Alfred Cellier

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.

Biography

Cellier was born in South Hackney, London, the second child and eldest son of Arsène Cellier, a language teacher from France, and his wife Mary Ann Peterine, formerly Peacock, née Thomsett. He was educated at the grammar school in Hackney. In the 1850s he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, under the Rev. Thomas Helmore, where Arthur Sullivan was one of his schoolmates. Cellier later married Harriet Emily. Cellier's brother, François, also became a conductor.

Early career Cellier's first appointments were as organist at All Saints' Church, Blackheath and as conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society (both in 1862). In 1866 he succeeded Dr. Chipp as organist and director of the Ulster Hall concerts, Belfast, at the same time acting as conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society. In 1868 he returned to London as organist of St Alban's Church, Holborn. In January 1871, Cellier became the first conductor and music director at the Royal Court Theatre in London. (Stephenson wrote under the pen name "Bolton Rowe".) 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 the production] shall have come to an end." 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. 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. 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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, 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. Its success led to revivals of some of Cellier's earlier works.

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. 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. Cellier was unable to finish The Mountebanks, and Ivan Caryll completed the score. 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."

Cellier owed much to the influence of Sullivan.

Works Operatic TitleActsPremiered atPremiered onLibrettistNotes 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

Source: Grove.

Notes, references and sources