Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Respectable Capers': Class, Respectability and the Savoy Operas 1877-1909

by Michael Goron

Overview

This innovative account of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership provides a unique insight into the experience of both attending and performing in the original productions of the most influential and enduring pieces of English-language musical theatre.

In the 1870s, Savoy impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte astutely realized that a conscious move to respectability in a West End which, until then, had favored the racy delights of burlesque and French operetta, would attract a new, lucrative morally ‘decent’ audience.

This book examines the commercial, material and human factors underlying the Victorian productions of the Savoy operas. Unusually for a book on ‘G&S’, it focuses on people and things rather than author biography or literary criticism. Examining theatre architecture, interior design, marketing, and typical audiences, as well as the working conditions and personal lives of the members of a Victorian theatre-company, ‘Respectable Capers’ explains how the Gilbert and Sullivan operas helped to transform the West End into the family-friendly ‘theatre land’ which still exists today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137594778
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	09/16/2016
Series:	Palgrave Studies in British Musical Theatre
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Goron began his working life as a professional actor, working in everything from German Expressionism to traditional pantomime. He formed a small scale touring theatre company for which he directed a number of shows. Michael returned to Higher Education as a post-graduate student and, from 2007, as a lecturer at the universities of Winchester and Southampton Solent, UK.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Gilbert and Sullivan Operas and ‘Middle-Class’ Ideals.- Chapter 2. The West End: Respectability and Commercialisation.- Chapter 3. Patience at the Savoy.- Chapter 4. Savoy Audiences 1881 – 1909.- Chapter 5. The ‘D’Oyly Carte Boarding School’.- Chapter 6. ‘The Placid English Style’.