ABSTRACT
A few weeks before, on 14 February, the London theatre had been enriched by The Importance of Being Earnest, ‘which is the awkward name of the new play by Mr Oscar Wilde’ as The Observer put it. Barton McGuckin brought the authority of the 1891 performances to the title-role. The other performers were less well known, and the company’s regular conductor, Claude Jacquinot, was in charge. The dour Walter Smythe, for so long his secretary, had now retired from his service. To help deal with his correspondence and such matters, Sullivan now had a different type of helper. Wilfred Bendall, being a composer, could assist in musical as well as commercial concerns. Preparations were now afoot for the 1895 Leeds Festival, arranged as usual for early October. Appointed once more as conductor, Sullivan duly met the united chorus for the first time on 16 March when he took a rehearsal in Leeds.
