Ivanhoe (opera)
In an 1885 interview, he said: During the late 1870s and through the 1880s, Richard D'Oyly Carte had earned great success by producing the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
"[8] Carte began building the Royal English Opera House in December 1888, and he commissioned Sullivan to write the venture's inaugural work.
Sturgis had written the libretto for Nadeshda by Arthur Goring Thomas (1885), which had been produced with success by Carl Rosa.
[8] Richard Traubner, writes in Opera News, that "Sturgis's libretto, given his quotes from Scott and the quasi-medieval English, is still sketchy, and the complex story does not really move forward with any operatic satisfaction.
After The Gondoliers opened and Sullivan took his annual holiday in Monte Carlo, he finally began the composition of Ivanhoe in May 1890, finishing the score in December 1890.
[12] In April 1890, Gilbert had challenged Carte over partnership expenses at the Savoy Theatre, including a new carpet for the lobby.
The lawsuit was ongoing during much of the period of composition of Ivanhoe, and Sullivan wrote to Gilbert in September 1890 that he was "physically and mentally ill over this wretched business.
[13] Sullivan completed the score too late to meet Carte's planned production date, and costs mounted as the producer had to pay performers, crew and others, while the theatre sat empty.
[12] In the opening night programme, Carte set forth his goals: I am endeavouring to establish English Grand Opera at the New Theatre which I have built....
Whether [the experiment] will succeed or not depends on whether there is a sufficient number of persons interested in music and the drama who will come forward and fill the theatre....
R. Scott Fishe, a member of the chorus, later became a principal performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre.
When the house re-opened in November, after a delay, Carte produced André Messager's La Basoche (with David Bispham in his first London stage performance) alternating in repertory with six more performances of Ivanhoe (which ran at a substantial loss this time), and then La Basoche alone, closing in January 1892.
Although Bemberg's opera Elaine was finished, and Cowen's Signa would be completed in March, Carte evidently had decided that producing these would be impracticable or too expensive and that he could not make a success of the new house.
[20] The Pall Mall Gazette wrote, "The question, then, uppermost is whether Londoners really want English opera at all.... Mr D'Oyly Carte is to be pitied, and it is hard to see how he can continue to throw his operatic pearls before those who do not value them.
It was, as critic Herman Klein observed, "the strangest comingling of success and failure ever chronicled in the history of British lyric enterprise!
Alternative singers were provided for the chief roles – not as separate 'first' and 'second' casts, but in different mixtures: In 1891, the audience knew Scott's best-selling novel intimately.
Sullivan and Sturgis relied on this fact, and so the opera intentionally dramatises disconnected scenes from the book and does not attempt to retell the whole story.
As Cedric's men prepare supper, he laments the King's many journeys abroad, the scurrilous behaviour of the Norman knights, and the absence of his estranged son, Ivanhoe.
Ignoring Ivanhoe's protest, a Herald removes his helmet at Prince John's command so that he may be crowned victor of the tournament, and he is recognised by Cedric and Rowena.
Scene 3: A Turret Chamber in Torquilstone Ulrica warns Rebecca that she faces an evil and dark fate, and that death is the only path to safety.
Scene 1: A Room in Torquilstone Ivanhoe, pale and weak from his wounds, thinks of his love for Rowena, and falls asleep.
When they hear distant trumpets, Rebecca goes to a window and describes the unfolding battle to the frustrated Ivanhoe, who complains that he is unable to participate.
The Templars have accused Rebecca of witchcraft for supposedly bewitching the Christian Knight to betray his Order and his vows, and making him fall in love with an accursed Jewess.
But as Sir Brian is about to strike the fatal blow, he falls dead, unable to survive the evil passions warring in his soul.
Whenever she is singing he uses the cor anglais to stress the sort of Eastern quality, and Sullivan claimed that this theme was one he had heard as a student in Leipzig, when he had attended a service at the Synagogue there.
The skill and flair Sullivan exhibits in the Savoy operettas in humor, gaiety and superb word-setting are barely required in Ivanhoe.
It sounds instead like an extension of the hoary oratorio form popular in Victorian Britain ... with its plethora of hymn-like numbers interspersed with ballads of no particular interest and some strong ensembles."
Traubner continues, "Sullivan's score would have been wonderful for a film, with its numerous Korngoldian fanfares and stirring, very English-national choruses.
From the lively pomp of the jousting scene, with its brilliant double chorus, to moments of exquisite tenderness and passion, to thrilling battles and powerful drama, this recording makes a compelling case for a monumental work that deserves a modern audience.
[43] Raymond Walker agreed: "David Lloyd-Jones must be congratulated for the energetic pace he sets, never rushed but always advancing in a purposeful way."
