Musical Numbers

Arthur Sullivan's earliest works for the stage were his incidental music for Shakespeare's Tempest and the ballet L'île Enchantée, both set on enchanted islands, so it seems fitting that his last opera should also take place on a magical isle, the emerald isle of his forebears. Basil Hood, who had written the libretto for the successful Rose of Persia (1899), was again Sullivan's collaborator, but as fate would have it, a second collaborator was eventually required, for Sullivan died before he could complete his work. He had composed the opening scene in full score and sketched out the melodies and harmonies for fifteen further numbers. There remained a dozen pieces (four of them quite brief) that were set by Edward German, who went on to write Merrie England, Tom Jones, The Princess of Kensington--and, fittingly, the music to W.S. Gilbert's last libretto, Fallen Fairies. Following the orchestral scheme established in the opening number, German fully scored Sullivan's sketches and went on to compose the music for the orphaned lyrics. (In our program, an asterisk indicates the numbers set by German. The second act finale includes music by both composers.)

It's interesting to note how Sullivan, having failed to achieve a popular success with the beautiful, romantic score for The Beauty Stone (1898), had adopted a lighter, more "musical comedy" manner in The Rose of Persia. The example he set there and in his Emerald Isle music surely pointed the way for German to succeed as a composer of Edwardian operettas in the new century. Had Sullivan lived, would he and Basil Hood have contributed further to that new genre? But perhaps we're happier leaving Sullivan in the Victorian era with just this one fragment of a 20th Century opera to speculate upon. It was premiered on the 27th of April, 1901, and ran for 205 performances. It is said that the haunting chorus that closes Act I was the last music Sir Arthur ever composed.

-- Jonathan Strong

Working on The Emerald Isle has been quite a journey. Sally and I "retired" from active production of VLO fall shows some years ago. Since then, however, we have continued to have a hand in our spring concerts, and more recently have tried to familiarize our audience (and ourselves, of course) with light operas from the same general period in which Gilbert and Sullivan worked. Some years ago we did Cox and Box (Sullivan and F. C. Burnand), The Zoo (Sullivan and Bolton Rowe) and Sullivan's oratorio, The Prodigal Son. More recently we have done The Rose of Persia (Sullivan and Basil Hood) and The Chieftain (Sullivan and F. C. Burnand), as well as John Philip Sousa's operetta El Capitan. The Emerald Isle (Sullivan, Edward German and Basil Hood) was the last opera Sullivan worked on. He died before it was finished. Edward German completed it. As far as we know, the only production with full orchestra in the United States was over 100 years ago.

In the meantime, the orchestra parts were in no catalog I was able to find. The vocal score is on line at the G&S archive website, http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/. (If you haven't taken a look at it, do. It's a great resource.) A good deal of emailing back and forth in the United States and abroad led me to a person in England who actually had a set of orchestra parts. Against all odds, he mailed them to me. At the same time, an on-line acquaintance pointed me to another person, this time in Georgia, who was also looking for the parts. We met, and again against all odds, he volunteered to load the parts into Sibelius, music notation software. The result was a neatly printed set of orchestra parts and a full score. All of this took a couple of years or more, and tonight you're hearing The Emerald Isle with full orchestra for the first time in a very long time. As of this writing, I expect my friend from Georgia to be here tonight.

At the same time, our long-time colleague and collaborator, Jonathan Strong, volunteered to provide the narration for tonight's performance. Jonathan has been doing this for us for spring shows since Hector was a pup (as my father used to say). He's also here with us tonight.

Enjoy the show!

-- Bill Venman

Valley Light Opera thanks the following sponsors for underwriting some of the costs of this production:
Wingate Healthcare, where healthcare and hospitality meet
Devine Overhead Doors

Our website, www.vlo.org, is hosted by BerkshireNet in space donated by its president, Michael D. Bathrick. BerkshireNet provides internet service to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. Over the years, VLO has been guided by two principles--to promote broad community participation and to produce fine entertainment. The company has produced all fourteen of the G&S operas as well as Cox and Box, The Zoo, The Rose of Persia, The Chieftain and Sullivan's oratorio The Prodigal Son. In addition, VLO has performed Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, Warren Martin's The True Story of Cinderella, and several of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach works.

The affairs of VLO are in the hands of a Board of Directors elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting in February or March. Officers of the Board for this year are Kevin Hutchinson (President), Connie Cappelli (Past President), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), and Jim Walker (Treasurer). Members of the Board are Kathy Blaisdell, Sandra Burgess, Catharine Butterfield, Nicholas Dahlman, Heather Davies, Pat Devine, John Foster, Barbara Freed, Lew Jordan, Lucy Robinson, and Tom Rowland.

Donations to Valley Light Opera are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Home | Who we are | Membership | Contacts | Directions | Get involved | Production history | Pictures | Newsletters | Links

   Send Questions/Comments to: info@vlo.org