Arthur Sullivan: Ballet Composer

courtesy of Naxos of America

As a young student at the Royal Academy of Music, Arthur Sullivan was fortunate and skilled enough to receive that institution’s first Mendelssohn Scholarship. This covered not only his expenses at the Academy but also the funds to study at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, then known as the Conservatorium der Musik. His graduation composition in 1861 consisted of incidental music for the performance of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, possibly a nod to the interest in Shakespeare taken by the composer for whom his scholarship was named.

This music received its first performance in London after Sullivan returned from Leipzig. He then shifted his attention to ballet. In 1864 Henri Desplaces had been called upon by Covent Garden (now known as the Royal Opera House) to choreograph a divertissement for the conclusion of Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula (the sleepwalker); and Sullivan was asked to provide the music.

The result was L'Île Enchantée, a little over 45 minutes of a narrative about a shipwrecked sailor, who finds himself washed up on an island that is closer in spirit to A Midsummer Night’s Dream than to La Sonnambula. There is not much by way of narrative, but the score consists of thirteen musical numbers that support a rich diversity of choreographic approaches to solo and ensemble work. In 1992 the full score was recorded for broadcast on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the public service broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland, with Andrew Penny conducting the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

That recording was subsequently released by Marco Polo; and, about a month ago, Naxos reissued the recording. If the narrative behind the choreography tends to play to a variety of stereotypes, Sullivan’s music definitely holds its own among other composers of the time, not only Bellini but also Adolphe Adam, whose full-length Giselle was first seen at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1842. Nevertheless, given the circumstances under which it was created, it should be no surprise that little, if anything, is known about the Desplaces choreography that was performed to Sullivan’s music. The good news is that, because Desplaces’ narrative was pretty thin, one can still enjoy this indicator of Sullivan’s emerging talents for its own sake!

Penny’s recording coupled L'Île Enchantée with ballet music that Sullivan composed for Thespis. This operetta was the result of Sullivan’s first partnership with W. S. Gilbert. Subtitled The Gods Grown Old, the text involved presenting the Olympian inhabitants as “Aged Deities,” too tired to care about service to the mortal world. They encounter a troupe of thespians, who figure that, if they can impersonate the pantheon on the stage, they can do just as well in real life. As one can suspect, they thoroughly bungle the job.

Sullivan’s score for Thespis was never published. Thus, while the entire text appears in the Modern Library volume of Gilbert and Sullivan scripts, most of the music has been lost. However, since the original production did not want to leave any stones unturned, the cast also included a “Gaiety Corps de Ballet.” The music for the ballet portion was discovered by Roderick Spencer and Selwyn Tillett, who prepared a performing version. The five numbers of that divertissement were recorded by Penny and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra as an “added bonus” for their Marco Polo release, and that music is also included on the Naxos reissue.

Two other numbers from Thespis seem to have survived. One is a ballad entitled “Little maid of Arcadee.” The other is more familiar, the “Climbing over rocky mountain” chorus. Sullivan seems to have been well aware that he had a good thing in that chorus, since it shows up in The Pirates of Penzance!