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Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan,
one of the greatest composers of comic opera, was born in London, England in
1842. At the age of 8 years, he could play well on most of the instruments in
the band.
He spent four
years of preliminary study at a private school in London and thereafter received an
appointment as a member of the Chapel Royal School. He had a good singing
voice and on many occasions was called upon to be a soloist. During this time,
he composed many anthems and songs and even had one published in the year of 1855.
For two years, after winning the
Mendelssohn prize, he became a student at the Royal Academy of Music, and during this
period wrote an overture which was performed at the Academy concert. He then
went to Leipzig in the Fall of 1858 where he was enrolled at the Conservatory. Here
his maturity as a composer took off in leaps and bounds. It was in Leipzig that
Sullivan first tried his hand at conducting with a certain amount of success.
Spring of 1862 found him once
again back in London where his orchestral suite to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" was performed to great acclaim. He
accompanied Charles Dickens on a trip to Paris where he met Rossini and played parts of
the Tempest, to which the great composer gave him an enthusiastic
response. In the year of 1863 Sullivan visited Ireland and was inspired to compose the "Symphony
in Eflat" better
known as the "Irish
Symphony" which was first
performed at the Crystal Palace in March of 1866. During this year, his
father died, and he was inspired to compose the orchestral overture, "In
Memoriam" which was presented at the Norwich Festival.
During the period of 1864 to 1870 his works were prodigious with overtures,
oratorios, songs and hymns, the most well known of which is possibly, "Onward
Christian Soldiers, and The Lost Chord."
Sir Arthur's
immortality, however, did not come about by his serious music but, rather in a much
lighter vein of composing. His collaborative efforts with W. S. Gilbert produced
some of the greatest comic operas that have ever graced the theatrical stage.
They wrote some fourteen operas of which "The Mikado",
"Pirates of Penzance", and "H.M.S. Pinafore" are the most famous. Theirs was said to be a
"marriage of true minds" and one of the greatest that the history of opera has
known.
In 1876, Richard D'Oyly
Carte had formed a comic opera company which featured several of Gilbert and Sullivan
operas. He erected a new theatre, the Savoy, which became the
home for the twosome's body of work for many years. Although the composition
of these two men continued to be of great success. Their personal relationship
became very rocky and in 1890 came the split that was to be a very acrimonious parting of
the ways. However, in 1893 they came together once again
to compose "Utopia Unlimited and The Grand Duke." in
1896. After this, they never wrote anything together again.
Thomas Frederick Dunhill penned the
following in regards to the outstanding characteristics of Sullivan's style in the
operatic vein:
- His avoidance of any
manufactured music.
- His complete unpretentiousness.
- The unaffected simplicity and striking lucidity.
- His pungent sense of humour and satire which "almost
invariably are coexistent with a sense of beauty,"
- His genius "for abounding provision of good melodies."
Sullivan's last works
were the opera "Ivanhoe" and the operetta "The Emerald Isle" which he did not finish himself, but was completed,
after his death by Sir Edward German. The last years of his life
were spent in constant pain. He spent some time in Monte Carlo in a state of
extravagance and a morphine induced existence. Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan
died in London on November 22nd, 1900. None of his friends or close associates were
with him, and this was a very shabby close to such a brilliant career.
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