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“Mr. Grossmith’s 'Haste to the Wedding.'”
The Graphic, Aug. 6, 1892, p. 62
It is not given to every man to be at the same time a popular comedian, a successful public entertainer, and a great composer, and it is, therefore, not at all astonishing that in his latest effort, the writing of a musical version of Le Chapeau de Paille d’ Italie, [sic] Mr. George Grossmith is by no means seen at his best. It is true, as the issue of many excellent comic songs from his pen have proved, that Mr. Grossmith has the gift of melody; but, for a musical work lasting an entire evening, he, clearly, has not the necessary musical experience or knowledge. His orchestration and choral part writing are especially amateurish, although he wisely has made no attempt at a regular ensemble or elaborate concerted piece. Perhaps the most acceptable music is to be found in the ballad for the milliner and the character dance in which she indulges with the bridegroom, the duet between the bridegroom and the Marchioness, in which Mr. Grossmith has not unsuccessfully endeavoured to parody the conventional style of Italian opera, and the duet between the bridegroom and the Major-General, while there is little doubt that the best tune in the opera is that avowedly borrowed from the ancient country dance which gives its title to the piece.
There were, however, some amongst the Criterion audience who seemed to regard the whole affair in the light of a joke, for the public are apt to refuse to take seriously even the best-intentioned efforts of the professional humorist, and this view of the matter may, perhaps, have been accentuated by the gravity adopted by Mr. Grossmith himself when he stepped into the orchestra to conduct his new work in person. Nevertheless, the well-deserved popularity of “The Society Clown” assured him a hearty welcome.
The libretto of Haste to the Wedding is, of course, based upon Mr. W.S. Gilbert’s old adaptation, “The Wedding March,” which nearly twenty years ago had so successful a run at the Court Theatre. The story is a farcical one, and the desperate efforts of the young married man to secure a counterpart to the Leghorn hat which he has so hopelessly injured, lead him into many amusing scrapes. It was not, indeed, until the last act that some of the audience began to rebel against the wild improbabilities of the story, but, with the exception of a few malcontents, the majority of a really brilliant assemblage seemed to enjoy the fun as heartily as before.
The piece is, however, a good deal spun out by the addition of the lyrics, some of which are hardly in Mr. Gilbert’s happiest style. Among the best of them may be cited the capital ballad in which the pretty milliner exposes the shabbiness of the young bridegroom; the song of the “super-emotional” Duke, who would give ten years of his life “to experience for one brief day the joy of being a commonplace man;” the burlesque apostrophe to the “Great Falsettist,” which begins “Lord of the Upper G, by Peers of high degree assiduously courted,” and the song of “The Order of the Bath,” the delicate satire of which seemed scarcely to be grasped by the majority of the public.
The operetta, on the first night, dragged somewhat, owing to the fact that the artists were hardly accustomed to their parts. The majority of them are no vocalists, but the life and soul of the performance was Mr. Wyatt, who gave a capital rendering of the mercurial young bridegroom, Woodpecker Tapping.
Page modified 27 December 2020