Abstract
In this chapter Goron focuses on a comprehensive investigation of the material factors surrounding a performance of Patience at the Savoy Theatre in 1882. The device of a notional ‘evening at the Savoy’, featuring a visit by a typical suburban family group, is used to identify various locational, architectural, decorative and discourse-related elements related to attending Carte’s state of-the-art auditorium.
Goron considers the significance of the pioneering use of electric lighting at the Savoy in terms of its ability to emphasise the visibility of class difference within the auditorium and its contribution to the enhanced ‘cultural capital’ implicit in attending a ‘modern’ theatre event in the late-Victorian West End. Links between electrification and Victorian notions of hygiene and social class are established to present an innovative argument concerning the cultural significance of theatrical electric lighting.
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- 1.
1. Patience premiered at the Opera Comique on 23 April 1881, where it ran for 170 performances, before transferring to the new venue (Rollins and Witts 1962, p. 8).
- 2.
2. The Underground system ‘middle circle’ could have transported visitors from suburbs such as Uxbridge in the west, and Notting Hill in the north. The ‘outer circle’ served the further Willesden, Hampstead and Camden Town vicinities in the north and north-east. Neither ran directly to Charing Cross. Travellers would have had to change onto the ‘inner circle’ route to access this station. However, the West End was accessible to at least the western and northern London suburbs by train in the 1880s (Dickens Jr 1888, pp. 209–10).
- 3.
3. Bear in mind that 1s was the price of the cheapest gallery seat at the Savoy.
- 4.
4. Different routes were colour coded for easy recognition. The ‘Chocolate’ or Brown bus routes started from Chelsea and made a round trip via Bethnal Green in the east.
- 5.
5. According to a report in the Daily News (24 May 1880), Carte was granted permission to develop the site only on condition that he pay part of the cost of the new roadway. Perceived traffic problems had led to objections to the Savoy project from the Metropolitan Board of Works. See also Joseph 1994, p. 23.
- 6.
6. Morning Post, 11 October 1881.
- 7.
7. Morning Post, 11 October 1881.
- 8.
8. Carriage access from the Strand was via Savoy Street, which formed a junction with Somerset Street on the south side of the theatre.
- 9.
9. While the Savoy Theatre continues to operate, modern theatregoers cannot be said to ‘know’ its original incarnation. Although a theatre exists on the same site that bears the same name, much of the original Savoy no longer stands. The Somerset Street entrance was replaced by a new main entrance in the Strand in 1909, the exterior and auditorium were extensively remodelled in 1929, and much of the auditorium was destroyed in the fire of 1990. It was rebuilt as an exact reconstruction of the 1929 Basil Ionides design and reopened in 1993. To forestall such misconception, I have described the Savoy in the way that would be used to describe any artefact of the past whose remains lie only in visual and written archival sources.
- 10.
10. The Times, 3 October 1881.
- 11.
11. A more striking example of such a free-standing building is Carte’s Royal English Opera House, built in 1891, now the Palace Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue.
- 12.
12. Sullivan received a knighthood the year after the opening of the Savoy for his services to music.
- 13.
13. Rutland Barrington refers euphemistically to the ‘celebrated literary emporiums of those days’ visible from the upstairs dressing rooms in Holywell Street (Barrington 1908, p. 17).
- 14.
14. These theatres were demolished in 1899 as part of the Aldwych redevelopment.
- 15.
15. A domestic corollary could also be implied—the grand, detached domestic residence replaces the terrace or back-to-back slum.
- 16.
16. Era, 1 October 1881.
- 17.
17. ‘Although not de rigueur in any part of the theatres […] it predominates in the stalls, especially in theatres such as the Lyceum, the Gaiety [and] the Savoy […] at the Italian operas evening dress is indispensable’ (Dickens Jr, 1993, p. 95). The Savoy was the fashionable kind of venue which emulated the dress codes of the opera house, the most expensive and socially exclusive of public entertainments.
- 18.
18. Era, 1 October 1881.
- 19.
19. Morning Post, 10 October 1881.
- 20.
20. Wilde, a doyen of the Aesthetic movement, was a patron of the Savoy—he attended performances during the run of Patience—and, as Wilde’s agent, Carte managed his 1882 American lecture series as pre-publicity for Patience’s American tour. His lecture ‘The House Beautiful’ was created for the American circuit and the similarities in decorative good taste between the Savoy and Wilde’s ideal home indicates the extent to which the latest fashions in domestic decor were reflected in the internal appearance of Carte’s theatre.
- 21.
21. Era, 5 October 1879.
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22. Era, 1 October 1881.
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23. François Cellier remarks that ‘in place of the poisonous concoction of fusil-oil, excellent whiskey was provided, and pure coffee took the place of the customary chicory—and all at a reasonable tariff’ (Cellier and Bridgeman 1914, pp. 102 – 3). Carte was clearly endeavouring to supply a high level of customer service in all areas.
- 24.
24. To take this analogy a stage further, there might also be a hint of xenophobia in the association of the francophone name of the Savoy’s owner with his nickname in theatrical circles, where he was known as ‘Oily’ Carte. Although this apparently derived from his suave manner and ability to influence employees, particularly in matters of salary (Joseph 1994, p. 10), there are, perhaps, suggestions here of national stereotyping, in which ‘foreigners’, possibly those involved in the restaurant trade, might receive offensive epithets, such as ‘greasy’.
- 25.
25. Including the Morning Post, 26 September 1881, the Pall Mall Gazette, 11 October 1881, etc.
- 26.
26. Daily Telegraph, 8 October 1881.
- 27.
27. Ibid.
- 28.
28. Era, 24 November 1881.
- 29.
29. An aspect of service common to other upscale West End theatres, such as the Lyceum and the Haymarket (Oost 2009, p. 64).
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30. Morning Post, 11 October 1881. Hounslow Heath was, historically, an area frequented by highwaymen, and the ‘tones’ mentioned here presumably refer to their peremptory injunction to ‘stand and deliver’.
- 31.
31. Era, 18 February 1882.
- 32.
32. The Gaiety (1868), Shaftesbury (1888) and Prince of Wales (1884) theatres, also designed by Phipps, were very similar in layout, as, with few variations, were most West End theatres at this time (Lloyd).
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33. Daily News, 11 October 1881.
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34. Truth, 20 October 1881.
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35. It was similarly regarded by Oscar Wilde when considering domestic interior decoration (O’Brien 1974, pp. 405 – 7).
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36. Daily Telegraph, 11 October 1881.
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37. Era, 15 October 1881.
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38. In contrast, The Country Gentleman and Sporting Gazette of 29 July 1882 reports a comment made by RDC that, during the current hot spell, ‘the temperature was only seventy in the stalls, and seventy-two in the balcony, and that a headache is out of the question at the Savoy’.
- 39.
39. Letter to the Editor. Era, 8 February 1880.
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40. However, despite Carte’s installation of gas-powered air conditioning in the form of a state-of-the-art ‘Strode Sun Burner’, conditions even at the Savoy would compare unfavourably with those of the twenty-first century. On rare occasions, temperatures in the Savoy galley could rise to 90 F. One must assume that the foregoing remarks regarding comfort levels were reactions to the generally inferior auditorium conditions which had hitherto prevailed (Wilmore 2013).
- 41.
41. The link between notions of impurity, dirtiness and pollution as distinguishing features of an undesirable underclass whose existence was either barely tolerated or explicitly rejected by a dominant group is, regrettably, pervasive throughout human history. See Harari (2014, pp. 154–9).
- 42.
42. Despite a growing realisation that disease was caused by microbes, Davis notes that scientific verification of the existence of ‘germs’ did not occur until 1883 and that ‘contagionist theory (later supported by proof of microscopic disease-producing organisms) only slowly won out over miasmology’ (Davis 2000, p. 99, my italics).
- 43.
43. Le Follet, 1 August 1882.
- 44.
44. Perhaps trading on this perception, a Savoy programme for Utopia, Limited (1893) displays an advertisement for an electrically powered health gadget: ‘Harness’s Electropathic Belts—every weak man and delicate woman should wear one’ (Sands 2012).
- 45.
45. This was the first performance in which electric stage lighting was used. For two and a half months after the opening only the front of house and auditorium received electric illumination.
- 46.
46. The Times, 28 December 1881.
- 47.
47. Era, 22 April 1882.
- 48.
48. Moonshine, 14 January 1882.
- 49.
49. See also Davis (2000, p. 111).
- 50.
50. During most of the Savoy run of Patience, the curtain raiser was Mock Turtles, ‘A New and Original Vaudeville’ by Desprez and Faning.
- 51.
51. It is worth noting that the luxurious commemorative programmes issued for special occasions were not provided to those inhabiting the least expensive unreserved seats (Oost 2009, p. 66). Further discussion of significant social distinctions within the apparently ‘middle-class’ Savoy audience will be covered in the next chapter. The fact that only half the house got the smart souvenir is an indication of who Carte regarded as his target audience.
- 52.
52. From a financial point of the view, the arrangement with Chappell & Co. was very advantageous to the Triumvirate. Each member shared a portion of advertising revenue, and WSG and AS received royalties from sales of sheet music and libretti which might result from programme advertising (Oost 2009, p. 75).
- 53.
53. Programmes for the next opera, Iolanthe, follow this pattern of sole advertisement. For Iolanthe, Liberty & Co. of Regent Street is the exclusive advertiser. Liberty provided the material for the female costumes in the show. This fact is referred to in their advertisement, drawing the attention of the ladies of the audience to the possibility of acquiring the fabrics for themselves. It provided an opportunity for what is known in the twenty-first century as ‘synergetic marketing’.
- 54.
54. Turkish Delight.
- 55.
55. The D’Oyly Carte brand remained, under the control of Helen Carte, RDC’s widow, though William Greet managed the theatre, having bought the lease, though not the freehold, in 1901.
- 56.
56. From 1892 until the end of the Carte tenure in 1903, the last two G&S works (Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke), along with many revivals of old favourites, were interspersed with a number of new productions by different creative teams.
- 57.
57. A Princess of Kensington (1903) by Hood and German was the final ‘Savoy Opera’. It ran until May 1903, after which the theatre was closed and taken over by a new management in 1904 (Rollins & Witts 1962, p. 22). Despite a series of prestigious West End revivals between 1906 and 1909, the D’Oyly Carte company was from 1903 essentially a touring organisation. Between 1909 and 1919 the company was absent from the West End. It did not return to the Savoy until 1929.
- 58.
58. See n68 above.
- 59.
59. Daily News, 25 April 1881.
- 60.
60. The Times, 25 April 1881.
- 61.
61. For example, Daily News, 24 May 1880.
- 62.
62. For example, Morning Post, 26 April; Daily News and Pall Mall Gazette, 11 October 1881.
- 63.
63. Alice Barnett created the contralto ‘older woman’ role of Lady Jane in Patience, and Jessie Bond that of Lady Angela. Julia Gwynne and May Fortescue played supporting characters.
- 64.
64. Sporting Times, 1 October 1881.
- 65.
65. More correctly known as the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy (Goodman 2000, p. 26).
- 66.
66. RDC married his personal assistant, Helen Couper Black (Helen Lenoir), here on 12 April 1888 (Goodman 2000).
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Goron, M. (2016). Patience at the Savoy. In: Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Respectable Capers'. Palgrave Studies in British Musical Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59478-5_4
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