Dorothy (opera)

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"Queen of my Heart", Dorothy's hit song, was very popular as a parlour ballad.

Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on September 25, 1886.

After a few months, the director (and later owner) of the Gaiety Theatre, George Edwardes, sold the production to his accountant, Henry Leslie. Leslie revised and recast the show, adding among others the popular Marie Tempest, Hayden Coffin, and John Le Hay, and reopened it at the Prince of Wales Theatre on December 20, 1886. Henry made so much money from Dorothy that he was able to build the Lyric Theatre.

The revised Dorothy had an initial run of 931 performances, breaking the record for the longest running musical theatre production in history and holding this record until the run of the musical play A Chinese Honeymoon in the early 1900s. It was also the second-longest known run for a stage production of any kind, after Our Boys, an 1875 vaudeville play, until both were surpassed by the run of Charley's Aunt in the 1890s.

Dorothy also toured and enjoyed numerous revivals until about 1940 in Britain, with four or five separate and simultaneous companies during the early years. There was also a New York run from November 5, 1887 to April 1888 starring Lillian Russell as the title character, and the show was revied in America until about 1900.

The show's hit songs included the ballad "Queen of My Heart", "Be Wise In Time", "Hark For'ard!", "With A Welcome To All", and "The Time Has Come."

1 Background
2 Roles
3 Synopsis
4 Musical Numbers
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

The plot of Dorothy consisted of a sweet tale of a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée, but with bits of cynicism, a touch of early feminism, and plenty of mistaken-identity and social-class-distinction comic situations. Although billed as a "comic opera", Dorothy was a key forerunner of the integrated musical comedy, bearing many of the attributes of that genre. Both the spoken dialogue and the songs tell the story and illuminate the characters. Dorothy's libretto is more farcical than W. S. Gilbert's satiric libretti and topsy-turvy plot complications.

Cellier re-purposed much of the music from his unsuccessful comic opera of ten years earlier, Nell Gwynne (though a flop, the music had been praised). Stephenson wrote new lyrics and a libretto to fit the music. He wrote a well-crafted play, with literary echoes of familiar themes reminiscent of Jane Austen's Emma, yet with a more modern style, suggesting its eighteenth-century setting lightly rather than with the archaic literary tone common in Victorian drama.

Dorothy anticipated the Edwardes' musical comedy hits of the 1900s. Its remarkable success showed Edwardes and other theatre managers that audiences were ready for a shift towards these lighter, less satiric, more topical musical works.

[edit] Roles

Sir John Bantam, "The Squire" of Chanticleer Hall
Geoffrey Wilder, Sir John Bantam's nephew and heir, a London Gallant
Harry Sherwood, Geoffrey Wilder's friend
John Tuppitt, Landlord of the "Hop-Pole Inn"
William Lurcher, A Sheriff's Officer
Tom Strutt (or Tom Grass), A Young Farmer
Dorothy Bantam, Sir John Bantam's Daughter
Lydia Hawthorne, Her Cousin
Phyllis Tuppitt, The Landlord's Daughter, in love with Tom Strutt
Lady Betty, A Spinster
Mrs. Privett, A Widow
Chorus of Hop-Pickers, Peasants, Guests, Bridesmaids, etc.

[edit] Synopsis

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The setting is rural Kent in 1740. The Squire's daughter, Dorothy, and her cousin Lydia are tired of the social rounds, so they pose as villagers during the festival of the Hop Pole (an annual celebration occurring in the vicinity of the Hop Pole Inn) at the end of the hop picking season. There they meet Geoffrey and Harry, who are traveling in disguise to escape Lurcher, a sheriff's officer, who has warrants for their arrest. The men and girls are mutually attracted, but neither pair knows the other's true identity.

Lurcher is tricked into posing as a servant to the two men when they visit the house of the Squire. There is a faked burglary, Lurcher overeats, identities are exposed, the usual romantic complications ensue, and all ends happily.

[edit] Musical Numbers

[edit] Act I

1. Opening Chorus and Ballet – "Lads and lasses round about the hop-pole trip"
2. Song with Trio – "Be wise in time, Oh Phyllis mine" (Dorothy, Lydia, and Phyllis)
3. Quartet – "We're sorry to delay you" (Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, and Sherwood)
4. Ballad – "With such a dainty dame none can compare" (Wilder)
5 Quintet – "A father's pride and joy they are" (Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, Sherwood, and Tuppitt)
6. Song and Trio – "I am the Sheriff's faithful man" (Lurcher, Wilder, and Sherwood)
7. Quartet – "You swear to be good and true" (Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, and Sherwood)
8. Chorus with Solo – "Under the pump" (Lurcher)
9. Act I Finale – "Now take your seats at table spread"

[edit] Act II

10. Act II Introduction and Country Dance
11. Song – "Though born a man of high degree" (Wilder and Chorus)
12. Music for the Entrance of Dorothy and Lydia
13. Graceful Dance
14. Song – "Contentment I give you and all that it brings" (Bantam)
15. Septet and Chorus – "Now let's to bed" (Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, Sherwood, Lurcher, and Bantam)
16. Recit and Quartett – "One moment pray" (Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, and Sherwood)
16a. Ballad – "I stand at your threshold sighing" ("Queen of my Heart") (Sherwood)
17. Trio – "Are you sure that they are all in bed?" (Wilder, Sherwood, and Bantam)
18. Chorus with Dorothy, Lydia, Wilder, Sherwood, Bantam, and Lurcher – "What noise was that"
19. Act II Finale – "Hark forward"

[edit] Act III

20. Act III – Ballet
21. Chorus – "Dancing is not what it used to be"
22. Ballad – "The time has come when I must yield" (Phyllis)
23. Septet and Chorus – "What joy untold to feel at last"
24. Act III Finale – "You swore to be good and true"

No. 16a became a successful ballad standard, "Queen of My Heart."

[edit] References

Walters, Michael. "Dorothy Sketches". The Gaiety (Autumn 2005). (pp. 35-36)
Midkiff, Neil. "Discovering Dorothy". The Gaiety (Autumn 2005). (pp. 38-42)
Kenig, Marc. "Dorothy's Degrees of Separation". The Gaiety (Autumn 2005). (pp. 43-44)