Ib and Little Christina
Encyclopedia
Basil Hood
Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
of the 1855 fairy tale by Hans Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
of the same name.
The first was a play styled "A Picture in 3 Parts", with incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
by Arthur Bruhns
Arthur Bruhns
Arthur Bruhns was a composer, pianist, and organist.Bruhns was born in Silesia, Germany. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Dresden under Felix Draeseke and Hugo Riemann and later studied in Paris with Camille Saint-Saëns. Bruhns worked as a conductor of grand opera in cities throughout Europe...
and was first produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
, opening on 15 May 1900 and running for 60 performances. It starred Martin Harvey
John Martin-Harvey
John Martin Harvey , known after his knighthood in 1921 as Sir John Martin-Harvey, was a romantic actor of the English theatre....
and nine-year-old Phyllis Dare
Phyllis Dare
Phyllis Dare born Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones was an English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century....
. The piece was transferred to the Coronet Theatre that summer. There was also a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
run in 1900. It was revived at Terry's Theatre
Terry's Theatre
Terry's Theatre was a West End theatre on Strand, in the City of Westminster, London. Built in 1887, it became a cinema in 1910 before being demolished in 1923.-History:...
in January 1903, playing for 16 performances, and again at Terry's in early 1904, for 31 more performances. The play was also revived at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
in September 1908, playing for seven performances.
Hood then rewrote Ib and Little Christina as an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
styled "A Picture in 3 Panels", with music by Franco Leoni
Franco Leoni
Franco Leoni was an Italian opera composer. After training in Milan, he made most of his career in England, composing for Covent Garden and West End theatres. He is best known for the opera L'Oracolo, written for Covent Garden but taken up successfully by the Metropolitan Opera in New York...
. This was first produced at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
on 14 November 1901 and ran together with Hood's The Willow Pattern
The Willow Pattern
The Willow Pattern is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Basil Hood and music by Cecil Cook. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre on 14 November 1901, running for a total of 110 performances. It toured thereafter....
for 16 performances, until the end of November. The libretto was published by Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
, and a copy is in the British Library at 11778.f.23(4) (1901). The Times described it as "an opera of ultra-modern type" and compared it unflatteringly to the work of Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, who had died earlier in that year. The Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
later said that "the music, though clever and attractive in many ways, was too realistic and too Southern to reflect the Northern symbolism of Andersen's story, and that its peculiar vein of passion was out of place." The piece was revived at Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
from 11 to 13 January 1904, then transferred to the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
from 19 January to 5 March 1904, running for a total of 23 matinee performances. The opera is not quite a full length piece and is played in three short scenes.
Synopsis
(This synopsis is based on the opera version)Ib and his father are very poor and live alone, and Old Henrik and his granddaughter Christina are their neighbours. The two children are in love, and Ib is willing to sacrifice everything for her. An old gypsy woman visits Ib and gives him three wishing nuts.
15 years later, the children are now grown up, and Christina has fallen in love with a richer man. Broken‑hearted but faithful, Ib gives her up.
Seven years later, the marriage brought no happiness to Christina, who died in poverty. The gypsy woman brings Christina's daughter (also called Christina) to Ib, and they live happily together.
Roles and casts: Original; Savoy
- Ib's father – Charles Lander; Henry LyttonHenry LyttonSir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
- Little Ib – Vyvian Thomas; Laurence Emery
- Old Henrik, Christina's grandfather – Holbrook BlinnHolbrook BlinnHolbrook Blinn was an American actor, born in San Francisco. He appeared on the legitimate stage as a child, and played throughout the United States and in London. He appeared in silent films, and was the director of popular one-act plays at New York's Princess Theatre.In 1900, he appeared in...
; H. Thorndike - Ib's Mother/Gipsy Woman – Mary Rorke; Isabel JayIsabel JayIsabel Jay was an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies...
- Little Christina – Phyllis DarePhyllis DarePhyllis Dare born Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones was an English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century....
; Ela Q. May (She reprised the role at Daly's Theatre) - Ib – Martin HarveyJohn Martin-HarveyJohn Martin Harvey , known after his knighthood in 1921 as Sir John Martin-Harvey, was a romantic actor of the English theatre....
; Robert EvettRobert EvettRobert Evett was an English singer, actor, theatre manager and producer.-Acting career:In 1892 Evett joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on tour in The Vicar of Bray, playing the Reverend Henry Sandford, the tenor lead. In 1893, Evett added the role of Oswald in Haddon Hall...
(Evett reprised the role at Daly's Theatre) - John – H. Nye Chart; Powis Pinder
- Christina – Eva MooreEva MooreEva Moore was an English actress. Her career on stage and in film spanned six decades, and she was active in the women's suffrage movement.-Early life and career:...
; Louie PoundsLouie PoundsLouisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
(also at the Coronet Theatre in 1900)
External links
- Libretto of the opera
- a review in which the piece is mentioned
- Translation of the Andersen fairy tale
- http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/companions/index.htmlList of Savoy operaSavoy operaThe Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
companion pieces] - Photo of Phyllis Dare around the time she played Little Christina