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‘WHAT, NEVER.’
Arrival of a Great Operatic and Musical Composer
A Chat with the Man Who Composed Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience and All Their Sisters and Their Cousins and Their Aunts.
San Francisco Examiner, Wed. 22 July 1885.
‘I was just preparing to go down and see the Daly’s,’ said Sir Arthur Sullivan, the renowned musical composer, last evening to an Examiner reporter at the Baldwin, ‘but I guess we will have time for a little chat, anyhow. If necessary, I will be a little late, for I have seen the company many times before.’
‘I will detain you but a moment, Sir Arthur,’ said the reporter, ‘just to learn how — ‘
‘Yes, yes! I know what you want,’ he laughed, in a rich, full voice, that proclaimed his English nationality. ‘I think I would make a good reporter myself. So please observe me,’ he said with mock gravity, rising and throwing his shoulders back. ‘Arthur Seymour Sullivan, knighted by Her Most Gracious Majesty, ‘Sir Arthur’ (which, however, makes him no relative of Tennyson’s ‘Arthur’); height, five feet three, complexion, dark – so very dark that he might be mistaken for an Italian; hair parted precisely in the middle, but not making him look exactly a dude; stubby moustache, speckled with grey. Age, he won’t tell, but probably 40, perhaps 43. There, how’s that for an item in tomorrow morning’s paper about a man who wishes to travel quietly and to enjoy life without ostentation?’
The reporter admitted that he could not have done better himself.
HE HAD BEEN THERE
‘Now as to the next question I know you are going to ask if I would only give you a chance,’ continued the jolly self interviewer. ‘I will state that I have no business in your beautiful country further than to admire it, I have some young cubs of nephews and nieces down in Los Angeles, whose poor mother has just died, and whom I went to see. But, on the whole, I am a gentleman of leisure, or more properly and technically, a gentleman at large, who has come off for a little rest and vacation, and who proposes to have a jolly good time for a few weeks and then return to the land of roast beef and plum pudding, as you Americans insist on calling it.’
‘You are the composer I believe of –’ began the reporter.
‘Pinafore. I knew it by the look in your eye. Yes, I am the composer of Pinafore. I stand before you and the American public the self-confessed perpetrator of those jingling rhymes which you Americans especially have done me the honor to bear so patiently,’ laughed Sir Arthur pleasantly.
‘And also –‘
‘And also, the Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Sorcerer, Iolanthe, Trial by Jury and a hundred other popular operas, which the indulgent public have been good enough to praise,’ said Sir Arthur, modestly.
‘What about Mik—‘
‘Yes; I was coming to Mikado. It is a gallant success, I am happy to state, and partly to its success I am indebted for the pleasure of being in California tonight. It has now been running in London for four months and I have just been informed that tickets must be procured ten days in advance, and it will probably run twelve months. Consequently I am not actually obliged by the inflexibility of circumstances to write another opera for some time.
SOME SATISFACTION
‘But the ‘Mikado’ is getting one of your American managers into a peck of trouble in New York. You see I never made a farthing out of America owing to the cussedness — if I may be permitted to indulge in a little emphasis — of the copyright law. Notwithstanding the immense success of Pinafore in America, I gained nothing financially, for I had no copyright, but in the case of the Mikado, we brought an American out to England from Boston and copyrighted it in his name. Then when a New York manager attempted to use it we secured an injunction of the Court ordering him to stop. As you have probably seen, he has disregarded this injunction of the Courts and has produced it, notwithstanding. Well, that satisfies me entirely, for it takes the matter out of my hands, for he has made himself amenable to fine for contempt of Court, don’t you see?’
‘And financially —,’ again attempted the reporter.
‘Yes. I knew you would want to discuss me financially. Well, many of my operas have returned me handsome incomes — probably Patience has been the most dutiful in that regard. The Pirates laid up a handsome nest egg also, Pinafore was a musical success but I did not make so much out of it. I would have if I had had a power of copyright in America, for it ran wild out here. No! I am not above making money out of my operas. I like music, but I like money as well.’
ABOUT HIM
‘You are an Englishman?’ at last the reporter succeeded in asking.
‘My nativity seems to have been a puzzling matter, but it is a simple one. Yes, I am a Britisher. I was born in London. My father was born in Ireland but reared in England; but my mother was an Italian.’
‘You seem to have inherited your mother’s physiognomy and the Italian musical talent,’ ventured the reporter.
‘Yes, I have every reason to believe that I am my mother’s son,’ laughed the jolly Briton. ‘But my father also had great musical talents. For a number of years he was the principal professor of Kneller Hall, a training school for military bands.’
‘And would you give a little of your own personal history?’
‘If that is worth your listening to,’ said the modest composer, ‘I will give you what I can remember. I started out on my musical career as a choirboy in St. James’ Chapel Royal. My first success was winning the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the age of 14, while I was yet a chorister. For two years I studied in England under the best masters; then I went to Germany and studied for three years in the Leipsic Conservatorium.
SACRED MUSIC
‘It was during the latter part of my stay that I commenced the composition of the music to Shakespeare’s Tempest, which was produced at Crystal Palace in 1862 when I was 19 years of age. I have been composing ever since, and among others are Kenilworth, In Memoriam, Marmion, The Prodigal Son, Di Ballo, On Shore and Sea, Festival Te Deum, The Light of the World, The Martyr of Antioch and Cox and Box.’
‘And you are still at work?’
‘No, not at present, as I told you. But I have a lot of work on hand. I must get back soon and prepare a sacred piece for the Triennial Convention at Leeds next year. I prefer to compose sacred music. The comic operas were more the accident of fortune than otherwise. The owner of a decaying theatre in London suggested to Mr Gilbert and myself that we should write him an opera. We tried Trial by Jury, and it proved an unbounded success. The idea of setting comic words and scenes to solemn music had never been thought of before, and it took the town by storm.’
‘What is your opinion of America from a musical standpoint?’
‘Well, America has produced some wonderful musicians. But every city, like this, for instance, should have an orchestra. It would tend to lift the general musical appreciation.’
Page modified 9 April 2021