FORTUNES FROM COMIC OPERA

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1948, Page 8

FORTUNES FROM COMIC OPERA

LONDON, Sept. 13. The death of Mr Rupert d’Oyly Carte, at the age of 71, has recalled the fortunes made from the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan over sixty years. Mr Rupert d’Oyly Carte was chairman of a group of Savoy hotels, the Savoy Theatre and the Savoy Opera Company. All were the inspiration of his father, Richard, who built them on the genius of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Richard’s first acquaintance with them was in 1875, when he saw “Trial by Jury.” He built the Savoy Theatre in the Strand anti in 1885 produced “The Mikado.” Its success enabled him to buy a field next door to the theatre and on it he built the Savoy Hotel, which now leads the great hotel group, including Claridge’s and the Berkeley. When Richard died worth nearly £250,000, Rupert was 17. He took over the Savoy Opera Company in 1913, holding the copywrights of ail Gilbert and Sullivan works. A steady income came from amateurs’ companies in cities and villages all over Britain, for the public never tired of hearing the popular comic operas of these two men. Rupert knew all their works by heart and he always tried to be at first nights wherever they were performed. It is estimated that in 1981, when the copyrights run out, Gilbert and Sullivan will have earned the d’Oyly Carte family £1,000,000. . . Rupert’s daughter, Bridget, it is stated, is likely to inherit the operas. His son was killed in a car crash in 1932..