Luscombe Searelle
Encyclopedia
William Luscombe Searelle (1853 – 18 December 1907) was a musical composer and impresario
. He was born in Devon, England, and brought up in New Zealand
, where he attended Christ's College, Christchurch.
Searelle began working as a pianist in Christchurch and graduated to conductor. He sang, wrote, directed, composed and conducted: at the age of twenty-two his comic opera The Wreck of the Pinafore was produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London. The comic opera Estrella, written with Walter Parke, became a smash hit in Australia in 1884. In December that year Estrella went on at New York's Standard Theatre
where it enjoyed just three performances before the theatre burnt down.
Of his comic opera Bobadil one Melbourne
critic wrote: “Mr Searelle is a sworn foe of dullness and a warm friend of variety”. By 1886, in spite of favourable crits, Searelle was bankrupt and turned his sights to South Africa's newly discovered gold field.
In 1889 a heavily weighted ox-wagon rumbled down the dusty streets of Johannesburg, bringing a small party of opera singers from their hotel rooms to welcome Searelle, tired from his long trek from the port at Durban. Among those to greet him were the talented Fenton sisters, Blanche, Searelle’s wife and Amy. They had first taken the train to the railhead in Ladysmith and then transferred to stagecoach for the rest of the journey. En route the Fentons spent a night with a Boer
family where Amy, the nineteen year old prima donna, was given the bed President Paul Kruger
used when he passed that way; an enormous four-poster that had a ladder at its side for climbing up into.
In the days that followed the contents of the ox-wagon filled the intersection of Eloff and Commissioner Street, where Luscombe Searelle’s corrugated iron “Theatre Royal” had been unloaded and was being hammered together.
“The material blocked the road for days,” Headley A. Chilvers tells in his book Out of the Crucible, “but the blockade mattered little, for traffic passed easily by taking detours over the veld”.
Complete, it had a stage, stalls, comfortable boxes, a bar; as well as costumes and scenery and dressing rooms for the opera stars. And so, oddly, this raw, rough and dusty mining town that boasted a bar to every five men and as many prostitutes, received opera among its first serious form of entertainment. Searelle opened his first season with Maritana
and The Bohemian Girl
.
In this spirited town where gunmen shot up bars and later audiences became notorious for whooping and flinging their chairs around if a management refused to play the national anthem, Luscombe was bound for an eventful stay.
But this small, round, thirty-six year old from Devonshire had enough genius and energy to cope ably with the exuberance of these immigrant Welsh miners. As an impresario Searelle was responsible for innumerable theater celebrities coming from London; the most famous was the ex-opera star turned actress, Genevieve Ward
. She arrived in 1891 describing Johannesburg as having "no pavements of any kind, yet the streets lighted by electricity, and the place but five years old".
In eleven weeks she played in sixteen plays, including six by Shakespeare; Macbeth
, Othello
, Hamlet
, The Merry Wives of Windsor
, The Merchant of Venice
, and Much Ado About Nothing
. An exceptional feat of energy considering her 54 years of age.
Periodically Searelle went on tour and took his company throughout South Africa, Rhodesia and Mozambique.
In 1892 Searelle brought the partnership of Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter
and the romantic lead Kyrle Bellew out from Australia. They toured South Africa with Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet
; however, their run was cut short when the Exhibition Theatre in Cape Town burned to the ground. Despite his genius and sporadic successes, Searelle was to be dogged throughout his life with litigation and debt, leaving in his wake a story of misfortune.
His first visit to South Africa was in 1887 with an Australian Opera Company where several operas were staged in Cape Town including three of Searelle’s own compositions; Bobadil, Estrella and Isadora. In his time here, ten years in all, he bought a 1600ha coal mine that yielded no coal, and he prospected for tin in Swaziland, with little success. He fought with the Boers and was finally hounded out of Johannesburg. In 1905 he staged Bobadil in America but his principals took off with his money leaving him destitute. He survived selling dusters from door to door and occasionally received a pittance from The New York Journal for poems he submitted. Nights were frequently spent on benches.
Eventually Ella Wheeler Wilcox
read his poetry and together they wrote opera Mizpah, based on the biblical story of Esther
(1904-5). It was put on in San Francisco but by then Searelle was too ill; dying of cancer, he could only view its success from a wheel-chair. After its premiere he was wheeled before the audience to receive his ovation. Inspired he rushed to England to stage it there but by now he was too ill and died on 18 December 1907 aged 54 before he could begin negotiations.
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
. He was born in Devon, England, and brought up in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, where he attended Christ's College, Christchurch.
Searelle began working as a pianist in Christchurch and graduated to conductor. He sang, wrote, directed, composed and conducted: at the age of twenty-two his comic opera The Wreck of the Pinafore was produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London. The comic opera Estrella, written with Walter Parke, became a smash hit in Australia in 1884. In December that year Estrella went on at New York's Standard Theatre
Manhattan Theatre
The Manhattan Theatre, directly across from Greeley Square at Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street, was located at 102 West 33rd Street, in New York, NY. It was a 1100-seat theatre which opened in 1875 as the Eagle Variety Theatre, and later re-named the Standard Theatre in 1878...
where it enjoyed just three performances before the theatre burnt down.
Of his comic opera Bobadil one Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
critic wrote: “Mr Searelle is a sworn foe of dullness and a warm friend of variety”. By 1886, in spite of favourable crits, Searelle was bankrupt and turned his sights to South Africa's newly discovered gold field.
In 1889 a heavily weighted ox-wagon rumbled down the dusty streets of Johannesburg, bringing a small party of opera singers from their hotel rooms to welcome Searelle, tired from his long trek from the port at Durban. Among those to greet him were the talented Fenton sisters, Blanche, Searelle’s wife and Amy. They had first taken the train to the railhead in Ladysmith and then transferred to stagecoach for the rest of the journey. En route the Fentons spent a night with a Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
family where Amy, the nineteen year old prima donna, was given the bed President Paul Kruger
Paul Kruger
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger , better known as Paul Kruger and affectionately known as Uncle Paul was State President of the South African Republic...
used when he passed that way; an enormous four-poster that had a ladder at its side for climbing up into.
In the days that followed the contents of the ox-wagon filled the intersection of Eloff and Commissioner Street, where Luscombe Searelle’s corrugated iron “Theatre Royal” had been unloaded and was being hammered together.
“The material blocked the road for days,” Headley A. Chilvers tells in his book Out of the Crucible, “but the blockade mattered little, for traffic passed easily by taking detours over the veld”.
Complete, it had a stage, stalls, comfortable boxes, a bar; as well as costumes and scenery and dressing rooms for the opera stars. And so, oddly, this raw, rough and dusty mining town that boasted a bar to every five men and as many prostitutes, received opera among its first serious form of entertainment. Searelle opened his first season with Maritana
Maritana
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...
and The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
.
In this spirited town where gunmen shot up bars and later audiences became notorious for whooping and flinging their chairs around if a management refused to play the national anthem, Luscombe was bound for an eventful stay.
But this small, round, thirty-six year old from Devonshire had enough genius and energy to cope ably with the exuberance of these immigrant Welsh miners. As an impresario Searelle was responsible for innumerable theater celebrities coming from London; the most famous was the ex-opera star turned actress, Genevieve Ward
Genevieve Ward
Dame Genevieve Ward DBE , born Lucy Genevieve Teresa Ward, was an American-born British soprano and actress.She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1921.-Life and career:...
. She arrived in 1891 describing Johannesburg as having "no pavements of any kind, yet the streets lighted by electricity, and the place but five years old".
In eleven weeks she played in sixteen plays, including six by Shakespeare; Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
, The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, and Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
. An exceptional feat of energy considering her 54 years of age.
Periodically Searelle went on tour and took his company throughout South Africa, Rhodesia and Mozambique.
In 1892 Searelle brought the partnership of Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter
Mrs Brown-Potter
Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter , was one of the first American society women to become a stage actress.-Biography:...
and the romantic lead Kyrle Bellew out from Australia. They toured South Africa with Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
; however, their run was cut short when the Exhibition Theatre in Cape Town burned to the ground. Despite his genius and sporadic successes, Searelle was to be dogged throughout his life with litigation and debt, leaving in his wake a story of misfortune.
His first visit to South Africa was in 1887 with an Australian Opera Company where several operas were staged in Cape Town including three of Searelle’s own compositions; Bobadil, Estrella and Isadora. In his time here, ten years in all, he bought a 1600ha coal mine that yielded no coal, and he prospected for tin in Swaziland, with little success. He fought with the Boers and was finally hounded out of Johannesburg. In 1905 he staged Bobadil in America but his principals took off with his money leaving him destitute. He survived selling dusters from door to door and occasionally received a pittance from The New York Journal for poems he submitted. Nights were frequently spent on benches.
Eventually Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was " Soiltude", which contains the lines: "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone"...
read his poetry and together they wrote opera Mizpah, based on the biblical story of Esther
Esther
Esther , born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther.According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus...
(1904-5). It was put on in San Francisco but by then Searelle was too ill; dying of cancer, he could only view its success from a wheel-chair. After its premiere he was wheeled before the audience to receive his ovation. Inspired he rushed to England to stage it there but by now he was too ill and died on 18 December 1907 aged 54 before he could begin negotiations.
Newspaper entries
Mr. Searelle has made a noticeable improvement in the Theatre of Varieties by partitioning the auditorium from the bars. The partition which is the work of Messrs. Hart & Co., General Contractors, Eloff Street, is half glass and forms a handsome construction with swing doors, the noise of talking at the bar, always so annoying to those who wish to enjoy the entertainment, being considerably reduced.
I noticed on Monday night that six policemen were stationed at the varieties. Is it fair that Mr Searelle should monopolize the police force to the detriment of the town? I suppose the safety of the public can go ‘hang’ as long as Mr Searelle can get ‘chuckersout’ on the cheap.
I must really ask the Head of Police to step in and prohibit these Sunday evening shows. They are totally unnecessary and serve but to fill the pockets of the management with a few pounds, whilst the artists themselves reap no material benefit by having to give up their Day of Rest.
It was indeed a pathetic scene enacted on Monday night when Miss Jenny Hill was induced by Mr. Luscombe Searelle to brave the cold winds that were sweeping the town and speak a piece to the audience assembled at the Theatre of Varieties.
What legitimate reason can be tendered for ‘trotting her out’ to an audience of a Music Hall? Surely it was anything but decent to let her be almost carried on to the stage and, in a feeble voice, utter some platitudes about the climate of South Africa, the experience of her early career and the kindness shown to her by Mr. and Mrs. Searelle. Is there no limit to the impresario’s advertising dodges? Has it come to this that a lady, who is as near to her death bed as any human being can dread be, has to be the medium of advertising him on a bleak autumn night to an audience to which the sight appeared as painfully gruesome?
Mr. Luscombe Searelle alleges that he will not sue me for libel, as “he never casts his pearls before swine”. As much as I appreciate being likened unto ‘pearls’, I must really resent our judges being termed ‘swine’. Even by Mr Luscombe Searelle. Who should know what a hog is. However, to me and space are too precious to be wasted on such an individual. He left Johannesburg on Saturday last seen in the company with a gentleman to whom he has bonded his entire theatre, and who was deservedly thrashed by a gentleman to whom he refused to pay what he owed him previous to parting. If more people took the law into their own hands and horse-whipped unscrupulous tricksters , who refused to discharge their obligations, neither Mr. Searelle nor his Compagnon de Voyage would have a whole shin today.
Before going to America, Searelle went to London to clear his name with his agents. Although ‘The Critic’s time and space was too precious to waste on Mr Searlle they continued a fervent reportage on him months after he departed South African shores.