The Grand Duke

Despite a successful opening night, the production had a relatively short run and was the partnership's only financial failure, and the two men never worked together again.

In The Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan come full circle, back to the theme of their first collaboration, Thespis: a troupe of actors taking political power.

The baffled leading comedian of the troupe, Ludwig, spearheads the rebellion against the hypochondriac, miserly Grand Duke and becomes engaged to four different women before the plot is resolved.

The frugality and phoniness of the wealthy classes and the nobility are lampooned and, as in Princess Ida, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, and Utopia, Limited, the foreign setting emboldens Gilbert to use some particularly pointed satire.

[5] After His Excellency closed in April 1895, McIntosh wrote to Sullivan informing him that she planned to return to concert singing, and so the obstacle to his further collaboration with Gilbert was removed.

[10] In addition, the plot shows similarities with the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Thespis, in which a company of actors gain political power.

[7][12] The theme of Ernest (and then Rudolph) being legally dead while still physically alive was used in earlier works by Gilbert and, separately by Sullivan, for example Tom Cobb (1875) and Cox and Box (1867).

[12] Mr. and Mrs. Carte hired a new soprano, the Hungarian Ilka Pálmay, who had recently arrived in England and quickly made a favourable impression on London audiences and critics with her charming personality.

[17] Unhappily for Gilbert, three of his usual principal players, George Grossmith, Richard Temple and Jessie Bond, who he had originally thought would play the title character, the prince and the princess, all left the company before rehearsals began for The Grand Duke, and so he reduced the size of these roles, further changing his original conception.

[18] While Gilbert and Sullivan finished writing the show, the Cartes produced a revival of The Mikado at the Savoy Theatre, opening on 6 November 1895.

[21] The opening night was a decided success, and the critics praised Gilbert's direction, Pálmay's singing and acting, Walter Passmore as Rudolph, and the cast in general.

[22] The Times's review of the opening night's performance said: The Grand Duke is not by any means another Mikado, and, though it is far from being the least attractive of the series, signs are not wanting that the rich vein which the collaborators and their various followers have worked for so many years is at last dangerously near exhaustion.

There are still a number of excellent songs, but the dialogue seems to have lost much of its crispness, the turning-point of what plot there is requires considerable intellectual application before it can be thoroughly grasped, and some of the jests are beaten out terribly thin.

"[22] Gilbert wrote to his friend, Mrs. Bram Stoker: "I'm not at all a proud Mother, and I never want to see this ugly misshapen little brat again.

Gilbert's cutting of parts of the opera after the opening night did not prevent it from having a shorter run than any of the earlier collaborations since Trial by Jury.

The BBC assembled a cast to broadcast the opera (together with the rest of the Gilbert and Sullivan series) in 1966 (led by former D'Oyly Carte comic Peter Pratt) and again in 1989.

[42] Writer Marc Shepherd concluded that the work "is full of bright comic situations and Gilbert's characteristic topsy-turvy wit.

"[43] The first fully staged professional revival in the UK took place in 2012 at the Finborough Theatre in London, starring Richard Suart in the title role, with a reduced cast and two-piano accompaniment.

In the market square in the capital city, Speisesaal, Ernest Dummkopf's theatrical company is ready to open their production of Troilus and Cressida that night.

Everyone has grown to resent the Grand Duke, and all of the company had already become members of a plot to blow him up with dynamite and place a new man on the throne.

It is clear that Ernest will win the election which is to follow the coup and become Grand Duke, which troubles Julia Jellicoe, a famous English comedian.

Ludwig believed him to be a member of the conspiracy and told him all the details; only then did he realise that he had revealed the entire plot to the Grand Duke's private detective.

Tannhäuser counsels Ernest and Ludwig to fight a statutory duel immediately: the loser will be legally dead, and the survivor can go to the Duke and confess the whole plot.

Caroline is also upset by a newspaper article which says that Rudolph was betrothed in infancy to the Princess of Monte Carlo, but he explains that the engagement is "practically off."

The betrothal lapses when the Princess reaches the age of twenty-one, which will happen tomorrow, and her father, the Prince, dares not venture out of his house for fear of being arrested by his creditors.

Julia points out that if she and Ludwig are to rule over a Grand Ducal court, they need to be dressed more impressively than their everyday clothes will allow.

Ludwig recalls that they have a complete set of brand-new costumes for Troilus and Cressida, which they can use to "upraise the dead old days of Athens in her glory."

The Prince of Monte Carlo arrives with his daughter the Princess and a retinue of supernumeraries – out-of-work actors hired from the Theatre Monaco to play the part of nobles.

He has reversed his fortunes by inventing a game called roulette, which has allowed him to pay his debts, hire the supernumeraries, and take his daughter to Pfennig-Halbpfennig just in time to marry the Grand Duke before the engagement expires.

The published vocal score for The Grand Duke was available within days of opening night, and it included all of the music performed at the premiere.