The Foresters
Encyclopedia
The Foresters or, Robin Hood
and Maid Marian is a play written by Alfred Tennyson and first produced in New York in 1892. A set of incidental music
in nine movements was composed for the play by Arthur Sullivan
.
The success of the first production led to productions in seven other American cities. A production opened in London in 1893. Although the play was not well received in England, Sullivan's incidental music was praised.
Sullivan and Tennyson had worked together before, on a song cycle for tenor
, The Window
, written and composed in 1867–68, but not published until 1871. Sullivan and Tennyson did not find working together on The Window congenial and did not attempt work together again for over twenty years. Meanwhile, Tennyson had written a play, The Cup, that was produced with success by Henry Irving
at the Lyceum Theatre in 1881. Encouraged by this, Tennyson started work on a play based on the Robin Hood
legend, completing it after a visit to Sherwood Forest
in October 1881. But Irving rejected the play on the grounds that it was not dramatic enough for his audiences at the Lyceum, who were accustomed to his sensational productions. Tennyson turned to other projects, setting The Foresters aside for several years. In 1888, American actress Mary Anderson
decided to produce The Cup. Tennyson suggested that she also produce The Foresters, but again the play was set aside. In 1891, however, Anderson's brother, Joseph wrote to the American impresario Augustin Daly
recommending that The Foresters would be a good project for him and his star actress Ada Rehan
. Daly was enthusiastic about the play and, by September 1891, agreed to arranged a New York production. By then, Tennyson was 82 years old.
The text, consisting of a mixture of blank verse
and prose
, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson's suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose. Daly made numerous changes to Tennyson's text, cutting dialogue, moving events from one act to another, and reassigning songs and dialogue to different characters. Henry Widmer, Daly's musical assistant, may have contributed some music to the score. Sullivan completed the score by December 1891, and the play opened in New York on 17 March 1892. The piece starred Rehan as Marian and John Drew Jr.
as Robin. It was a hit and was then played in seven other major American cities, becoming Tennyson's greatest theatrical success. A single performance of the play was given at the Lyceum Theatre in London on the same day as the first New York performance to secure the British copyright.
An English production opened at the new Daly's Theatre
, in London, on 3 October 1893, by which time the author had died. It starred Rehan and Arthur Bourchier
. Despite the respect in which Lord Tennyson was held, the play received poor notices in London, being called "tedious" and compared with a nursery tale, and ran for only seventeen performances. Sullivan's music, by contrast, was initially well reviewed. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
, for example, wrote that the songs were "set with rare taste, discrimination and melody by Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose delightful music gives charm and interest".
Sullivan's biographers and scholars of his work have been unanimous in censuring Tennyson's text. Gervase Hughes
wrote, "How did the author of The Idylls of the King
come to put his name to such puerile rubbish?" Arthur Jacobs
called the piece "perhaps the oddest of all the stage works which [Sullivan] was invited to undertake." Percy Young scoffed, "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever." But some of them did not warmly review Sullivan's score either: "One of Sullivan's lamest... resourceless in magic" (Young); "[not] even one memorable number" (Jacobs). Recent critics, however, have praised Sullivan's contribution.
Act I ('The Bond' )
Act II ('The Flight of Marian')
Act III ('The Crowning of Marian')
Act IV ('The Conclusion')
claiming that theirs was the first live performance with orchestra since the nineteenth century.
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
and Maid Marian is a play written by Alfred Tennyson and first produced in New York in 1892. A set of 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"....
in nine movements was composed for the play by 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...
.
The success of the first production led to productions in seven other American cities. A production opened in London in 1893. Although the play was not well received in England, Sullivan's incidental music was praised.
The play
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, The Window
The Window (song cycle)
The Window; or, The Songs of the Wrens is a song cycle by Arthur Sullivan with words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written in 1867–70, it was eventually published in 1871...
, written and composed in 1867–68, but not published until 1871. Sullivan and Tennyson did not find working together on The Window congenial and did not attempt work together again for over twenty years. Meanwhile, Tennyson had written a play, The Cup, that was produced with success by Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
at the Lyceum Theatre in 1881. Encouraged by this, Tennyson started work on a play based on the Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
legend, completing it after a visit to Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...
in October 1881. But Irving rejected the play on the grounds that it was not dramatic enough for his audiences at the Lyceum, who were accustomed to his sensational productions. Tennyson turned to other projects, setting The Foresters aside for several years. In 1888, American actress Mary Anderson
Mary Anderson
Mary Anderson may refer to:*Mary Anderson *Mary Anderson *Mary Anderson *Mary Anderson *Mary Anderson...
decided to produce The Cup. Tennyson suggested that she also produce The Foresters, but again the play was set aside. In 1891, however, Anderson's brother, Joseph wrote to the American impresario Augustin Daly
Augustin Daly
John Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
recommending that The Foresters would be a good project for him and his star actress Ada Rehan
Ada Rehan
Ada Rehan was an American actress.-Biography:She was born as Ada Crehan in County Limerick, Ireland, and brought to the United States at about the age of six years....
. Daly was enthusiastic about the play and, by September 1891, agreed to arranged a New York production. By then, Tennyson was 82 years old.
The text, consisting of a mixture of blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
and prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson's suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose. Daly made numerous changes to Tennyson's text, cutting dialogue, moving events from one act to another, and reassigning songs and dialogue to different characters. Henry Widmer, Daly's musical assistant, may have contributed some music to the score. Sullivan completed the score by December 1891, and the play opened in New York on 17 March 1892. The piece starred Rehan as Marian and John Drew Jr.
John Drew Jr.
John Drew, Jr. was an American stage actor noted for his roles in Shakespearean comedy, society drama, and light comedies. He was the eldest son of John Drew, who had given up a blossoming career in whaling for acting, and Louisa Lane Drew, and the brother of Louisa Drew, Georgiana Drew & Sidney...
as Robin. It was a hit and was then played in seven other major American cities, becoming Tennyson's greatest theatrical success. A single performance of the play was given at the Lyceum Theatre in London on the same day as the first New York performance to secure the British copyright.
An English production opened at the new 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:...
, in London, on 3 October 1893, by which time the author had died. It starred Rehan and Arthur Bourchier
Arthur Bourchier
Arthur Bourchier was an English actor and theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh....
. Despite the respect in which Lord Tennyson was held, the play received poor notices in London, being called "tedious" and compared with a nursery tale, and ran for only seventeen performances. Sullivan's music, by contrast, was initially well reviewed. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News was an English weekly magazine founded in 1874 and published in London. In 1945 it changed its name to the Sport and Country, and in 1957 to the Farm and Country, before closing in 1970....
, for example, wrote that the songs were "set with rare taste, discrimination and melody by Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose delightful music gives charm and interest".
Sullivan's biographers and scholars of his work have been unanimous in censuring Tennyson's text. Gervase Hughes
Gervase Hughes
Gervase Alfred Booth Hughes was an English composer, conductor and writer on music. From 1926 to 1933, Hughes pursued a career as a conductor and chorus master, principally at the British National Opera Company, and also co-produced Shakespeare plays...
wrote, "How did the author of The Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom...
come to put his name to such puerile rubbish?" Arthur Jacobs
Arthur Jacobs
Arthur David Jacobs was an English music critic, musicologist, teacher, librettist and translator. Among his many books, two of the best known are his Penguin Dictionary of Music, which was reprinted in several editions between 1958 and 1996, and his biography of Arthur Sullivan, which was praised...
called the piece "perhaps the oddest of all the stage works which [Sullivan] was invited to undertake." Percy Young scoffed, "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever." But some of them did not warmly review Sullivan's score either: "One of Sullivan's lamest... resourceless in magic" (Young); "[not] even one memorable number" (Jacobs). Recent critics, however, have praised Sullivan's contribution.
Roles and original cast
Original New York cast shown, with changes in London cast noted. Vocal ranges noted for roles that sing parts in the incidental music:- King Richard, Coeur de Lion – George Clarke
- Prince John – John Craig
- Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon – John Drew, Jr. (Arthur BourchierArthur BourchierArthur Bourchier was an English actor and theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh....
in London) - Sir Richard Lea – Charles Wheatleigh (Henry Loraine in London)
- The Abbot of St. Mary's – Thomas Bridgeland (Lloyd Lowndes in London)
- The Sheriff of Nottingham – Charles LeClercq
- A Justiciary – William Gilbert
- Walter Lea, Son of Sir Richard Lea – Ralph Nisbet (Robb Harwood in London)
- Followers of Robin Hood:
- Little John – Herbert Gresham
- Friar Tuck – Eugene Jepson (William Owen in London)
- Will Scarlet (tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
) – Hobart BosworthHobart BosworthHobart Bosworth was an American film actor, director, writer, and producer.-Early life:Born Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth, he was a direct descendant of Miles Standish and John and Priscilla Alden on his father's side and of New York's Van Zandt family, the first Dutch settlers to land in the New... - Old Much – Tyrone PowerTyrone Power, Sr.Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power was an English-born American stage and screen actor, who acted under the name Tyrone Power.-Early life:Power was born in London in 1869, the son of Harold Littledale Power and Ethel Lavenu...
(Sidney Herbert in London)- Maid Marian, Daughter of Sir Richard Lea (mezzo-sopranoMezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
) – Ada RehanAda RehanAda Rehan was an American actress.-Biography:She was born as Ada Crehan in County Limerick, Ireland, and brought to the United States at about the age of six years.... - Kate, Attendant on Marian (sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
) – Kitty CheathamKitty CheathamKatherine "Kitty" Cheatham was an American singer, diseuse and actress. She was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee...
(Catherine Lewis in London) - Titania (soprano) – Percy HaswellPercy HaswellPercy Haswell , frequently billed as Miss Percy Haswell or Mrs. George Fawcett to clarify her gender, was an American stage and film actress....
- First Fairy (soprano) – Miss Massoni (Gaston Murray in London)
- Retainers, Messengers, Merry Men, Mercenaries, Friars, Beggars, Sailors, Peasants, etc.
- Maid Marian, Daughter of Sir Richard Lea (mezzo-soprano
Musical numbers
The nine musical numbers, with the opening lines of text for each, are as follows:Act I ('The Bond' )
- Song sung by Kate, attendant to Maid MarianMaid MarianMaid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
- The warrior Earl of AllendaleAllendale, NorthumberlandAllendale is a large village in south west Northumberland, England. Allendale is within the - the second largest of the 40 AONBs in England and Wales...
, - He loved the Lady Anne;
- The lady loved the master well,
- The maid she loved the man.
- Song sung by Maid Marian
- Love flew in at the window,
- As Wealth walk'd in at the door.
- 'You have come for you saw Wealth coming,' said I.
- But he flutter'd his wings with a sweet little cry,
- 'I'll cleave to you rich or poor.'
- Chorus (drinking song)
- Long live Richard,
- Robin and Richard!
- Long live Richard!
- Down with John!
- Drink to the Lion-heart
- Every-one!
- Chorus [originally a solo for Robin Hood]
- To sleep! to sleep! The long bright day is done,
- And darkness rises from the fallen sun.
- To sleep! to sleep!
Act II ('The Flight of Marian')
- Song sung by Will ScarletWill ScarletWill Scarlet was a prominent member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. He was present in the earliest ballads along with Little John and Much the Miller's Son....
[originally a chorus]
- There is no land like England,
- Where'er the light of day be;
- There are no hearts like English hearts,
- Such hearts of oak as they be.
- Scene for Titania and fairies
- Evil Fairy! do you hear?
- So he said who lieth here.
- We be fairies of the wood.
- We be neither bad nor good.
- Back and side and hip and rib,
- Nip, nip him for his fib.
Act III ('The Crowning of Marian')
- Song sung by Will Scarlet
- By all the deer that spring
- Thro' wood and lawn and ling,
- When all the leaves are green;
- By arrow and gray goosewing
Act IV ('The Conclusion')
- Song sung by Maid Marian
- The bee buzz'd up in the heat:
- 'I am faint for your honey, my sweet.'
- The flower said, 'Take, it my dear,
- For now is the spring of the year.
- So come, come!'
- 'Hum!'
- And the bee buzz'd down from the heat.
- Chorus and dance
- Now the King is home again, and nevermore to roam again.
- Now the King is home again, the King will have his own again,
- Home again, home again, and each will have his own again,
- All the birds in merry Sherwood sing and sing him home again.
Recording
A recording was made of the music in 2004 by the New London Orchestra, the London Chorus and soloists conducted by Ronald Corp. It is published on the Hyperion label. The Northamptonshire Theatre Orchestra and A La Carte & Friends performed the piece at the 2008 international Gilbert and Sullivan FestivalInternational Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is held every summer at the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. The three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all...
claiming that theirs was the first live performance with orchestra since the nineteenth century.
External links
- The Foresters at The G&S Archive
- Links to Midi files, lyricsand script of the play
- Programme from the London production
- Review of the play in The Times, 4 October 1893
- Discussion of The Foresters and Sullivan's other incidental music at the G&S Discography
- Discussion of the Hyperion recording of The Foresters (and The Contrabandista)