François Cellier

Succeeding his elder brother Alfred as the company's chief conductor in 1878, Cellier devoted almost all the rest of his life to comic opera.

Like his brother, and the latter's fellow pupil Arthur Sullivan, François benefited from the tutelage of the Rev Thomas Helmore, who ensured that the choristers received an all-round education in addition to their musical training.

[4] The composer conducted at first nights, but Cellier, as musical director, was the principal conductor for the original runs of Patience (1881–82), Iolanthe (1882–84), Princess Ida (1884), The Mikado (1885–87), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888–89), The Gondoliers (1889–91), Utopia, Limited (1893–94) and The Grand Duke (1896).

[8] He was appointed musical-director-in-chief at Richard D'Oyly Carte's Royal English Opera House for the runs of Sullivan's Ivanhoe and Messager's La Basoche in 1891–92.

During that month he conducted a one-off matinée performance of his new operetta, Bob (libretto by Cunningham Bridgman, the manager of a D'Oyly Carte touring company) at the Adelphi Theatre.

[13] In December 1904 Cellier conducted a short-lived comic opera, Ladyland, by Eustace Ponsonby and Frank Lambert at the Avenue Theatre.

[18] Henry Lytton wrote: Cellier had his heart and soul in every performance, and what that means is known only to those who work on the stage, and who do sometimes become dull and listless because of their very familiarity with the parts they are playing or because the audience cannot easily be aroused to 'concert pitch'.

Notwithstanding that he may have seen the piece hundreds of times – and might with reason be more bored than the principals themselves – he comes to each new performance with an enthusiasm which shakes the company out of themselves and makes everything go with a will.

[20] Bridgeman, and the anonymous author of The Era's profile, considered, as Lytton did, that Cellier's natural talent could have equipped him to rival the creative success of at least one of his two musical idols, but that indolence and lack of ambition prevented it.