The Comedy Opera Company

During the later months of 1876 Carte used professional connections to persuade several businessmen to form a production company to finance an English genre of comic opera. In November 1876 the Comedy Opera Company was formed, with a steering committee at first, eventually with a board of directors. Carte’s plans were forecast in a letter to an unnamed aristocrat:

My Lord, – Some gentlemen with whom I am connected are combining to form a company for the purpose of establishing permanently in London a theatre which will have for its staple entertainment light opera of a legitimate kind, by English authors and composers. The recent marked success in London of different established dramas and comedies and the recent agitation against the more pronounced forms of opera bouffe and burlesque would give the idea that a legitimate musical-dramatic undertaking would now be well-timed, considering the large number of persons in London who take an interest not only in the drama, but also in good music. The very successful representation of the Prés St. Gervais at the Criterion Theatre, which is a work nearly approaching the character of what I propose, is proof that the public will flock to a really good entertainment. But the Prés St. Gervais is by a French composer. I have every respect for M. Lecocq, but when one considers who are the most popular composers in England one finds that they are not M. Lecocq and M. Offenbach. On any pianoforte in any drawing-room in England one will find half-a-dozen songs of Mr. Arthur Sullivan’s to one of the French composers’. I believe that there is in England no lack of appreciation of native talent and no lack of efficient artists. I also believe that the causes of the failure of what is known as English opera have been – first, that to perform grand opera grand singers are required, whereas any grand English singers that appear are drafted at once to an Italian stage; and secondly, what is more important, the utter feebleness and absurdity of the plots and books which have been set to music by Balfe, Wallace and others. My plan is to obtain the services of the most distinguished authors of the day to write books, and the most distinguished composers of the day to write the music, for a series of light and amusing but interesting “comedy operas,” for the interpretation of which I have secured the refusal of an excellent West-end 33theatre, and, propose to produce, in the first instance, a new “opéra comique,” by Mssrs. W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, which they have talked over.

To give the experiment a fair trial I require only a small capital. From my experience of theatre management, I know what can be done with very little and find that £5,000 or £6,000 will be amply sufficient. Of this amount I may, I think, from communications already received from private sources, assume that we have promised from £2,000 to £3,000, and we have to find the remainder. It is proposed to do this by founding a small limited liability company. In this way those interesting themselves in the speculation will not be made responsible to an indefinite extent.

To carry out our plan of subscribing the required amount we are naturally desirous of identifying with the undertaking some noblemen and gentlemen of distinguished position, and for that purpose we address ourselves in the first instance to your lordship, with a view of ascertaining whether you would be disposed to afford it the advantage which would attach to your name. The fact that my friend Mr. Arthur Sullivan is willing to connect himself with the company, and probably to accept the post of musical director, is no doubt an already strong recommendation, and the smallness of the amount of capital required is really a guarantee that the whole thing is a bona-fide scheme, not undertaken by professional promoters for the sake of fees, promotion money, etc., but simply a legitimate speculation.

I should be glad to know if your lordship entertains the matter, and if you will allow me to call upon you. – I am, my lord, yours obediently, R. D’OYLY CARTE. ¹