New-York tribune., 1900-11-25
SIR ARTHUR ANDTHE DUKE
DIRECTOR IN ALBERT HALL
CONCERTS

Between 1870 and 1880 London, as distinct from
the musical world in London. began to take houce
of Arthur Sullivan. In that decade OUTSIDE Lol
don could not be expected to know anything Oh
musical world in the midst of it, The genera
belief located the musical world vaguely aoIoau'
Everybody, of course, admired Patti anu ~ o'
Reeves enthusiastically, and felt bound 10 au4i
Tetjens. but the middle aged men of that peIlou
had grown UP when English public opinion heiu "u
ding to be practice beneath the dignity VI an
English gentleman, and only to be toieFa'eu :"
foreigners through the exercise of commehoaOle
but not strictly obligatory, breadth OF we" anu
cathocity Of sentiment.
1t the Prince Consort who had begun the
slow revolution of fashionable opinion II IdNOt "
music a pursuit for the upper classes. t"e
Prince Consort had been foreigner himself oe
sides being the first male parsonage In the CHiteu
Kingdom, and his ''hddling" propenslues h@u
more than double claim to be tolerated. Cour'S 'o
Grafton had paved the way for courty imitatioH' u
t when the Prince Consort died. EheiisN -,
was almost ready to vote "hddling and It's klholeu
arts good form for Englishmen by the ,p. 49,
1872 the ROYAL Albert Hall doomed large ana sollu
over Kensngton. monument 10 AiOe =,
Good and the very substantial expression Oh EoS
favor fosterinr aesthetic development Then came
the Royal Albert Hail Amateur Orcnesua' va"
II. r. II. the Duke of Edinburgh ndohns III "
sitting there in his plain black ciawnamIhe' So
at the front end of the first row of hddiers ."
the right of Sir Arthur Sullivan, as obedient u ''
fashionable conductors baton as any common A0
eigner in the Covent Garden orchestra.
The little swarthy with the white "ais'
coat and gold buttons wko iourished SUN ~
that commanding fashion over the head ol ~
Queens second son naturally became an OBJECT oi
wonder to the enormous crowds for whoh 'he ~
bert Hall had room. Londoners OF those u"s
needed not to know Bach from bacon and Deans
10 feel burning desire to see this thrllins Poi'e
Tbav forgot that Duke Alfred foreigner on
his fathers side, and only impressed with le
fact that prince of the blood royal was puonC4S
''fddIing'' the nod of this man sullivan WI"
seemed to take the situation coolly. with MS u
conventional white waistcoat and gold buttons iI
was notorious that large percentage of the seats
in the Albert Hall were out OF earshot OF the OF
chestra but that nothing; II you had goou
pair of glasses you could easily make out Prince
Alfred's familiar, seamanlike countenance Deht
earnestly over his violin. and even catch the ahA-
ious upward glance of the royal disciple III ms
master; and then If you were an average LO"
doner you felt two things very stronsy-'ha1
music must be. after all. respectable pursuit,
even though you might not understand why anu
that Arthur Sullivan must be great man.
People who noticed names of composers IN their
hymnbooks then began to find out that TINS must
be the Sullivan who had composed so much church
and churchy music. which made 1t all the more
comfortable to accept him as a safe musical Gulde
for Prince Alfred To be sure, the man had d very
Irish and Popish name. and susplclousiy AtaiiaH
look but It would have been much worse II MS
name had ended in mi and been connected With
Roman Catholic mass music Ihen Lohuoheis re-
called COX and Box the Gallery Of Illustra-
ton. and Trial by Jury" which connected the
name of Sullivan with that of w s. GILBERT the
funny civil service clerk. who would not SUCK u
his office and had gone to writing nonsense verses
for Fun Gilbert only a jester but there
was nothing foreign about him-quite the contrary
Now the subject for speculation was whether TINS
royalty favored priest OF the Muses. would settle
down into a dignifed composer OF serious meas
follow that absurd Gilbert stlll further III
his frivolities.
BY all rules OF prediction Arthur Sullivan should
never have lent himself the nefarious conspiracy
which made esthetcism ridiculous in 1SS1 Pa
tience" was stab at the culture" dealt In
the very house of its brethren. However, the mu-
steal world may see the career of Arthur Sullivan
wrought step by step through his own genius
and devotion his art. 1t was the Albert HAN
that first made him great man in London The
Albert Hall is contiguous in fact and In thought TO
South Keusington and South Kensington is and
was the London seminary of aestheticism The
Albert Hall sheltered the propaganda or 'Spohr
interviewer with Bach and Beethoven" which
classical Monday pops ST. James's Hall could
not make the average Londoner even pretend 10
cuiov and out OF South Kensington-"O South Ken
sington,"-procceded the crusade against primary
coIors'. And yet sullivan followed after Gilbert
all through "Pinafcre' and The Pirates OF Pen
zaucc' until they both able and did not
scruple TO Use all the musical and decorative lore
Of South Kcnsington strike at 1.-The inner broth
orhood.'
Sir A1.hur Sullivan did not create, but only
"Patience-the actuality of it in language. in cos
tuming in walk and attitudeS-but he made the
association as close as could be made by the
absolute fit of the music to the words. At the
little Opera ComiQue. where, only 4 few years be-
fore, people had gone Bowdlerized render
Ings Of Offenbach and Herve. Patience was pro-
duced one evening in March. and on that same
afternoon the exact coLnterparts OF Bunthorne,
Grosvenor Jane. Angela. Ella and Saphir might
have been seen stalking through the picture gal
Ieries OF Bond-st The audience at first per-
formance generally critcise: that audience,
thanks gossip that had leaked out from the re-
hearsals went in a mood of something like the
delicious expectancy which schoolboys and school
girls feel when the hour draws near for huge
practical joke to he sprung. The wall OF Twenty
I.ovesick Maidens" at the rise of the curtain
that night and for many nights after like a musi-
cal caricature of the Grosvenor Gallery young
women whom everybody had met by the dozen.
and when they trooped onto the stage a general
gasp of delightful shock through the audience.
About the prototype of Runthorne there was not
him in those same 'cubwebby gray velvet
clothes as walked dowr Pccadilly with
poppy lily In his medishVal hand. and many
occupants of boxes and stalls also recognized Lady
lane and Grosvenor old acquaintances in real
life. There hardly any exaggeration about
either tha makeup or the acting OF the aesthetic
characters. It all as II might be In New-York
to-day If the dress. language and walk of half-a-
dozen of the best known male and female char
acters i'm New-York life were faithfully reproduced
on the stage And for the music. the audience
felt that while they had never heard any OF these
personages sing In real life they would sing just
such IN and E ne Patea had Begun the
work Of making sulliyan great popular favorite
might, and did. go on composing anthems,
tdtas and the like, and the musical people might
honor him for them put to the Eng English & people
large, he was from that time on the national oper-
raIxar gran liGbt nora