page_title: The Mountebanks
section_title: Productions and recordings
hierarchical_section_title: The Mountebanks / Productions and recordings
caption_attribution_description: English: Source: http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/mbklyric.htm 1897 theatre poster from the original production of The Mountebanks.
context_page_description: The Mountebanks is a comic opera in two acts with music by Alfred Cellier and Ivan Caryll and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns a magic potion that causes the person to whom it is administered to become what he or she has pretended to be. It is similar to several "magic lozenge" plots that Gilbert had proposed to the composer Arthur Sullivan, but that Sullivan had rejected, earlier in their careers. To set his libretto to music, Gilbert turned to Cellier, who had previously been a musical director for Gilbert and Sullivan and had since become a successful composer. During the composition of the piece Cellier died, and the score was finished by the original production's musical director, Ivan Caryll, who became a successful composer of Edwardian Musical Comedy.
  The opera was first produced at the Lyric Theatre, London, on 4 January 1892, for a run of 229 performances. It also toured extensively, had a short Broadway run, in 1893, American tours and Australian productions. The original cast included Geraldine Ulmar, Frank Wyatt, Lionel Brough, Eva Moore and Furneaux Cook. The American cast included Hayden Coffin and Lillian Russell.
context_section_description: The Mountebanks' initial run of 229 performances surpassed most of Gilbert's later works and even a few of his collaborations with Sullivan. Gilbert engaged his old friends John D'Auban, to choreograph the piece, and Percy Anderson, to design costumes. The initial run closed on 5 August 1892. Despite the opera's warm reception, Gilbert wrote on 7 January 1892, shortly after the premiere, "I had to make rough & ready alterations to supply gaps – musical gaps – caused by poor Cellier's inability to complete his work. It follows that Act 2 stands out as a very poor piece of dramatic construction ... this is the worst libretto I have written. Perhaps I am growing old." 
  The success of the London production led its producer, Sedger, to establish at least three touring companies, which visited major towns and cities in Britain for a year and a half, from March 1892 to mid-November 1893. Louie René played Ultrice on one tour in 1893. While playing in Manchester, one touring company found itself competing with a D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring company at a nearby theatre. The strained relations between Carte and Gilbert after The Gondoliers did not prevent the two companies from playing a cricket match in May 1892. Relations between Gilbert and his new producer had also deteriorated, and the author unsuccessfully sued Sedger for cutting the size of the chorus in the London production without his approval. It was toured for a year in America by the Lillian Russell Opera Company, starring Lillian Russell and C. Hayden Coffin, including a run of a month and a half at the Garden Theatre on Broadway, opening on January 11, 1893.  It was also produced in Australia and New Zealand by the J. C. Williamson company until 1900.
  Gilbert and Cellier's widow later sold the performing and score rental rights to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Occasional amateur performances were staged in Britain, America and Australia until the Second World War, and the professional J. C. Williamson company continued to perform it occasionally in Australia and New Zealand. After that, the first known staging was in New York City, in 1955, in a small-scale production at the St. John's Theater, in Greenwich Village, by the Chamber Opera Players, accompanied only by a piano. It was produced in 1964 by the Washington, D.C., Lyric Theatre Company, with orchestra, and the company recorded the score. Other amateur performances accompanied only by piano followed until James Gillespie's Ramsgate production in 1982, which used orchestra parts from Australia.
  The full score of the opera was published in 2014 by Robin Gordon-Powell, followed by a piano/vocal score. A 2015 production was staged in Palo Alto, California by Lyric Theatre, directed by John Hart, using Gordon-Powell's score. The score was finally recorded professionally and released in 2018 with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by John Andrews. A reviewer praised the recording, conducting and performances and noted Cellier's "fine lyrical detail and sumptuous orchestration with which he provides a wide variety of musical effects. … [O]ne is aware of the growing sophistication in Gilbert's choice of words in his lyrics during this mature period of his writing. Clever as some of the lyrics are they may well have gone over the heads of the 'comedy opera' orientated audiences."
caption: Poster for the original production
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