THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1936.
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WILLIAM AND ARTHUR
That Is, Gilbert and Sullivan, Whose Collaboration Is Receiving Special Attention From Light Opera Enthusiasts These Days, Were as Unlike as Could Be, Personally, but They Did Get Results
By Janet Mobie
The Hongkong Dispensary
Estd, 1841,
Tel. 20016.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Mr. and Mrs. G. R. Lean wish to thunk all for expressions of kindness and sympathy in their recent bereavement.
The
*** SIR WILLIAM SCHWENE GILBERT
Who Wrote the Libern.
T
za Pratas by. Drews Bruthars; W. Vụ gìnd by encetez at the 'D'Oply Carte Opera DHNDSEY NE. W. 5. GILBERT READING TUTOPIA LIMITED" TO THE ACTORS AT THIĮ SAVOY THEATER Fulbari la Monday, Sullivan's Hood de pauore fun Onge the Paper Trans Which Sta le Booding Hes. Gilber La an the Stemmen Left. While Mrs. D'Ovty Care and Mr. D'Ģstr Çinte Ain Immediate mu tếa kưgh of the Upland Vape From Which Gulset Ravda, The Others in the Group Ain Members at the Thestral CombeRY.
SIE ARTHUR KNYMONOR SYLLIVAN * Compound two All-orie.
ing the new Savoy theatre while their next opera. "Patience." was being presented..
10-DAY is the cen- inferority complex. because all plays, and so on which made
tenary of the birth of he did was fight and fail com- everyone sit up with a start. Sir William S. Gilbert, pletely to adjust himself to the
He was still tarred with the community doings of the school. brush of his father's gift of It is a good thing his
There WAS one thing that cynical, barbed wit, and it came father, William, a retired
could distract him from himself: to him that he was rolling up naval surgeon who had a that WILM writing plays and enemies in the theatre world; fearful temper and literary acting in them. Presumably and since he wanted eventually Hongkong Telegraph. tastes, had also an interest his masters were glad enough to be connected with the stage,
in fairy tales, eccentricity to see him occupied with this he could see that ho must stop. and the writing of long activity, extracurricular as it this. So he stopped writing or
anything novels, biographies, and the was, but he managed always to drawing like.
fight with the casts selected with the stage. He fell in with for the productions and at last one Tom Robertson who was the Otherwise, the world might he decided to chuck it all and leading figure in modern stage never have had the joy of that run away. He could be an actor direction; they established a It takes ali kinds of people to incomparable combination. Gil somewhere else. He was wheed club which was to become very ferences of opinions and the grim up humanity in general, bert and Sullivan, and there led into keeping on with school important to the English stage; fiasco of. "Princess Ida" was
Fin
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1936.
A CHILDISH ATTITUDE
connected
The public which had held aloof from the two before their American triumph now flocked after them, and "Iolanthe" came close on the heels of "Patience." But the subsequent "Princess Ida" was so far from being what they hoped that the composer threw up his hands, wailed that his day as a composer was run out, and he would never write into a fury but as usual they anything more. Gilbert flew
managed to compose their dif-
swallowed up in the really marvellous clamour over the
make
might not now be, literally, for a while.
Gilbert learned liberally and but it is extremely difficult to
thousands upon thousands of understand the mentality of the
King's College followed the conscientiously from Robertson people in the United States
Great Ealing. He and by the late sixties his own "Mikado," which came along in Labour M.P.'s who banded together in an American school nt two Welsh
1885. have declined invitations to ac- Gilbert and Sullivan Association didn't like to study, but he plays' were being produced with which was later to company His Majesty the King which has no other rule of thought he'd like to join up with that care
It was in April, 1935, that the on a tour of the depressed areas eligibility than "an avowed love the Artillery in the Crimean become known as the especial
South Wales. Care is, ad for the Gilbert and Sullivan War, and set about preparing excellence of the Savoy. They Gilbert and Sullivan Association mittedly, taken to make it plain operas" and no other occupation himself to do so. Unfortunately weren't very good plays, though was established on the wave of war and are lost now in the merciful feeling stirred up by the popular than the interchange of in- for that ambition, the
response to the appearance of that the objection is in no sense dividual knowledge of Gilbert ended before he could take the dust of the forgiving years.
It was in 1870 that he met United States for eight months, the D'Orly Carte players in the directed against His Majesty, and Sullivan, and the enjoy examinations. without question the most popularment of presentations of the
Sir Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan beginning in September, 1934. man in Britain to-day. Indeed, operas, on as frequent occasions BUT he joined up with the was as important as a composer The Association is headed by
Militia, anyhow, He looked as Gilbert was a.writer. But Frederick J. In tribute is paid to King Edward as possible;
Halton, whose splendidly in a- uniforim. But by-late-1871-they had done an-father, P. W. Halton, was con- Certainly there was very little when his detachment went to operetta together. It wasn't a ductor of the original D'Oyly in the early life of Gilbert to Scotland for manoeuvres and very good operetta but Richard Carte Company, mostly on tour. indicate the eminence he would he was assigned training duties, D'Oyly Carte thought that the Branches of the association have come to later. He had a mother his independence asserted itself two who had done it might be been organised in many key and four sisters, but it was again. He and his men simply capable of better things; and cities in the United States and Father Gilbert who made most did not appear in their appoint four years later he had per- Canada.
temerity
**
*
*
*
for his sympathy towards the unemployed, which has been so often demonstrated in word and deed. Actually, these Labour M.P.'s are merely attempting to make political capital out of their
of the noise in the household ed place one day, and when an- suaded them to get together on refusal to be present in their and the neighbours predicted other detachment was detailed "Trial by Jury,"
tales of Gilbert's constituencies when His Majesty that, with a father like that, to find out why, it was found makes his visit they have the young Gilbert, who had a tem that Gilbert decided the wea similar
They were two totally dis. FOR all the
inability to get along har- men. Sullivan made theper of his own, would never lead ther was too poor for any such friends casily and had a certain relations, it is a curious thing moniously in many of his hunian put forward ridiculous argument that the dull life, though it would peacocking antics, and he and talent for friendliness. Gilbert that he was perhaps most wide- Government is shielding behind probably never be a prosperous his men were all dry and cozy, annoyed the life out of people ly known for his love of children and was always in hot water and of pets. He was always That seemed to cause a rift Gilbert, on the other hand, was arranging parties and picnics for WHEN he was 13, they sent between Gilbert and the Army.
highly respectable man, children and when school. ing persecution of the poor. young Gilbert to a school at
whereas Sullivan loved gambling These are tactics which do more Great Ealing. He could not get
He got a job in the Depart-
children gathered in New York. on the horses, ment of Education, but they
not long ago for the decoration harm to those indulging in along there. He was probably made him sit on a stool and So, while the two became them than to anybody else; suffering from what a preten write things he considered non- perhaps the most famed artistic of a bronze plaque that marks they certainly have no value tious later age was to dub an sense, and when some one left collaborators of modern times, the site of the Gramercy Park him a little legacy he was off they were never really friends. Place, the little girls all wore whatever and cannot pas-
the stool like a shot and away But they got a lot of work red flowers pinned to their middy Sir Gilbert sibly affect the issues with can with equal truth be said that to try to prepare himself for done, and some of it was very blouses, because
always wore one in his button- which these M.P.s profess so the Government is just as anxi-the law.
hole; and also, they were careful to display stupendously clean much concern.. This childish dis-ous to relieve the lot of those who
the King's sympathy for the [workless, at the same time alleg-
one. either.
*
*
indoors.
He did qualify, but he had
*
*
An-
and
શ
line work.
**
*
*
fingernails, which they explain-
her nails and
play of extreme party politics is have for so long been in the difficulty getting clients. He NOWADAYS, when we think
of successful tours by Gilbert ed (if it seemed unusual) by lindeed
a strange method of slough of despond. It only got a few, but they were strange
quires a moment's thought to people. One pounced on him and Sullivan production com- saying that Sir William "once showing appreclution for His refute the idea that the Govern- and kissed him in court.
panies, it seems almost im- wrote to a little girl who was go
an ing to visit him on his yacht, and Majesty's keen interest in the ment is guilty of callousness in other took of his shou well-being of all classes of his ita attitude towards the miners, flung it in his face, when the possible to iniagine that
only took in a few pounds. boots, clean him. people. Happily it is in no sense or to rebut the even more ridicul-outcome of the case displeased early performance of "Pinafore" he said that she was to shine he But news of the opera travelled knuckles, have no tails hanging to the United States, and then, to her dress, wear her best hát representative of the Labour as contention that it is bent on a policy of persecuting the poor. Party in general or of any other No Government, whatever its So it was that Gilbert turned the collaborators travelled to and have her hair like a coconut his back on the fantastic the States, too, and England by which he meant it must section of the nation's, political political complexion, wants to world of the law. And it was was allowed to understand that be smooth and neat. life. That distress is still pre-see any section of the people in just then that his attention she was not giving, a valent in South Wales is common distress; quite the reverse. There was caught by the idea of write appreciation to her own, and imowledge, but the problem in- may be, and there are, differences ing about, and drawing, some things grew better. volved is not one which can be of opinion as to the efficacy of of the sights around him- which he did, and which at- solved by a mere waving of the the Government's plans for res tracted a tremendous attention fairy's wand. There are com-toring prosperity to the depressed to him when they developed into plleated economic factors in-arcas.
Allegations of the kind the famous Bab Bailade. volved, as made by M.P.'s arb,
proper
•
His collection of pets included lemurs, pigeons, dogs, cranes, cats and other members of the While they were in New animal and bird kingdoms. He York. Gilbert and Sullivan lived had a pet fawn which was always from other at a hotel called the Gramercy being snatched Park Place. That was in 1879, people's property, with fines, and there they wrote "The therefor to be paid at the local a Pirates of Penzance." It made bailiff's. His best cat was an
CRAWFORD, LTD. honest efforts to give the miners however, not only contrary to He worked out quit them to Picha hit that D'Oyly Carte orange-eyed, blue Peraian named
better conditions has clearly facts, but the methods adopted the notice of newspaper pro- decided he could not possibly do Mary. She liked people who proved. No-one has shown more in putting them forward can only prietors and almost before he better than take over the whole sang, and climbed on chairs and concern over the plight of these be described as the height of bad knew it he was launched on a business of Gilbert and Sullivan tables to stare into their faces as people than His Majesty, and it taste.
steady flow of poetry, drawings, productions, which he did, build they did.