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Alfred Cellier (1 December 184428 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.
In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and on tour in Britain, America and Australia. He composed over a dozen operas and other works for the theatre, as well as for orchestra, but his 1886 comic opera, Dorothy, was by far his most successful work. It became the longest-running piece of musical theatre in the nineteenth century.
During this period he composed many and , the first of which was Charity Begins at Home (1872 at the Gallery of Illustration), with the librettist B. C. Stephenson.Adams, p. 273 The piece was a success and played more than 200 times. The Morning Post, 16 November 1872, p. 1; and "Dramatic and Musical Chronology for 1872", The Era, 5 January 1873, supplement. A reviewer in the London and Provincial Entr'Acte wrote that the music "is unexpectedly apropos and pretty ... and we have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Alfred Cellier's melodies will live even after the long life of shall have come to an end." London and Provincial Entr'Acte, 9 March 1872, reproduced in the liner notes to the 2018 recording of The Mountebanks: Smith, Donald J. "W.S. Gilbert & Alfred Cellier: The Mountebanks & Alfred Cellier: Suite Symphonique, Dutton Vocalion, March 2018 He achieved a favourable outcome with The Sultan of Mocha, produced at Prince's Theatre, Manchester, in 1874 and revived in London in 1876 and 1887 (with a new libretto) and in New York in 1880, among others. " The Sultan of Mocha", The Guide to Musical theatre, accessed 11 June 2018 " The Sultan of Mocha", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 11 June 2018 Most of his early works for the theatre, including Dora's Dream (1873), Topsyturveydom (1874, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert), The Tower of London (1875, Manchester), Nell Gwynne (1876), Two Foster Brothers (1877, St. George's Hall, with a libretto by Gilbert Arthur à Beckett), and Bella Donna (1878), had only modest success. Cellier also wrote numerous separate songs and composed for orchestra (including his Suite Symphonique (1978)) and the piano; his Danse pompadour achieved particular popularity.
In 1879, he travelled with Gilbert, Sullivan, and Carte to America, where he acted as conductor for Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, with Carte's first American touring company. Cellier prepared the overture to Pirates using Sullivan's music from the rest of the score.Ainger, p. 177 Back in London in July 1880, he directed the music at the Opera Comique for Pirates and another of his own pieces with Desprez, In the Sulks. In April 1881, he left the D'Oyly Carte company, ceding the baton to his brother. Cellier composed a three-act grand opera, Pandora, a version of Longfellow's The Masque of Pandora (with a libretto by B. C. Stephenson) that was presented in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1881."The Drama in America", The Era, 1 August 1880, p. 5Stone, David. "Alfred Cellier’s Grand Opera: The Masque of Pandora", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 115, Summer 2024, pp. 13–16 Reviews of the premiere were mixed, praising the "gracefulness" of the music, but finding the opera lacking in dramatic intensity; it closed after two weeks. Cellier remained in America to conduct the Comly-Barton Opera Company on tour in the American West. Later that year he was music director of D'Oyly Carte's New York and touring productions of Billee Taylor (1882), Les Manteaux Noirs and Rip Van Winkle (both in the fall of 1882), and Iolanthe (1882–83), for the latter of which he prepared the New York overture.
In 1883, Cellier's setting of Gray's Elegy, in the form of a cantata, was produced at the Leeds music festival.Scowcroft, Philip L. , MusicWeb.UK In 1883, Cellier left the D'Oyly Carte company, but he was back for brief periods as music director with D'Oyly Carte's touring companies for Princess Ida (1884) and The Mikado (1885). In 1885, also, Cellier composed incidental music for a production of As You Like It. He composed two more companion pieces that had Savoy Theatre premieres, both with libretti by Desprez: The Carp (performed with The Mikado and Ruddigore in 1886–87), and Mrs. Jarramie's Genie (composed together with his brother François, which played together with several different operas at the Savoy between 1887 and 1889.
While in London, Cellier conducted at several London theatres, including the Criterion, the St James's, and the Savoy Theatre. Later, as a result of ill health, he resided mostly in America, where he was at times a representative for the D'Oyly Carte company, and Australia, where he conducted for the J. C. Williamson organization.
Cellier returned to Australia in 1888 to conduct Dorothy and a revival of his earlier work, Charity Begins at Home, and made a final brief visit there for health reasons in early 1891, together with Stephenson.Lamb, Andrew. "Alfred Cellier in Australia", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 97, Summer 2018, p. 22 His last comic operas, Doris (1889, with Stephenson) and The Mountebanks (with Gilbert, produced in January 1892, a few days after the composer's death), were both modestly successful. Also after Cellier's death, Rutland Barrington used some of his music in his 1902 adaptation of Water Babies. Often in ill health throughout his life,Stedman, p. 279 Cellier was unable to finish The Mountebanks, and Ivan Caryll completed the score.Gänzl, Kurt, "Caryll, Ivan (1861–1921)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 12 January 2011 A reviewer of the 2018 recording of The Mountebanks commented: "There is a free-flowing style to Cellier’s compositions, with fine lyrical detail and sumptuous orchestration with which he provides a wide variety of musical effects."Walker, Raymond J. "Alfred Cellier (1844–1891): The Mountebanks, comic opera (1892); and Suite Symphonique (1878)", Music Web International, 2018
Cellier owed much to the influence of Sullivan. He was a fertile melodist and his writing exhibited elegance and refinement, although he was not able to infuse his music with humour in the way that Sullivan did.
D'Oyly Carte years
In December 1877 Cellier joined the D'Oyly Carte company as musical director at the Opera Comique in London. There he conducted The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878, for which he wrote the overture, based on themes from the opera),Ainger, p. 157 Trial by Jury (1878), George Grossmith's Cups and Saucers (1878–79), and three of his own one-act works: Dora's Dream (1877–78 revival), The Spectre Knight (1878), and After All! (1878–79). Cellier was conducting the performance of Pinafore during which the partners of The Comedy Opera Company attempted to repossess the set, and he was noted for his attempts to calm the audience during the fracas.Gillan, Don. "Fracas at the Opera Comique" , Stage Beauty website His brother, François, succeeded him as musical director at the Opera Comique in 1879. Alfred Cellier was a conductor of a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre and, in 1878–1879 he was joint conductor, with Sullivan, of the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts.
Dorothy and later pieces
In 1885, Cellier composed a song, "There once was a time, my darling", for a piece produced by George Edwardes, Little Jack Sheppard (1885). Meanwhile he had composed what would become his greatest success, the comic opera Dorothy, with a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. To create the score, Cellier repurposed some of his music from his 1876 failure, Nell Gwynne, which had, nevertheless, received praise for its music. Dorothy had been announced for production at the Royalty Theatre in 1884, but ultimately Edwardes mounted it at his Gaiety Theatre on 25 September 1886. Cellier was in Australia from February 1886 to February 1887, conducting The Mikado and other Gilbert and Sullivan operas for J. C. Williamson and was absent from London during the productions of The Carp, at the Savoy, and Dorothy. Neither the music nor the libretto of Dorothy initially attracted critical praise. The Times wrote, "Gentility reigns supreme, and with it unfortunately also a good deal of the refined feebleness and the ineptitude which are the defects of that quality." The Times, 27 September 1886, p. 10 Stephenson rewrote the lyrics of one of Cellier's old songs, "Old Dreams" as "Queen of My Heart"; this helped the work to find success after it transferred in December to the Prince of Wales Theatre. The following year H. J. Leslie took over the production from Edwardes and introduced new stars, including Marie Tempest and Ben Davies, who made Dorothy an even greater success at the box office. It transferred in December 1888 to the Lyric Theatre, built using the profits from the production, where it ran into 1889. Its initial run of a total of 931 performances was the longest of any piece of musical theatre up to that time,Gillan, Don. Longest Running Plays in London and New York, 1875 to 1920 at the Stage Beauty website (2007) considerably longer than even The Mikado, a fact that caused consternation to Cellier's friend Arthur Sullivan. Some critics reconsidered their earlier condemnation, the work became regarded as a classic Victorian piece,"Dorothy", The Times, 22 December 1908, p. 11 and the initially despised plot was traced seriously back to the Restoration playwrights David Garrick and Aphra Behn, and to Oliver Goldsmith and even Shakespeare."Things Theatrical", The Sporting Times, 23 July 1892, p. 2 Its success led to revivals of some of Cellier's earlier works.Kenrick, John. "Cellier, Alfred", The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film
Death
Cellier died at his home in Bloomsbury, London, aged 47. He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery.
Works
Operatic
Charity Begins at Home (a musical proverb) 1 act Gallery of Illustration, London 7 February 1872 Bolton Rowe (a pen name of B.C. Stephenson) Dora's Dream (operetta) 1 act Gallery of Illustration 3 July 1873 Arthur Cecil Topsyturveydom (musical extravanza) 2 scenes Criterion Theatre, London 21 March 1874 W. S. Gilbert The Sultan of Mocha (comic opera) 3 acts Prince's Theatre, Manchester 16 November 1874 Albert Jarret The Tower of London (comic opera) 3 acts Prince's 4 October 1875 Anonymous Nell Gwynne (comic opera) 3 acts Prince's 17 October 1876 H. B. Farnie after W. T. Moncrieff's Rochester (1818) Revised as Dorothy, 1886 Two Foster Brothers (operetta) 1 act St George's Hall, London 12 March 1877 Gilbert à Beckett The Spectre Knight (fanciful operetta) 1 act Opera Comique, London 9 February 1878 James Albery Belladonna, or The Little Beauty and the Great Beast (comic opera) 3 acts Prince's 27 April 1878 Alfred Thompson After All (vaudeville) 1 act Opera Comique 23 December 1878 Frank Desprez In the Sulks 1 act Opera Comique 21 February 1880 Frank Desprez The Masque of Pandora (grand opera) 3 acts Boston Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts 10 January 1881 Bolton Rowe (Stephenson), after Longfellow The Carp (a whimsicality) 1 act Savoy Theatre 13 February 1886 Frank Desprez Dorothy (comedy opera) 3 acts Gaiety Theatre, London 25 September 1886 B. C. Stephenson Revised version of Nell Gwynne The Sultan of Mocha (revised version) 3 acts Strand Theatre, London 21 September 1887 William Lestocq Mrs Jarramie's Genie (operetta) 1 act Savoy 14 February 1888 Frank Desprez Collaboration with François Cellier Doris (comedy opera) 3 acts Lyric Theatre, London 20 April 1889 B. C. Stephenson Revised version of The Tower of London The Mountebanks (comic opera) 2 acts Lyric 4 January 1892 W. S. Gilbert Music completed by Ivan Caryll
Incidental music
Other works
Notes, references and sources
Notes
Sources
External links
Categories: Alfred, D'oyly Carte Opera Company People, English Conductors, English Male Conductors, English Opera Composers, English Male Opera Composers, 1844 Births, 1891 Deaths, Composers From London, Burials At West Norwood Cemetery, English People Of French Descent, 19th-century English Composers, 19th-century English Male Composers, 19th-century British Conductors, 19th-century English Musicians, People From The London Borough Of Hackney, W. S. Gilbert Composers And Co-authors
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