the RTÉ CO has collaborated with Irish National Opera, English National Ballet and Our Lady’s Choral Society. It has given the Irish premieres of Jaws in Concert , Amadeus and The Nightmare Before Christmas , performing with Danny Elfman. orchestras.rte.ie/performinggroup/rte-concert-orchestra Andrew Penny Photo by permission of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra Andrew Penny was born in Hull and entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1971. As a postgraduate he was the first holder of the Rothschild Scholarship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. He also studied with Sir Edward Downes and at the BBC Conductors Seminar in 1985. Since 1992 he has made over 50 recordings for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. Much of the repertoire is British Music and includes symphonies by Arnold and Havergal Brian, film music by Vaughan Williams and Walton, theatre music by Sullivan and Holbrooke, and light music by Coates and Arnold. His complete cycle of Arnold’s nine symphonies was produced in time for the composer’s 80th birthday in October 2001 and became BBC Music Magazine ’s top recommendation. Penny has been on the instrumental music staff at Hymers College since 1977, and is the longest serving musical director of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra. He was awarded the MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2014, and on Yorkshire Day 2018 was listed in the top 100 of the county’s achievers in The Yorkshire Post . Soon after his return from studies in Leipzig, Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote his second work, L’Île Enchantée . This was a ballet score on the subject of a shipwrecked mariner which debuted at Covent Garden in the form of a divertissement at the end of Bellini’s La sonnambula , where it was received with acclaim. This premiere recording restores passages Sullivan cut when presenting the work for concert performances. Thespis , a collaboration with W.S. Gilbert, is a flamboyant opera cum pantomime of which only fragments now remain – the work’s lost ballet has been rediscovered and restored by Roderick Spencer and Selwyn Tillett.

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