British Operetta after Gilbert and Sullivan

doi:10.1017/9781316856024.018

16 - British Operetta after Gilbert and Sullivan

from Part III - Operetta since 1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2019

Derek B. Scott

Edited by

Anastasia Belina and

Derek B. Scott

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Anastasia Belina: Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Derek B. Scott: Affiliation:
University of Leeds

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Summary

The chapter begins with a survey of musical comedy of the 1890s and early twentieth century. A brief account of Edward German and his operettas follows. Noël Coward established himself as a British operetta composer with Bitter Sweet in 1929. However, the person who did most to keep English operetta alive in the 1930s was the Welsh composer Ivor Novello (1893–1951). He gained a considerable amount of experience both as a composer for the stage and as an actor before completing his first operetta, Glamorous Night, in 1935. This chapter assesses Novello’s achievements, musical and dramatic, and investigates the critical reception of his operettas. It places him in the context of what came before (Fraser-Simson, Montague Phillips, Noël Coward) and what came after (Vivian Ellis, Julian Slade, Sandy Wilson).

Keywords

George Edwardes Gaiety Theatre Edward German Lionel Monckton Noël Coward Ivor Novello Vivian Ellis

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Operetta , pp. 246 - 260

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316856024.018 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2019

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References

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