Mrs. Jarramie's Genie
Encyclopedia
Mrs. Jarramie's Genie is a one-act comic opera
with a libretto by Frank Desprez
and music by Alfred Cellier
and François Cellier
. The piece was first presented at the Savoy Theatre
on 14 February 1888, as a curtain raiser
to the revival of H.M.S. Pinafore
(November 1887 – March 1888). It was subsequently presented as a curtain raiser to revivals of The Pirates of Penzance
(March – June 1888) and The Mikado
(June – September 1888), and then with The Yeomen of the Guard
(October 1888 – November 1889).
No printed libretto or vocal score is found in the British Library
, and no libretto is filed in the Lord Chamberlain's collection. The score and orchestra parts were apparently lost at sea in a shipwreck off the west coast of South America in 1892, and in 1910, Helen Carte, the widow of the work's producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte
, gave the libretto to Desprez.
The fashion in the late Victorian era
was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so producer Richard D'Oyly Carte
preceded his Savoy opera
s with curtain raisers
. W. J. MacQueen-Pope
commented, concerning such curtain raisers:
The Era
printed this summary of the plot in its review of the first performance:
Mr and Mrs Barrington Jarramie are fashionable parvenu
s who are elevating themselves in society by the lever of politics. Daphne, their daughter, is secretly engaged to one Ernest Pepperton, an enthusiastic young Radical
, who has incurred Mr Jarramie's dislike by his unorthodox politics. Mrs Jarramie is anxious about a very particular dinner which she is going to give that day. She has, by patience and diplomacy, secured a duchess as her guest, and Elie (Mrs Jarramie) condones her butler, Smithers's, pilfering of his choice imperial Tokay
in order to keep him in good humour on the great occasion. A parcel arrives containing a present from Daphne's sailor cousin, an ancient lamp which he has sent as a bit of bric-a-brac. Daphne thoughtlessly runs out to get Smithers to clean the article, and that worthy soon appears and remonstrates with his mistress on the subject, winding up by giving "notice." It seems, however, that the real cause of the resignation is that Smithers has heard that Mr Jarramie is "blackballed" for the Cerulean Club, for which he had been put up. Mrs Jarramie loses her temper, and mentions the Tokay, and the butler spitefully leaves on the instant, taking his fiancée, the cook, with him. Mrs Jarramie is in despair but rubbing the lamp angrily, the room darkens, a vast cloud of smoke fills the air and Ben-Zoh-Leen, the Slave of Aladdin's Lamp
, mysteriously appears. After mutual explanations, Mrs Jarramie engages him as cook and butler combined, for by his magic power he can change in a moment from one character to the other. In the twinkling of an eye he appears in the complete dress of a chef and goes about his business. Mr Jarramie comes down, and opens his letters. His Liverpool agents have sent him a combination safe, but have not forwarded the key word by which alone it can be opened. Finding the lamp in an escritoire
, he dusts it, and the Genie appears from the kitchen. Mr Jarramie promptly engages him as an electioneering canvasser, and the Slave has to make a change to the orthodox frock-coat and high hat of a politician. Mrs Jarramie's jealousy, which has accidentally been aroused by her husband's late hours, is set aflame by the perusal of a telegram to him which she opens. She mistakes the wording "Did you get safe in last night!" and the female name which serves as a key-word to the safe, for a communication from a lady; and when she finds that Mr Jarramie has taken her chef away to use him as a canvasser, she orders Ben-Zoh-Leen to take her husband to – Timbuctoo
. He does so; and then Pepperton explains to Mrs Jarramie the facts of her error. Horror! Mr Jarramie must be brought back. But Mrs Jarramie has carelessly put the lamp in the combination safe, and turned the handle. Ben-Zoh-Leen cannot conscientiously obey any one not "holding" the lamp, and Mr Jarramie is in an uncomfortable position, as the Genie amicably placed him in the midst of a tribe of natives of cannibalistic propensities. After a certain amount of agony Pepperton finds the letter containing the key-word, the lamp is recovered, and Mr Jarramie restored to the bosom of his family, Pepperton pardoned, and the Genie is given his freedom, and set up in an oil and lamp business, his last service being as a bald-headed and highly respectable butler, to serve up the dinner and announce "The Duchess!" on which happy termination the curtain drops.
When the piece was performed with Yeomen, Brownlow was replaced by J. M. Gordon
. Shortly after opening, Le Breton was replaced by Jesse Smith. In August 1889, Wilkinson was replaced by A. Medcalf and Bowden Haswell replaced Medcalf as Jim. Other substitutions occasionally took place.
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
with a libretto by Frank Desprez
Frank Desprez
Frank Desprez was an English playwright, essayist, and poet. He wrote more than twenty pieces for the theatre, as well as numerous shorter works, including his famous poem, Lasca.-Life and career:...
and music by Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier 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...
and François Cellier
François Cellier
François Arsène Cellier , often called Frank, was an English conductor and composer. He is best known for his tenure as music director and conductor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company during the original runs and early revivals of the Savoy operas.-Life and career:Cellier was born in South Hackney,...
. The piece was first presented at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
on 14 February 1888, as a curtain raiser
Curtain raiser
*A United States Air Force missile combat competition called Curtain Raiser, held in 1967*Curtain raiser - A short play or entertainment given before the main entertainment or event to fill out the bill or programme....
to the revival of H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
(November 1887 – March 1888). It was subsequently presented as a curtain raiser to revivals of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
(March – June 1888) and The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
(June – September 1888), and then with The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(October 1888 – November 1889).
No printed libretto or vocal score is found in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, and no libretto is filed in the Lord Chamberlain's collection. The score and orchestra parts were apparently lost at sea in a shipwreck off the west coast of South America in 1892, and in 1910, Helen Carte, the widow of the work's producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
, gave the libretto to Desprez.
The fashion in the late Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so producer Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
preceded his Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s with curtain raisers
Curtain raiser (drama)
A curtain raiser is a performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain...
. W. J. MacQueen-Pope
W. J. MacQueen-Pope
Walter James MacQueen-Pope was an English theatre historian and publicist. From a theatrical family which could be traced back to contemporaries of Shakespeare, he was in management for the first part of his career, but switched to publicity, in which field he became well-known...
commented, concerning such curtain raisers:
- This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers. It would play to empty boxes, half-empty upper circle, to a gradually filling stalls and dress circle, but to an attentive, grateful and appreciative pit and gallery. Often these plays were little gems. They deserved much better treatment than they got, but those who saw them delighted in them. ... [They] served to give young actors and actresses a chance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser, but to them dinner was more important.
Setting and plot
The scene is the morning room of Mr. Jarramie's house, Harley Street, London.The Era
The Era (newspaper)
The Era was a British weekly paper, published from 1838 to 1939. Originally a general newspaper, it became noted for its sports coverage, and later for its theatrical content.-History:...
printed this summary of the plot in its review of the first performance:
Mr and Mrs Barrington Jarramie are fashionable parvenu
Parvenu
A Parvenu is a person who is a relative newcomer to a socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb parvenir...
s who are elevating themselves in society by the lever of politics. Daphne, their daughter, is secretly engaged to one Ernest Pepperton, an enthusiastic young Radical
Radicals (UK)
The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...
, who has incurred Mr Jarramie's dislike by his unorthodox politics. Mrs Jarramie is anxious about a very particular dinner which she is going to give that day. She has, by patience and diplomacy, secured a duchess as her guest, and Elie (Mrs Jarramie) condones her butler, Smithers's, pilfering of his choice imperial Tokay
Tokaji
Tokaji is the name of the wines from the region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary and Slovakia. The name Tokaji is used for labeling wines from this wine district. This region is noted for its sweet wines made from grapes affected by noble rot, a style of wine which has a long history in this region...
in order to keep him in good humour on the great occasion. A parcel arrives containing a present from Daphne's sailor cousin, an ancient lamp which he has sent as a bit of bric-a-brac. Daphne thoughtlessly runs out to get Smithers to clean the article, and that worthy soon appears and remonstrates with his mistress on the subject, winding up by giving "notice." It seems, however, that the real cause of the resignation is that Smithers has heard that Mr Jarramie is "blackballed" for the Cerulean Club, for which he had been put up. Mrs Jarramie loses her temper, and mentions the Tokay, and the butler spitefully leaves on the instant, taking his fiancée, the cook, with him. Mrs Jarramie is in despair but rubbing the lamp angrily, the room darkens, a vast cloud of smoke fills the air and Ben-Zoh-Leen, the Slave of Aladdin's Lamp
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
, mysteriously appears. After mutual explanations, Mrs Jarramie engages him as cook and butler combined, for by his magic power he can change in a moment from one character to the other. In the twinkling of an eye he appears in the complete dress of a chef and goes about his business. Mr Jarramie comes down, and opens his letters. His Liverpool agents have sent him a combination safe, but have not forwarded the key word by which alone it can be opened. Finding the lamp in an escritoire
Escritoire
An escritoire or secretary desk comes in various styles. One version is a small, portable writing desk with a sloping front door, hinged at the bottom edge, that can be opened downwards to provide a writing surface. It is usually larger than a lap desk...
, he dusts it, and the Genie appears from the kitchen. Mr Jarramie promptly engages him as an electioneering canvasser, and the Slave has to make a change to the orthodox frock-coat and high hat of a politician. Mrs Jarramie's jealousy, which has accidentally been aroused by her husband's late hours, is set aflame by the perusal of a telegram to him which she opens. She mistakes the wording "Did you get safe in last night!" and the female name which serves as a key-word to the safe, for a communication from a lady; and when she finds that Mr Jarramie has taken her chef away to use him as a canvasser, she orders Ben-Zoh-Leen to take her husband to – Timbuctoo
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
. He does so; and then Pepperton explains to Mrs Jarramie the facts of her error. Horror! Mr Jarramie must be brought back. But Mrs Jarramie has carelessly put the lamp in the combination safe, and turned the handle. Ben-Zoh-Leen cannot conscientiously obey any one not "holding" the lamp, and Mr Jarramie is in an uncomfortable position, as the Genie amicably placed him in the midst of a tribe of natives of cannibalistic propensities. After a certain amount of agony Pepperton finds the letter containing the key-word, the lamp is recovered, and Mr Jarramie restored to the bosom of his family, Pepperton pardoned, and the Genie is given his freedom, and set up in an oil and lamp business, his last service being as a bald-headed and highly respectable butler, to serve up the dinner and announce "The Duchess!" on which happy termination the curtain drops.
Roles and original cast
- Mr. Harington Jarramie – Wallace BrownlowWallace BrownlowWallace Brownlow was an opera singer of the Victorian era best known for baritone roles in the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.-D'Oyly Carte Opera Company:...
- Ernest Pepperton – J. Wilbraham
- Smithers, the butler – Charles Gilbert
- Bill, workman – Henry le Breton
- Jim, workman – A. Medcalf
- Mrs. Harington Jarramie – Madge Christo
- Daphne, her daughter – Rose Hervey
- Nixon, parlourmaid – Miss M. Russell
- Ben-Zoh-Leen, the Slave of the Lamp – John Wilkinson
When the piece was performed with Yeomen, Brownlow was replaced by J. M. Gordon
J. M. Gordon
J. M. Gordon, was an English singer, actor, stage manager and director, best known as the influential long-time director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company following the death of W. S. Gilbert.-Life and career:...
. Shortly after opening, Le Breton was replaced by Jesse Smith. In August 1889, Wilkinson was replaced by A. Medcalf and Bowden Haswell replaced Medcalf as Jim. Other substitutions occasionally took place.