Social Victorians/People/Arthur Sullivan

Also Known As

• Family name: Sullivan
• Sir Arthur Sullivan
• Arthur S. Sullivan
• A. S. Sullivan

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

• Fanny Ronalds
• Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
• Marie Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh
• Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
• Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany
• Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1847–1935)
• William Schwenk Gilbert
• Richard D'Oyly Carte
• George Grove
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Sir Coutts and Lady Lindsay
• F. C. Burnand
• J. Comyns Carr
• Edward Hamilton (Sir Edward Walter Hamilton)

Timeline

1854, at 12, Sullivan became a choirboy at the Chapel Royal. According to Leslie Ayre, Arthur Sullivan's older brother Frederic sometimes accompanied him to the Chapel Royal and "amuse[d] the boys with comic songs."

1856, Sullivan was the first person to win the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, which enabled him to study in Liepzig.

1861, Sullivan became the organist at St. Michael's.

1862, when he was twenty, Sullivan's incidental music to a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest was performed to acclaim at the Crystal Palace.

1871, while he was still younger than 30, Sullivan composed the setting for "Onward Christian Soldiers," a hymn still sung in Protestant Christian churches today.

1872 May, Sullivan's Festival Te Deum was performed at the Crystal Palace with 2,000 performers and 26,000 people in the audience. The piece was written to celebrate Bertie's recovery from typhoid and dedicated to Queen Victoria.

1877 January 18, Sullivan's brother Fred died.

1877 June 30, Saturday, on Friday 8 June 1877 the London Standard reported the following:

The Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lorne) and Prince Leopold, have consented to patronise an performance, to be given at the Opera Comique, on Saturday afternoon, June 30, in aid of the funds of the Victoria Hospital, Gough House, Queen's-road, Chelsea, S.W., when Trial by Jury will be performed, under the supervision of Mr. Arthur Sullivan and Mr. W. S. Gilbert, both of whom are on the committee of management of the hospital, and supporters of special cots. (http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/18770608/015/0003)

1877, end of summer or beginning of fall, Sir Coutts and Lady Lindsay hosted a dinner for Princess Louise which Sullivan attended.

1878, Sullivan composed the music for the hugely popular song "The Lost Chord." Leslie Ayre describes the importance of this song in Sullivan's life:

During [Frederic Sullivan's] last illness, his devoted brother [Arthur] sat by his bedside reading verses by Adelaide Anne Procter, his setting of one of which was published a few years later and became enormously popular, "The Lost Chord." Indeed, it became so familiar that it attracted a parody, provoking Sullivan to write to the perpetrator, "I wrote 'The Lost Chord' in sorrow at my brother's death. Don't burlesque it." Fred Sullivan[, who was two years older than Arthur,] died in January 1877, aged thirty-six.

1879 December 31, Sullivan conducted the premier of Gilbert and his The Pirates of Penzance at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York City to establish copyright in the U.S.

1880 March, Sullivan and Gilbert return to England.

1880 April, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance premiered in England at the Opera Comique.

1881 October 10, D'Oyly Carte opened the Savoy with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, which he transplanted from the Opera Comique, Sullivan conducting.

1882 May 27, Mary Clementine Sullivan, Arthur Sullivan's mother, died.

1883, Sullivan was knighted by the Queen at the recommendation of Prime Minister William Gladstone, twenty-five years before Edward VII knighted Gilbert.

1885 March 14, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado premiered, with Sullivan conducting.

1885, Sullivan visited the U.S. again, just after The Mikado opened. He was in Los Angeles in July 1885; he visited Salt Lake City, including the Mormon Tabernacle Sunday service, having played the organ for an hour the day before; he visited San Francisco as well.

1886 October 16, Sullivan conducted The Golden Legend at the Leeds Festival.

1887 March 27, Sullivan conducted The Golden Legend at the Royal Opera House in Berlin, with many royals in the audience; according to Lawrence, the performers were not very good.

1887 April 3, The Golden Legend was performed at the Berlin Royal Opera House again, this time with Albani singing the soprano role; according to Lawrence, this performance was a redeeming success.

1888, John Millais painted Sullivan's portrait, The Yeoman of the Guard, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

?? 1888 February 18, Sullivan was losing at gambling in Monte Carlo. (It's marked 1888 in Lawrence, but it should be 1889, when he was also there?)

1888 May 8, a command performance of The Golden Legend was given at the Albert Hall.

1888 December 29, Henry Irving's production of Macbeth at the Lyceum included incidental music written by Sullivan.

1889 February 18 – March 6, at least, Sullivan was in Monte Carlo.

1889 April 7, Sullivan was in Berlin for a production of The Mikado. He spent time with Victoria, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, and her family.

1889 December 7, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers: or, The King of Barataria opened at the Savoy.

1892 April 21, Thursday, according to the Morning Post, "Sir Arthur Sullivan last evening crossed the Channel, from Calais to Dover, on the London and Chatham Company's steamer Victoria. Whilst on the steamer, Sir Arthur, who was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. D'Oyly Carte, remained in a specially-constructed ambulance. Fortunately the weather in the Channel was fine, and a calm passage was made. The party reached Victoria Station shortly before nine o'clock."

1893 October 7, Utopia, Limited performed at the Savoy.

1894 December 12, Sullivan's and F. C. Burnard's The Chieftain was performed at the Savoy.

1896 March 7, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke was performed at the Savoy.

1897 May 5, Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England opened at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square; Sullivan conducted at least the first performance.

1897 May 25, The Grand Duke not having done very well, The Yeoman of the Guard was revived at the Savoy.

1897 June 20, Sunday, the official Jubilee Hymn, music by Sullivan and lyrics by William Waltham How, Bishop of Wakefield, was "used in all churches and chapels"; Sullivan's tune is called Bishopgarth and "was later offered in The Methodist Hymnal as an alternative for the Harvest hymn by William Chatterton Dix To Thee, O Lord, Our Hearts We Raise."

1897 June 22, Tuesday, Diamond Jubilee Day, Queen Victoria's Jubilee procession went from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul's, on whose steps the service took place,

with the Queen remaining seated in her carriage. The choir contained many of the most famous musicians of the day joining in the singing: Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir Walter Parrot, Dr Hubert Parry, Dr Frederick Bridge, Alberto Randegger, Dr A.H. Mann, BartonMcGuckin, John E. West, and Joseph Bennett. ... / Then the Archbishop of Canterbury on an impulse called for three cheers for the Queen. They could be heard in Trafalgar Square.

1897 July 2, Louise Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, threw her famous fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House in London. Arthur Sullivan is not listed anywhere as having attended. Fanny Ronalds did attend, dressed as Music, so why didn't Sullivan?

1897 July 8, from this day until the end of the run in December 1897, Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square, "included a cinematograph film of the Jubilee procession."

1897 December 25 or so, Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England closed at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square. According to Richards, "members of the royal family attended on nineteen occasions."

1898 March 22, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers was revived at the Savoy.

1898 May 28, Pinero and J. Comyns Carr's and Sullivan's The Beauty Stone premiered.

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Family

• Thomas Sullivan
• Mary Clementine Sullivan (1811 – 27 May 1882)

1. Fred Sullivan (– 18 January 1877)
2. Arthur Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900)

Questions and Notes

1. Arthur Sullivan is not listed anywhere as having attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball. Fanny Ronalds did attend, dressed as Music, so why didn't Sullivan?
2. Arthur Sullivan's brother Frederic, according to Leslie Ayre,

   was the original Apollo in [Gilbert and Sullivan's first collaboration] Thespis and, as a member of the Dolaro company, was in the cast of La Perichole at the Royalty Theatre when it was decided to add [their second collaboration] Trial by Jury to the bill. This gave Fred his great chance. He was a good musician as well as a lively actor and his creation of the role of the Judge was the big hit of the show. Indeed, Gilbert said afterwards that the success of the piece was due in no small measure to Fred Sullivan's 'admirable performance'. The role of John Wellington Wells in the next opera, The Sorcerer, was specifically written with Fred in mind but he did not live to play it.

3. Sir George Grove, upon Sullivan's 1883 knighthood: "Surely the time has come when so able and experienced a master of voice, orchestra, and state effect — master too of so much genuine sentiment — may apply his gifts to a serious opera on some subject of abiding human or natural interest." (qtd in).
4. F. C. Burnand (dramatist and, later, editor of Punch), wrote the libretto for Box and Cox.
5. Sullivan conducted the Savoy operas even though he had other, seemingly more prestigious gigs, like conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra between 1885 and 1887, or conducting at the Leeds Festivals 1880-1889. While Gilbert's libretti are traditionally considered fair game for updating or making topical, many productions treat Sullivan's music as if it were static, when in fact, Sullivan himself interpolated other music into particular performances as the spirit moved him. He introduced 7 bars of Bach's B-Minor Mass into a performance of The Mikado [it's Bach but not the B-minor Mass?]. He added "Rule, Britannia" to the Finale of H.M.S. Pinafore.

Gilbert and Sullivan's Style of Composition

Usually,

1. Gilbert wrote the text first.
2. Sullivan wrote the rhythms of the music, using dashes and dots.
3. Sullivan composed the tunes.
4. Sullivan orchestrated the score once the performers were cast and their particular voices were known. Sullivan did not always compose the overtures; the Overture of The Mikado, for example, was put together by Hamilton Clarke — from Sullivan's melodies, of course.
5. Gilbert directed and staged the operas, with Richard D'Oyly Carte producing.
6. Sullivan conducted, though he had many prestigious obligations during the 1880s, and so others conducted as well.

Bibliography

Selected Works

• 1862, incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Crystal Palace
• 1870, the Overture di Ballo
• 1871, the setting to "Onward Christian Soldiers"
• 1871, Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old, with W. S. Gilbert
• 1872 May, Festival Te Deum
• 1875, Trial by Jury, with Gilbert
• 1877, The Sorcerer, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1878, "The Lost Chord"
• 1878, H.M.S. Pinafore, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1879, New York; 1880, London, The Pirates of Penzance, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1881, Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1882, Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1884, Princess Ida, or Castel Adamant, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1885, The Mikado, or the Town of Titipu, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1886, The Golden Legend
• 1887, Ruddigore, or the Witch's Curse, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1886, The Yeomen of the Guard, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1888, incidental music for Henry Irving's production of Macbeth at the Lyceum
• 1889, The Gondoliers, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1893, Utopia Limited, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1894, The Chieftain, with F. C. Burnard
• 1896, The Grand Duke, with Gilbert, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte
• 1897, the ballet Victoria and Merrie England
• 1897, the tune Bishopgarth, the official Jubilee Hymn, with lyrics by William Waltham How
• 1898, The Beauty Stone, with Pinero and J. Comyns Carr