Richard D'Oyly Carte
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Richard D'Oyly Carte (May 3 1844 – April 3 1901) was a London theatrical impresario during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although an amateur composer in his own right, he is best known for producing the comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, founding the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for the purpose.
Carte was born in Soho's Greek Street in the West End of London. His father was a musical instrument salesman, and he was raised with a musical background. He attended the University School of London but left in order to take a larger role in his father's business. Between 1868 and 1877, he wrote the music for three comic operas, Doctor Ambrosias—His Secret, Marie and Happy Hampstead. At the same time, he was beginning to build an operatic and concert management company.
In 1875, he became the business manager of the Royalty Theatre. The first show he booked was Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. Because the opera was short, he commissioned W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan to write a one-act operetta to fill out the evening, which became Trial by Jury. Trial was a surprise hit. Building on its success, he formed the Comedy Opera Company, and later the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, to produce their future works, along with the works of other British lyricist/composer teams. Carte hoped that English light operas would supplant the French operettas that dominated the London stage. The first comic opera produced by the new partnership was The Sorcerer in 1877. It was followed by H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, and Patience in 1881.
With profits from the success of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, Carte was able to build his own theatre, the Savoy, and Patience transferred there on October 10 1881. At the time, the Savoy seated nearly 1300 people and was the first public building to be lit entirely with electric light. At a performance shortly after it opened, Carte stepped on stage and broke a glowing lightbulb to demonstrate the safety of the new technology.
Gilbert and Sullivan had an often tumultuous relationship, and Carte frequently had to smoothe over their differences with a mixture of friendship and business acumen. Carte was able to coax five more comic operas out of his partners in the 1880s, but by the late 1880s, Sullivan and Gilbert had more difficulty working together. The musical establishment and Sullivan's friends put pressure on the composer to abandon comic opera, and the three partners quarreled publicly over production costs, including the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre. Sullivan sided with Carte — Carte was building the Royal English Opera House in Cambridge Circus close to Covent Garden to host what he hoped would be a rebirth of British grand opera. The first production was of Sullivan's only work in the genre, Ivanhoe. When it closed, there was nothing to replace it, and the venture soon failed. The Opera House later became the Palace music hall.
Carte was married twice. His first wife was Blanche Prowse, the daughter of a piano manufacturer. They had two sons, Lucas and Rupert. In 1888, he married Helen Lenoir (a.k.a. Helen Couper Black), who had worked as his assistant from the 1870s and continued to work with him until his death, after which she took over the running of the company.
Richard D'Oyly Carte died on April 3 1901, leaving behind the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the Savoy Theatre and the Savoy Hotel. He is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's church in Fairlight, East Sussex.
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