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In the Sulks

Music by Alfred Cellier · libretto by Frank Desprez · premiered 1880

In the Sulks is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier. It was first performed at the Opera Comique on 21 February 1880; revived 3 April 1880 to 2 April 1881 as a curtain raiser to The Pirates of Penzance, and again from 25 April to 2 May 1881 and from 11 to 14 October 1881 as a curtain raiser to Patience. It was also performed from 21 February to 20 March 1880 at matinees with the Children's Pinafore.

The piece also toured frequently from 1879 to 1882. There is no printed libretto or vocal score.

A copy of the libretto is in the Lord Chamberlain's collection. The fashion in the late Victorian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, and the producer Richard D'Oyly Carte preceded his Savoy operas with curtain raisers such as In the Sulks.

W. J. MacQueen-Pope commented, concerning such curtain raisers:

This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers.

It would play to empty boxes, half-empty upper circle, to a gradually filling stalls and dress circle, but to an attentive, grateful and appreciative pit and gallery.

Often these plays were little gems.

They deserved much better treatment than they got, but those who saw them delighted in them. ...

[They] served to give young actors and actresses a chance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser, but to them dinner was more important.

Text from the Wikipedia article "In the Sulks", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the Composer

Alfred Cellier (1 December 1844 – 28 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and on tour in Britain, America and Australia. He composed over a dozen operas and other works for the theatre, as well as for orchestra, but his 1886 comic opera, Dorothy, was by far his most successful work. It became the longest-running piece of musical theatre in the nineteenth century.

Text from the Wikipedia article "Alfred Cellier", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Other Operas by Alfred Cellier