The Lucky Star
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The Lucky Star is an English comic opera, in three acts, composed by Ivan Caryll, with dialogue by Charles H. Brookfield (revised by Helen Lenoir) and lyrics by Adrian Ross and Aubrey Hopwood. It was produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and opened at the Savoy Theatre on 7 January 1899 for a run of 143 performances.
The opera starred the usual Savoy Theatre cast from that period, including Walter Passmore, Henry Lytton, Robert Evett, Ruth Vincent, Emmie Owen and Isabel Jay.
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[edit] Background
The opera is based on L'Étoile, written by Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo (with additional material by Paul Verlaine) and music by Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier in 1877, and The Merry Monarch, an American translation by Cheever Goodwin with music by Woolson Morse, produced in 1890.
The Lucky Star was the only Savoy Opera where a woman is plays a man's part. The piece has many other characteristics of musical comedy, which had become popular on the London stage in the 1890s -- broader comedy, a thin romance, bright tunes, comedians, a chorus of pretty girls, some risqué situations, a Coon song, songs regarding news of the day, separate authors of dialogue and lyrics, and a star, Walter Passmore.
This half-musical, half-comic opera, though earning a good critical response and possessing a pleasant score and entertaining libretto, did not appeal strongly to the Savoy Theatre's audiences and was unable to achieve a long run. The Cartes discovered that they were presenting a good play at the wrong theatre.
[edit] Synopsis
The story of the opera concerns a superstitious monarch, King Ouf. The King is informed by his astrologer Siroco that his destiny is linked with that of an itinerant painter named Lazuli, who is in love with the King's intended bride, the Princess Laoula. Siroco's astrological charts reveal that Lazuli's death will result in the King's. The King decrees that Siroco will be executed moments after the King's death, and so both have an interest in keeping Lazuli alive.
[edit] Roles
- King Ouf the First (comic baritone)
- The Baron Tabasco, Ambassador-Extraordinary from King Mataquin (baritone)
- Siroco, the Astrologer Royal
- Tapioca, Private Secretary to Baron Tabasco (tenor)
- Cancan, a Citizen
- Princess Laoula, Daughter of King Mataquin (soprano)
- Aloés, Daughter of Tabasco and Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess (soprano)
- Maids of Honour:
- Oasis
- Asphodel
- Zinnia
- Adza, the Court Dancer
- Lazuli, a Travelling Painter (mezzo-soprano -- a woman portraying a man)
- Citizens, Guards, Courtiers, and Ladies-in-Waiting.
