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The Grand Duke
''The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel'', is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and last opera together. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 March 1896, and ran for 123 performances. Despite a successful opening night, the production had a relatively short run and was the partnership's only financial failure, and the two men never worked together again. In recent decades, the opera has been revived professionally, first in the US and then in the UK.
In ''The Grand Duke'', Gilbert and Sullivan come full circle, back to the theme of their first collaboration, ''Thespis'': a troupe of actors taking political power. The plot hinges on the mis-interpretation of a 100-year-old law regarding statutory duels (decided by drawing cards). The baffled leading man of the troupe, Ludwig, spearheads the rebellion against the hypochondriac, miserly Grand Duke and becomes engaged to four different women before the plot is resolved. The frugality and phoniness of the wealthy classes and the nobility is lampooned and, as in ''Princess Ida'', ''The Mikado'', ''The Gondoliers'', and ''Utopia, Limited'', the foreign setting emboldens Gilbert to use some particularly pointed satire. Sullivan's varied score includes lilting Viennese waltz music.
==Background==
During the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1889 comic opera, ''The Gondoliers'', Gilbert became embroiled in a legal dispute with producer Richard D'Oyly Carte over the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre and, more generally, over the accounting for expenses of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. Sullivan sided with Carte (who was about to produce Sullivan's grand opera, ''Ivanhoe''), and the partnership disbanded. After ''The Gondoliers'' closed in 1891, Gilbert withdrew the performance rights to his libretti and vowed to write no more operas for the Savoy.〔Shepherd, p. vii.〕 The lawsuit left Gilbert and Sullivan somewhat embittered, and though they finally collaborated on two more works, these suffered from a less collegial working relationship than the two men had typically enjoyed while writing earlier operas.〔Wolfson, ''passim''〕
Gilbert and Sullivan's penultimate opera, ''Utopia, Limited'' (1893), was a very modest success compared with their earlier collaborations. It introduced Gilbert's last protege, Nancy McIntosh, as the heroine, who received generally unfavourable press.〔Ainger, pp. 349–50〕 Sullivan refused to write another piece if she was to take part in it.〔Ainger, p. 352〕 Discussions over her playing the role of Yum-Yum in a proposed revival of ''The Mikado'' led to another row between Gilbert and Sullivan that prevented the revival, and Gilbert's insistence upon her appearing in his 1894 opera, ''His Excellency'', caused Sullivan to refuse to set the piece.〔Wolfson, pp. 61-62〕 After ''His Excellency'' closed in April 1895, McIntosh wrote to Sullivan informing him that she planned to return to concert singing, and so the obstacle to his further collaboration with Gilbert was removed.〔Ainger, p. 356〕 Meanwhile, Sullivan had written a comic opera for the Savoy Theatre with F. C. Burnand, ''The Chieftain'', but that had closed in March 1895.〔Ainger, p. 357〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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