Opera Scotland

H M S Pinafore 1879Mr R D'Oyly Carte's Opera Company

Read more about the opera H M S Pinafore

The consortium that had participated in the Comedy Opera Company had fallen apart in some acrimony earlier in 1879, and Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan now operated as a triumvirate. Pinafore continued to sail on in triumph. Of this cast, William Penley went on to great success as a comic actor, succeeding Tree in The Private Secretary in 1884, and in 1892 creating the part of Lord Fancourt Babberley in the classic farce Charley's Aunt. The tenor Henry Walsham would soon move on to the Carl Rosa, with baritone J H Rogers joining Charles Bernard's group. However Alice Barnett, the new contralto, was an actress who would go with the Pinafore company to New York. There she created the part of Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance. On her return, she launched the iconic roles of Lady Jane in Patience and Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe.

The curtain-raiser on this tour was After All, a 'New and Original Vaudeville', with words by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier.

The touring company took its own costumes, but still relied on the local theatre management to produce a usable setting. Some no doubt achieved this more satisfactorily than others, but Harry Pont, in Dundee, seems to have been quite skilled.

Additional dates in the other Scottish venues still to be determined.