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John McRobbie Gordon (1857 – 22 February 1944) was an English singer, actor, stage manager and director, best known as the influential long-time director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company after the death of W. S. Gilbert. ==Life and career== Gordon was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Early in his career, he sang with the Dan Godfrey Quartet in Bournemouth.〔Stone, David. (J.M. Gordon ), Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 17 July 2014, accessed 21 April 2015〕 Gordon joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1883 on tour in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Patience'' as a member of the chorus. In 1884, he played the part of Colonel Calverley in ''Patience'' on tour. He remained with D'Oyly Carte until 1890, playing Piscator in ''The Carp'' (a one-act curtain raiser) when it accompanied ''Ruddigore'', and Mr. Harrington Jarramie in ''Mrs. Jarramie's Genie'' (another curtain raiser), when it accompanied ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', in each case at the Savoy Theatre in London. He was also in the choruses of ''Princess Ida'', ''Trial by Jury'', ''The Sorcerer'', ''The Mikado'', ''Ruddigore'', ''Yeomen'' and ''The Gondoliers'' at the Savoy.〔 In the 1890s, Gordon managed, and acted in, his own touring company of four performers, playing a series of short pieces including ''Mock Turtles''.〔"The Era'', 14 August 1897, p. 12〕 He also ran his own band. By the early 1900s, he was working as a freelance conductor and director for British amateur operatic societies. Among other works that he directed were Sullivan's ''The Emerald Isle'', Planquette's ''Les cloches de Corneville'', Cellier's ''Dorothy'', Gilbert and Cellier's ''The Mountebanks'' and Gilbert's play ''Sweethearts''.〔Gordon, J. M. and Elizabeth Benney. ''The Memoirs of J M Gordon 1856-1944: Stage Director D'oyly Carte Opera Company'', Richard Pitcairn-Knowles (2014), pp. 59, 60 and 62 ISBN 095585914X〕 In 1907, Gordon returned to D'Oyly Carte as a stage manager. He appears to have left the company for a time but returned by 1911. Following the death of W. S. Gilbert earlier in 1911, Rupert D'Oyly Carte sought a stage manager who could maintain the company's production standards and preserve Gilbert's traditions and style. Gordon's skills, experience with the company directly under Gilbert, attention to detail, and tenacity were exactly what Carte desired. Gordon stage managed and then directed D'Oyly Carte productions for the next twenty-eight years. He coached new artists on the blocking, dances, and line readings for each part, and maintained strict quality control over the productions. He was named Stage Director for the company in 1922 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1939. He was responsible for making the textual revisions to ''Ruddigore'' when that opera was restaged in December 1921, as well as the extensive revision (with music director Harry Norris) to create the ''Savoy Edition'' of ''Cox and Box,'' and he approved any changes to stage business, such as Darrell Fancourt's introduction of the Mikado's famous laugh.〔 A photograph of Gordon and D'Oyly Carte colleagues with the huge recording horn used in the acoustic recording process can be seen (here. ) Gordon's daughter Lilian preserved many of his papers with information about the company's productions. His memoirs were transcribed by his great niece Elizabeth Benney and published by Pitcairn-Knowles in 2014.〔 Gordon died in Brighton at age 87.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「J. M. Gordon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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