SIR W. 5. GILBERT DEAD

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1141, 31 May 1911, Page 7

SIR W. 5. GILBERT DEAD

FAMOUS LIBRETTIST'S END. By Teleeraph—Press ABeociaUon-OopyrlElit (Rec. May 30, 10 p.m.) London, May 30. Sir William Schwonck Gilbert, tho famous dramatist and librettist, died under tragic circumstances yesterday. He had spent tho day in London, and returned to his home at Harroweald in tho afternoon. A few minutes later a friend found him dead in an open-air swimming bath at Grimsdyke, where he had been teaching Ma two children to swim. A MASTER OP SATIRE. For original and daring wit, clever savire, niul mastery in rliyme, as applied to tho operatic stage, Sir William eichwenck Gilbert stood in a niche peculiarly his own. True, he was a playwright long before he turned his attention to legitimate comic opera, but his plays, clever as many ot them undoubtedly are, never embraced such brilliant wit and ludicrous characters as brought him fame and fortune in tho amazingly clever series of comic operas which he wrote in conjunction with tho late Sir Arthur Sullivan. These opetaj were, and still are, tho classics of their class, for the simple reason that they wcro inimitable. Many have tried to imitate Gilbert's remarkable style, but no successes can be quoted, so the adjective "Gilbertian" was coined to describe that extravagant tqpsy-turvydom which the writer so cunningly invented as the natural order of things in.the particular story he was relating operatically. Tho collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan probably produced greater results than any two artists in the history of the English stage, and each, working with other collaborateurs, produced good work, but never up to the standard they set when working together. Each seemed to have had the keenest appreciation of the other's ability, and their aatonnding knack of "making the punishment fit the crime" was as remarkable as it was lastingly laughable. In company these clever people evolved tho happy idea of hitting off in comic opera guise the latest craze or political denouniont in England, and the greatness of their joint work is emphasised when, as is frequently apparent, they wrote to tickle London audiences. This finds expression in the Fairy Queen's song in "lolanthe," where she sings: "Oh, Captain Shaw, Type of true love kept under; Could thy brigade, with cold cascade, Quench my great love, I wonder." This would Iμ involved a little if it were not pretty generally known that Captain Shaw was the head of the London Fire Brigade when the opera was written. But Gilbert could write anything poetic, historic, fantastic, patriotic, and even prophetic each and all with an easy facility that charmed and tickled simultaneously. What could be more wittily humorous than the patriotic song in "lolantho," "When Britain Really Ruled the Waves." A verse: "When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte, As every child can tell, And' noble statesmen did not itch To interfere with matters which They did not understand. Yet Britain set the world ablaze In good King George's glorious days." "H.M.S. Pinafore" was written as a satire on Lords of the Admiralty who never went to sea, and so Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.8., sings: "Stick to your desks and never go to sea, And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee." In that best of comio operas,. "The Mikado," written some twenty-fivo years ago, during a crnze in London for everything "Japanesy," he wrote a great prophecy, which occurs during the solo, "A Wand'ring Minstrel": "But if patriotic sentiment is wanted, ,• I've, a patriotic ballad cut and dried, ' : For "where'er, our noble banner has boon planted, ' '. All other local banners are defied. Our warriors in serried ranks assembled Never quail (or they conceal it if they : do), And I shouldn't be surprised if nations trembled Before the mighty troops of Titipu." Mr. Gilbert was a master in tho art of crystallising a grotesquo truism, as in King Gama's song ("Princess Ida"): "Oh, don't the days seem lank and long, When all goes right and nothing goes ' wrong. And isn't your life extremely fiat. When there's nothing whatever to grum(ble at." . And again he hits the nail squarely upon the head in writing of the Socialistic court the Kings of Barataria, in "The Gondoliers," are going to run, when he says: "When everyone is somebody, Then no one's anybody." The wilderness of clever Thymes, to say nothing of his great patter songs and dialogue, is too vast to cull from to any great extent, but the claim is made that the world has. nsver produced a better comic opera librettist and lyrist than Sir William Gilbert. His greatest success as a playwright was tho comedy, "Pygmalion and Galatea," which has been revived in England and the colonies times without number, and always with success. His "Bab Ballads" give him a high rank among the comio poets, and poetry other than comic exists in many of the "Gilbert operas. Sir W. S. Gilbert was born in London in 1836, and after being educated at Ealing and tho London University he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple (in 1864), and thereafter was for five years a clerk in the Privy Council office. Subsequently he held a captain's com™}?fj°.n.in the Aberdeenshire Highlanders (llama). He commenced his literary career as a contributor to "Fun," fn which his "Bab Ballads" first appeared. Irial by Jury" jvas his first work for the stage. His plays include "The Palaco of Truth," "Pygmalion and Galatea," The Happy Land," "Charity," "Sweet;l?p arts C "'• rh < s Pis." "Broken Hearts," Lom Cobb, 'Dan'l Druce," "No'cr-do-Wccl," "Gretchcn,"' and "Fogarty's Fairy." He was the librettist of "The Sorcerer," "H.M.S. Pinafore," "Pirates of Penzance," "Patience," "lolanthe," Princess Ida," "The Mikado," "Ruddigore,' "Yeomen of tho Guard," "The Gondoliers," "Utopia, Ltd.," "His Excellency," "The Grand Duke," "The Mountebank" (with Dr. O. Carr), and "Tho Fairy s Dilemma."

Thp works of the lato Sir W. S. Gilbert, which were written in collaboration with tho late Sir Arthur Sullivan, have imperishable qualities that will always keep them more or less before tho public. Ihey have proved of wonderful service (o amateur societies, as one plank in tho policy ot the collahorateurs was never to write a part for a female where tights had to be worn. We, in New Zealand have seen young ladies essaying male roles m Gilbert-Sullivan operas, but they never, deliberately wrote with the object in view, and designed to avoid juch a contingency. The popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan is world-wide. At the Savage Cliib on Saturday last tho orchestra played a magnificent fantasia on "The Mikado," and at present tho club has Trial by Jury in rehearsal. Tho dav before yesterday a message was received from Auckland announcing tho intention to revive the Amateur Operatic Society there to produce the. operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. "The Pirates of Penznnce"' had been selected as (the first opera to bo performed.