Savoy Curtain-Raisers (XCIX)

Edited by Christopher O'Brien

Shedding light on a little-known aspect of late-Victorian theatre, MB99 offers full scores and librettos of two one-act operettas, produced at the Savoy Theatre and written to precede as curtain-raisers the main, full-length work of the evening. Richard D'Oyly Carte did much to cultivate the genre, initiated by Trial by Jury in 1875, and featured regularly at the Savoy Theatre between 1878 and 1908. Though all but forgotten today, the composers François Cellier (1849-1914) and Ernest Ford (1858-1919) had strong connections with Sullivan, and wrote a number of one-act works, of which only Captain Billy (1891) and Mr Jericho (1893) respectively are known to have survived.