THESPIS

• Introduction
• Contents

Thespis was the first Gilbert & Sullivan opera. It was premiered at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 26 December, 1871, possibly to the biggest audience of any G&S first night - the Gaiety Theatre, with a capacity of 1500, was filled to standing room. Sullivan told his mother "I have rarely seen anything more beautiful put upon the stage". But the public wasn't yet ready for Gilbert and Sullivan, the piece was badly rehearsed, and it closed after about 80 performances.

Most of the music from Thespis has been lost, although:

• The chorus "Climbing over Rocky Mountain" was recycled into The Pirates of Penzance,
• The aria "Little Maid of Arcadee" survived as a drawing room ballad, and
• Ballet music from the opera has recently been unearthed and recorded.

The following discussion is a compilation of individual opinions on the opera made by thirty-five subscribers to the SavoyNet mailing list. Most, but not all, of their Internet postings were made during the SavoyNet OOTW (Opera of the Week) series which concentrated on Thespis over the period 5-25 September, 1997.

Highlights of the discussion include:

• Comments on the discovery of ballet music from Thespis.
• Performances of Thespis, and attempts to fit other pieces of Sullivan's music to the text.
• A humorous, whimsical Thespis discography.

• 1 Preamble
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Overview
  • 1.3 Rees
• 2 The Lost Music
  • 2.1 Rocky Mountain
  • 2.2 Ballet Music
  • 2.3 Value of a Thespis score
• 3 The Setting
  • 3.1 Character names
  • 3.2 Anachronisms
  • 3.3 Costumes
• 4 Libretto
  • 4.1 Substitutes
  • 4.2 Textual weaknesses
• 5 Music
  • 5.1 Voices
  • 5.2 Matching the music to other Sullivan pieces
    • 5.2.1 Opening Chorus
    • 5.2.2 General
  • 5.3 Individual songs
    • 5.3.1 Little Maid of Arcadee
    • 5.3.2 Diddlesex Junction
• 6 Performances
  • 6.1 Recollections
  • 6.2 Reinventing Sullivan
• 7 Miscellaneous
  • 7.1 Background to the premiere of Thespis
  • 7.2 A Thespian Puzzle
  • 7.3 Web-sites
• 8 A Thespis discography

• Appendix I - Index of Contributors
• Appendix II - Answers to Thespian Puzzle

Download this discussion transcript as a zipped Microsoft Word file (74K file).

• To Thespis Home Page

Updated 7 Dec 1997