Edward Solomon

[1] His parents were Charles Solomon (1817–1890), a music hall pianist, conductor and composer, and his wife, Cesira "Sarah" Marinina, née Mirandoli (1834–1891).

In 1879, he met Henry Pottinger "Pot" Stephens while he was the musical director at the Royalty Theatre conducting, among other works, Arthur Sullivan's The Zoo.

[3] With Stephens, he produced his first successes, Billee Taylor (1880), a "nautical comedy opera" in two acts; and Claude Duval (1881, celebrating a well known 18th century highwayman),[4] both of which remained popular for many years in both the UK and US.

Other Solomon and Stephens pieces were Lord Bateman, or Picotee's Pledge (1882), Virginia and Paul, or Ringing the Changes (1883)[5] and later The Red Hussar (1889), a "comedy opera" in three acts.

Other early shows included Love and Larceny in 1881, a farce, Through the Looking-Glass (1882), The Vicar of Bray, a comic opera with a libretto by Sydney Grundy (1882; revived 1892 at the Savoy),[6] the successful Polly, or The Pet of the Regiment (1884) and Pepita; or, the Girl with the Glass Eyes (1886).

[12] From 1891–93, after Gilbert and Sullivan had temporarily separated, Richard D'Oyly Carte mounted a number of non-G&S pieces to keep the Savoy Theatre open, including a revival of The Vicar of Bray in 1892.

Solomon has been described as "a diminutive clean-shaven young man ... whimsical, flamboyant, superstitious, hardly to be trusted with money or women, but brimming with melodic invention and able to compose at speed.

"[2] He met the American actress Lillian Russell, in 1882 at Tony Pastor's New York Casino Theatre where he was the season's musical director and she became the star.