23 January 2011

fun fact of the day

Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury was originally intended as a curtain-raiser for the Carl Rosa Opera Company's English premiere of Wagner's Lohengrin.

Well, both involve disputed brides. . . .

This astonishing bit of information is from Gayden Wren's book A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert and Sullivan. He cites as his source Jane Stedman's W.S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and His Theatre and duly notes that "it certainly seems an odd pairing to a modern ear." Indeed it does! There are many oddities here, one of them the thought that Lohengrin on its own would not be a substantial enough evening. . . .

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