Product Code Database
Robert Reece (2 May 1838 – 8 July 1891) was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, , farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-language adaptation of the operetta Les cloches de Corneville, which became the longest-running piece of musical theatre in history up to that time. He sometimes collaborated with Henry Brougham Farnie or others.
From the 1860s to the 1880s, Reece wrote comic pieces for the stage with fair success, often adapting three-act European operettas into two-act English-language pieces. He even scored a number of hits, including his adaptation of Les cloches de Corneville, which ran for over 700 performances in 1878–79, the longest run in the history of musical theatre up to that time. List of longest running plays in London and New York
Reece's first professionally produced effort was the libretto of an operetta, Castle Grim, with music by G. Allen, produced at the Royalty Theatre in 1865. Among his subsequent contributions to the same stage were the burlesques Prometheus (1865),Printed in Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays, vol. lxviii The Lady of the Lake (1866),Lacy, vol. lxxi and Whittington Junior and his Sensation Cat (1871, starring Fred Sullivan and Henrietta Hodson).Lacy, vol. lxxxix He also wrote for the Royalty Dora's Device, a comedietta (1871),Lacy, vol. xc Little Robin Hood, a burlesque (1871), revived at the Gaiety Theatre (1882),Lacy, vol. xci and Paquita, or Love in a Trance, a comic opera with music by J. A. Mallandine (1871).Lacy, vol. xciv
At the Sondheim Theatre, he produced The Stranger, stranger than Ever, a burlesque (1868).Lacy, vol. lxxxii Another burlesque the same year at the Prince of Wales's Theatre was Agamemnon and Cassandra
He collaborated with Henry Brougham Farnie on 15 libretti or adaptations and occasionally joined with other dramatic writers. With Farnie, for the Folly Theatre in London, he wrote Up the River, or the Strict Kew-Tea (1877); Information from the Operetta Research Center Stars and Garters (1878); his biggest success, Les cloches de Corneville (1878); and The Creole. For the Comedy Theatre, he wrote Boccaccio, with music by Franz von Suppé (1882). He also wrote the successful burlesque, Carmen; or Sold for a Song (1879) for the Folly Theatre. The Highest Bidder played in New York in 1887, starring E. H. Sothern. New York Times article of 24 April 1887 Information about The Highest Bidder from the IBDB database
In 1875, he wrote Cattarina, a comic opera with music by Frederic Clay, produced at the Charing Cross Theatre, and in 1879 he wrote the comic opera La Petite Mademoiselle, together with Henry Sambrooke Leigh, for the Alhambra Theatre. Also for the Alhambra, in 1881 he wrote an English-language adaptation of Jeanne, Jeannette and Jeanneton, a grand opera by P. Lacome after an original libretto by Clairville & Delacour.
Despite all of his successful work, Reece fell on hard times in the 1880s. He died in London at the age of 53 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.
Notes
|
|
