The Gondoliers - Productions

Productions

The Gondoliers was immediately a hit in London, playing for 554 performances, the fourth longest of the series (after The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore and Patience). It earned more money than any other Savoy opera in its original run. 20,000 copies of the published score were sold on publication, and over 70,000 copies of various arrangements were sold within a few days. D'Oyly Carte's "E" Company mounted the first provincial production on 19 February 1890 in Preston. From then on, it was never absent from the touring repertory until it was omitted from the final two seasons (September 1980–February 1982) before the closing of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

The opera fared less well in New York. It opened at the New Park Theatre on 7 January 1890 and was immediately panned. Gilbert "refused to indorse the company sent to New York ... because he considered the company a 'scratch' one." Carte came to New York to investigate and closed the production on 13 February. He brought in replacements for most of the cast, and remounted the production at Palmer's Theatre on 18 February. However, the damage was done, and the production ran for just 103 performances in total. The New York press dubbed the opera "the gone-dollars." The first production on the European continent was given at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna (as Die Gondoliere) on 20 September 1890. In Australia, its first authorised performance was on 25 October 1890 at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, produced by J. C. Williamson.

A new production, with costumes designed by Charles Ricketts, was prepared for the opening of the renovated Savoy Theatre on 21 October 1929. The critic Ernest Newman wrote: "It was a subtle stroke to open with The Gondoliers; there is a peculiar richness of blood in the music of this work that makes the new theatre and the new designs and dresses by Mr. Charles Ricketts particularly appropriate...." The performance was conducted by Malcolm Sargent, and the theatre's only box was occupied by Lady Gilbert. Another notable new production was staged by the company in 1958 at the Princes Theatre with costumes by Peter Goffin.

The first non-D'Oyly Carte professional production in the United Kingdom was given by Scottish Opera on 12 December 1968, with Ian Wallace as the Duke. There was also a production by the New Sadler's Wells Opera in February 1984, with John Fryatt as the Duke and Donald Adams as Don Alhambra. A Mafia-themed adaptation of the opera, by John Doyle and Sarah Travis, was given at the Watermill Theatre and transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in 2001. The production utilised Doyle's signature conceit of the actors playing their own orchestra instruments.

The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime: