The Rose of Persia
The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood.
The original cast included Savoy Theatre regulars Ellen Beach Yaw, Rosina Brandram, Emmie Owen, Louie Pounds, Isabel Jay, Walter Passmore, Henry Lytton and Robert Evett.
[2] When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership collapsed after the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte struggled to find successful new works for the Savoy Theatre.
He was able to bring Gilbert and Sullivan together briefly for two more operas (Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke), neither of which was a great success.
In Basil Hood, Sullivan finally found a congenial new collaborator, giving the Savoy its first significant success since the early 1890s.
Sullivan had been much impressed by the American high soprano Ellen Beach Yaw, and he prevailed upon the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company to cast her in the role.
Leading soprano Ruth Vincent quit the company when she was passed over for the role (although she later played the Sultana in New York).
Yaw's first two nights were shaky, though the reviews were mixed, and both the music director, Francois Cellier, and Mrs. Carte advocated her replacement.
Sullivan at first agreed, though writing in his diary on 2 December 1899, "I don't quite see what it's all about – Miss Yaw is not keeping people out of the theatre as Cellier and the Cartes imply."
Ruth Vincent played the Sultana, Hassan was John Le Hay, the Sultan was Charles Angelo, and Yussuf was Sidney Bracy.
[7] After Rose proved to be a hit, Sullivan and Hood teamed up again, but the composer died, leaving their second collaboration, The Emerald Isle, unfinished until the score was completed by Edward German.
Rose is firmly reminiscent of the style of the earlier Savoy successes, with its topsy-turvy plot, mistaken identities, the constant threat of executions, an overbearing wife, and a fearsome monarch who is fond of practical joking.
Although critics found Hood inferior to Gilbert, his delight in comic word-play at times resembles the work of his great predecessor.
With its episodic plot, its exotic setting, and its emphasis on dance numbers, Rose also takes a step towards musical comedy, which by 1899 was the dominant genre on the London stage.
Yussuf, a traveling story-teller, arrives, shortly followed by four of the Sultana's slaves, who have slipped out of the palace disguised as dancing girls to explore the outside world.
Abdallah, thinking he has found the Sultana consorting with another man, is delighted, as he is sure the Sultan will order Hassan's execution.
After Abdallah leaves, Hassan distributes a narcotic drug called "bhang", which he says will relieve the distress of their impending execution.
Heart's Desire announces that the Sultan himself is about to arrive, along with his Grand Vizier, Physician-in-Chief and Royal Executioner, all disguised as a religious order of dancing dervishes.
He says the effect of the drug is that Hassan will gradually consider himself a person of more and more importance, until he suddenly falls unconscious for ten hours.
Rose-in-Bloom begs the Sultan to spare her slave, as Heart's Desire has been telling her an interesting story, and she would like to hear the end of it.
Hassan quickly claims to be the source of the story, and so the Sultan says he may live until he finishes telling it – as long as it has a happy ending.
The Sultan admits that he has been outwitted, but he orders Dancing Sunbeam restored to Hassan, allowing Yussuf to marry Heart's Desire, and all ends happily.
It is an octet, for Rose-in-Bloom, Scent-of-Lilies, Honey-of-Life, Heart's Desire, Physician, Sultan, Hassan and Executioner, with a solo verse sung by each of the first two.
St David's Players assert that they presented the premiere stage performances of this number, in context, in their 2009 production of the opera.
[12] They previewed the piece in September 2009 at the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Festival at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
[13] The only professional British revival of The Rose of Persia was at Princes Theatre in London from 28 February 1935 to 23 March 1935, closing after 25 performances.
The producer, R. Claude Jenkins, hoped to make the Princes the home of a series of British light opera, but the disappointing response to The Rose of Persia quashed these plans.
