Misplaced Pages

#884115

29-503: No Cards is a "musical piece in one act" for four characters, written by W. S. Gilbert , with music composed and arranged by Thomas German Reed . It was first produced at the Royal Gallery of Illustration , Lower Regent Street, London, under the management of German Reed, opening on 29 March 1869 and closing on 21 November 1869. The work is a domestic farce of mistaken identities and inept disguises, as two men desperately compete to marry

58-450: A genre of musical plays that made theatre-going respectable at a time when the stage was considered disreputable. While acting as organist and chapel-master at chapels in London, and also as musical director and performer at West End theatres in the 1830s and 1840s, Reed tried his hand at producing opera. He married Priscilla Horton , a noted singer, actress and dancer, in 1844. By 1851, he

87-441: A husband, Mr. Coodle, who hasn't been heard from for 20 years. Mr. Dee arrives, soon followed by Mr. Churchmouse, who has a toothache. Dee and Churchmouse both undertake to find Mr. Coodle. Mrs. Pennythorne shows them a portrait. Dee goes off, and Churchmouse stays to converse rather nonsensically with Annabella and then leaves. Dee re-enters disguised as Coodle's best man at the wedding of so long ago, but has no calling card. Mrs. P

116-522: A minimal number of characters and performed with either the piano and harmonium or a small ensemble of musicians. They eventually became "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", presented at the Royal Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street , beginning in 1856, and later at St. George's Hall . At a time when the respectable middle classes regarded the theatre in general as sinful and even dangerous places of naughty humour, alcohol and prostitution,

145-553: A successful 139 performances in London, the bill toured the British provinces. Gilbert liked German Reed's setting of the Babbetyboobledore song enough to reuse it later in 1869 in his next show, The Pretty Druidess . Music publisher Joseph Williams & Co. reissued "No Cards" in 1895 with a score by "Lionel Elliott", which appears to be a pseudonym. A production mounted at St. George's Hall in London in 1873 appears to have been

174-592: A wealthy young lady. One is young and poor, and the other is a rich miser. Each disguises himself as her guardian. No Cards was the first of Gilbert's six pieces for the Gallery of Illustration. It was also Gilbert's first libretto with prose dialogue and the first stage work for which he wrote lyrics to be set to music, rather than lyrics to pre-existing music. No Cards was played on a double bill with Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand 's Cox and Box , although Gilbert and Sullivan did not meet until later that year. After

203-604: Is a very positive institution, despite her own marriage to a man who promptly ran off with all her money. Annabella doesn't fancy marrying the much older and infelicitous Mr. Dee, despite his wealth. The young Mr. Churchmouse, on the other hand, is painfully shy (as Robin Oakapple would be in Gilbert and Sullivan 's Ruddigore almost two decades later), except when he is portraying a role on stage. But, in any case, she cannot marry until she can locate her guardian, Mrs. Pennythorne's rogue of

232-459: Is not fooled but plays along. The disguised Dee says that Coodle is on his way to confer the hand of his niece upon Mr. Dee. Then Churchmouse enters, disguised as Coodle, also with no card. His disguise is even worse than Dee's. Dee reappears, still disguised. He is left alone with Churchmouse, and they each sound out the other, each suspecting that the other is a phony. Mrs. P reenters, now disguised as Salmanca Trombone, and says that she has been to

261-542: Is not too poor for him. She hands Churchmouse a slip announcing his wedding to Annabella. Thomas German Reed Thomas German Reed (27 June 1817 – 21 March 1888), known after 1844 as simply German Reed was an English composer, musical director, actor, singer and theatrical manager of the Victorian era . He was best known for creating the German Reed Entertainments , together with his actress wife,

290-454: Is sung by Miriam Hopkins in the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde but with the refrain "Champagne Ivy is my name." A substantially revised version of "Champagne Charlie" was recorded in 1932 by the American blues singer Blind Blake . Blind Blake's version was later covered by the jazz musician Leon Redbone on his album of the same name in 1978. The melody of the original song

319-509: The British Library . At the time that W. S. Gilbert began writing plays: The stage was at a low ebb, Elizabethan glories and Georgian artificialities had alike faded into the past, stilted tragedy and vulgar farce were all the would-be playgoer had to choose from, and the theatre had become a place of evil repute to the righteous British householder. Oratorio was then at the height of its vogue, and Shakespearean drama as interpreted by

SECTION 10

#1732854839885

348-554: The Gallery of Illustration . Seeing the quality of Gilbert's early burlesques , he engaged Gilbert to write a series of six one-act operettas. The Gallery of Illustration was a 500-seat theatre with a small stage that only allowed for four or five characters with accompaniment by a piano, harmonium and sometimes a harp. Gilbert's libretto, his first with lyrics written to be set by a composer, instead of written to existing melodies, gives hints of some elements of his later works. For instance,

377-544: The "Gallery of Illustration" and their productions "entertainments" to emphasize their refined propriety. In addition to comic classics like The Beggar's Opera , the Reeds usually presented new works by English writers such as F. C. Burnand , W. S. Gilbert , William Brough and Gilbert à Beckett . His composers included Frederic Clay , Arthur Sullivan , George Macfarren and Alfred Cellier , as well as himself. Reed retired in 1871 after an injury, and his son Alfred took over

406-632: The "uncivilised" island of Babbetyboobledore is an early look at a Gilbertian utopia, such as in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Utopia, Limited , written 25 years later. Compare these lyrics from No Cards : with these from Utopia, Limited : There is also a verse on the subject of disguises, with reference to Paddington Pollaky , who was later mentioned in Patience . In addition, the libretto of No Cards , as in Gilbert's later works, includes topical references to subjects like siamese twins . It also includes

435-562: The Haymarket Theatre, where he continued to work until 1851 with the exception of a temporary closure in 1843, during which he produced Pacini 's opera Sappho at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane . During these years, he met Priscilla Horton, a successful and popular contralto and actress who had been performing on the stage in London since the age of ten. They married in 1844. By that year he had dropped his first name. In 1851, Reed

464-515: The Indian archipelago, where the locals elected her the queen of Babbetyboobledore. She asks which of the two is Mr. Coodle. Dee speaks up, and Mrs. P immediately draws a revolver and declares, "I've come to shoot Coodle". Dee then says that Churchmouse is Coodle, but Churchmouse loses his disguise. She also says that Annabella does not have 25,000 pounds. Dee then says that he is too old for Annabella and loses his disguise. Churchmouse, however, says that she

493-484: The Kean, Macready, and Kendal school still held its public; but at the other extreme there were only farces or the transplanted operettas of Offenbach, Lecocq and other French composers, which were as a rule very indifferently rendered, and their librettos so badly translated that any wit or point the dialogue might have possessed was entirely lost. To fill this gap, Thomas German Reed opened his German Reed Entertainments at

522-401: The Reeds called their establishment the "Gallery" of Illustration, rather than a "theatre", and their productions "entertainments" or "illustrative gatherings", rather than plays, extravaganzas , or burlesques . The Times characterised the works as "extravaganza of the more refined order." Reed and his wife almost always appeared in these pieces, and on the few occasions when they did not,

551-648: The box-office receipts suffered. Reed became the lessee of St. George's Hall in 1867, and there he initially produced and conducted The Contrabandista by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand , The Beggar's Opera and other English operas in small-scale productions, as well as non-musical plays. Around the same time, at the Gallery of Illustration, he presented works with libretti by, among others, W. S. Gilbert , William Brough , Gilbert à Beckett , Robert Reece and Arthur Law . His composers included Frederic Clay , George Macfarren , Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke as well as Sullivan and Reed himself. He wrote

580-581: The entertainments with his mother. Reed was born in Bristol , the son of Thomas Reed (1795–1871), a musician, and his wife, Frances, née German (1796–1839). He studied music with his father and made his debut at the age of ten as a pianist and singer at the Bath Theatre. The family moved to London where Thomas Reed was appointed conductor at the Haymarket Theatre . The young Reed played, sang and acted at

609-611: The first to use this "Elliott" score, and a revival took place at St. George's Hall in 1902. The Royal Victorian Opera Company of Boston, Massachusetts made a video of the piece in 1996 using the Elliott score. The first British revival in over a century was produced by the Centenary Company at the Greenwich Theatre from 18 to 21 November 2009 (as a curtain raiser to The Pirates of Penzance ) using Elliott's score retrieved from

SECTION 20

#1732854839885

638-502: The interpolated Bab Ballad "The Precocious Baby" and the interpolated music hall numbers " Champagne Charlie " and Gilbert's 1868 song "Thady O'Flynn". In the presentation of Cox and Box that accompanied No Cards , Reed played Cox, Arthur Cecil played Box, and J. Seymour was Bouncer. The production marked the stage debut of Cecil. In her boudoir, Mrs. Pennythorne opines to her niece, Annabella Penrose, who has inherited 25,000 pounds from her aunt, Salamanca Trombone, that marriage

667-466: The lease on the Gallery of Illustration ended in 1873, the German Reed entertainments moved to St. George's Hall. After falling from his horse when hunting, Reed had retired in 1871; his son Alfred (1847–1895) took over the entertainments with his mother, continuing with the entertainments after her retirement in 1879, until 1895. Reed died at St. Croix, Upper East Sheen , Surrey at the age of 70. He

696-527: The scores for more than a dozen of the entertainments, and is described by the museum curator Fredric Woodbridge Wilson as "an imaginative and effective writer of music for the stage". Little of Reed's music survives. A few individual songs were published, but the scores of the entertainments were not. The autograph of the music for Our Island Home is preserved in The Morgan Library & Museum , New York, but no other scores are known to be extant. When

725-701: The theatre. In 1832, German Reed became an organist at the Roman Catholic Chapel in Sloane Street and assistant to his father, who moved to be conductor at the Garrick Theatre . His work at the theatre included scoring and adapting new operas, including Fra Diavolo in 1837. He also gave private music lessons. In 1838, Reed was appointed chapel-master at the Royal Bavarian Chapel and also became musical director at his father's former employer,

754-526: Was buried in Old Mortlake Burial Ground . Champagne Charlie (song) Leybourne's rival Alfred Vance introduced a number called " Cliquot ", starting a fierce competition between the two men. Enthusiasm for the song was increased with its use in November 1866 in the new "Operatic Burlesque" called "The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan ", or "The Little Bill that was Taken Up". The song

783-599: Was engaged to assist in the production of opera at the Surrey Theatre and later managed Sadler's Wells Opera for a season and also conducted the music at the Olympic Theatre , as well as touring extensively in the British provinces. In the spring of 1855, at St. Martin's Hall , Reed and his wife presented the first performance of "Miss P. Horton's Illustrative Gatherings," musical theatre. These performances usually consisted of one or two brief comic operas designed for

812-413: Was managing opera productions at various theatres in London and on tour. In 1855, Reed and his wife began to present and perform in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly comic operas . In the early and mid-Victorian era, the respectable middle classes regarded the theatre in general as sinful. Therefore, the Reeds shrewdly called their establishment

841-566: Was sung by the crowd at the public execution of Michael Barrett in 1868, the last public execution in Great Britain. It later featured in the play Champagne Charlie and, with changed lyrics, the 1944 film Champagne Charlie featuring Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway . It is also heard as a background song a few times in the Jack the Ripper (1988) television movie starring Michael Caine . It

#884115