The Washington herald., 1907-02-10
AUTHOR OF "MIKADO" TALKS
W. s. Gilbert Gives "reminiscences Of
Sullivan at a Dinner.
Impropriety and Onenstyencss Not
Essential to Musical Comedy.
Failure of "RuddiEOrc."

" s Gilbert in London STANDARD
No author WIS ever blessed with "a more
Jealous or more effective body of c0adju-
tors Death has sadly Trimmed our ranks.
taking from us Alfred CCilier. our esteem
ed conductor. D'Oyly Carte and, lastly.
my old friend and invaluable co-worker,
Arthur Sullivan-whose untimoIy death.
in the fullness Of his powers, cxtinguished
the class of opera with which his name
is SO h0norabIy idcnuhed-a composer OF
the rarest genius. and who, because he
was composer Of the rarest genius. was
as modest and as uuassuming as "a He0-
phyte should be but seldom is.
am not at my merriest when I rcUem-
Der all that he has done for me IN allow
ing his genius 10 shed some OF its lUster
upon my humble name, and ii is q source
of sincere qualification TO me to reflect
that the rift that parted us for q while
had been completely bridsed over, and
that az the time OF his lamented death
the most cordial relations existed between
us
was introduced 10 him thirty-seven
years ago by my friend Fred Clay.
When sullivan and ] began to collabo-
rate English comic opera had practically
ceased to exist. Such musical entertain
ments as held the stage We're adaptations
of the crapul0us plots of She operas of
Omenbach, Audran, and Lec0q The plots
had generally been bowdlerized out of in
eligibility, and when they had not been
subjected to this treatment they were
frankly improper. whereas the ladies'
dresses suggested that the management
had gone on the principle Of doing a little
and doing it we'll We set out with the
determination to prove that these eIe-
meuts were not essential TO the success
of humorous opera
We resolved that our plots. however
ridiculous. should he coherent. that our
dialogues should be void of offense, that
on artistic principles no man should play
a womans part and no woman a mans
part Finally, we agreed that no lady
OF the company should be required 10
wear a dress that she could not wear
with absolute proprety at private
fancy ball; and / believe I may say that
we proved our case. As regards the
sumptuary law which we imposed upon
ourselves, 7 may say that it is indorsed
to-day by the producers of musical com
edy. for you must all have remarked
that the ladies who play in those very
unfairly deprecated entertainments are
generally clothed in dress Of irreproact-
able propriety.
We are cUedited-or discredited-w.th
one conspicuous failure. ''RuddigOrc; or
the Witchs Curse Well, it ran eight
months ana with the sale of the libretto
put $1,000 in my pocket. In the blackness
OF my heart the worst l wish TO my rIval
/ dramatists is that they may each have d
dozen such failures. and retire upon the
profits BY the way il is not generally
known that. bending before the storm of
press execration aroused by its horrible
and blOod-cUTdling title. We were within
an ace of changing it from "Ruddigore;
OF the WitChs Curse" to "kensingtOn
Gore: or Robin and Richard Were Two
Pretty Men"
And while I am dealing with savoy
Opera I am anxious to avow my in
debtednes5 to the author of the Bah
Ballads. who, / am told, is present this
evening and from whom ] have 50 un-
bushingly cribbed. I can only hope that.
like Shakespeare, 1 may be held to have
so far improved upon the original stories
as TO have justifed the thefts that
committed.