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60-632: Wilhelm Meyer Lutz (19 May 1829 – 31 January 1903) was a German-born British composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well-known works. Emigrating to the UK at the age of 19, Lutz started as an organist and soon became a theatrical conductor in London. After serving from 1850 to 1855 as music director of the Surrey Theatre , Lutz conducted touring opera companies and composed some serious music and music for

120-605: A Freemason , and served as the Grand Organist of the United Grand Lodge of England . Lutz soon became a theatrical conductor. From 1850 to 1855, he conducted at the Surrey Theatre and later the Royalty Theatre . For that theatre, he composed two operas, the one-act The Charmed Harp (1852) and a grand opera , Faust and Marguerite (1855). After this, for many years, Lutz conducted concerts in

180-634: A band playing Summer seasons at the spa in Scarborough . He continued to compose songs into the 20th century, including music for Hidenseek (1901) and a few numbers for Ivan Caryll and Cecil Cook's The Girl from Kays (1902). However, Lutz seems to have run low on funds, as another benefit was held for him on 28 November 1901 at the Gaiety Theatre, organised by George Edwardes. Lutz was married in 1856 to Elizabeth Cook (b. 1835) and later to her sister Emily Cook (b. 1847). Their brothers were

240-455: A broad comic play, usually a musical play, usually risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and often quoting or pastiching text or music from the original work. Victorian burlesque is one of several forms of burlesque . Like ballad opera , burlesques featured musical scores drawing on a wide range of music, from popular contemporary songs to operatic arias, although later burlesques, from

300-528: A brush maker. Atherton had a gift for impersonation from a young age. Her career began as a child actress, carried on as a baby in "The Sea of Ice", at the Robinson’s Opera House in her home city, Cincinnati . Some obituaries refer to her as having been born in St. Louis ; her place of marriage. Atherton was discovered by Lydia Thompson , an English dancer, comedian, actress, and theatrical producer, who

360-655: A cold contracted a month ago in Boston. She was obliged to cancel her Boston and Brooklyn engagements and to cancel entirely her last week’s engagement at Proctor’s Twenty-third Street Theater . On last Sunday night she was removed from the Clarendon Hotel, Brooklyn, to the Hotel Audubon. Alice Atherton, or Alice Hogan, which was her maiden name, was born in St. Louis in 1860 and for the last twenty years had been one of

420-520: A conductor throughout Britain and continued to compose religious and secular music. On 3 May 1886, the Gaiety Theatre hosted a selection of scenes played for Lutz's benefit, including scenes from Lutz's grand opera Faust and Marguerite , his burlesque Little Jack Sheppard and the operetta Karl and several recitations and solo pieces. The performers included Nellie Farren (who had sung under him in nearly all of his Gaiety pieces), Marion Hood , Durward Lely , Richard Temple and many others. Lutz left

480-608: A parodist, she also excelled in comic roles that did not require playing a type. William Frederick Bryer (1846–1908), who went by the stage name of Willie Edouin began a notable association with Lydia Thompson, playing with her burlesque troupe at Wood's Museum, New York, in October and November 1870. In the company was a sixteen-year-old Atherton. Three years later she married her English co-performer, Willie, on December 27, 1873, in St Louis . Together they became mainstays of

540-429: A sterner view; in an 1885 article, the critic Thomas Heyward praised Planché ("fanciful and elegant") and Gilbert ("witty, never vulgar"), but wrote of the genre as a whole, "the flashy, 'leggy', burlesque, with its 'slangy' songs, loutish 'breakdowns', vulgar jests, paltry puns and witless grimacing at all that is graceful and poetic is simply odious. … Burlesque, insensate, spiritless and undiscriminating, demoralizes both

600-471: A successful revival, they usually enjoyed local production runs, often for a month or longer. The popularity of stage burlesque in general and operatic burlesque in particular seems to have stemmed from the many ways in which it entertained a diverse group, and the manner in which it fed and fed on the circus-like or carnivalesque atmosphere of public Victorian London. W. S. Gilbert wrote five opera burlesques early in his career, beginning with Dulcamara, or

660-509: A very brief illness. The Aberdeen Evening Express , marked her passing with a brief obituary on February 6, 1899: Death of Miss Alice Atherton Playgoers and music-hall visitors will regret to learn that Miss Alice Atherton, the wife of Mr. Bryer, professionally known as Mr. Willie Edouin, died of pneumonia in New York on Saturday, after a very brief illness.”. Her body was taken to Evergreen Cemetery pending instructions from her husband who

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720-736: Is prostrated by her sister’s death. She said she almost feared to cable the news to Miss Atherton’s husband in London. The funeral will take place on Tuesday from the Little Church Around the Corner”. The London Illustrated News reported on February 11, 1899: The death from pneumonia of Miss Alice Atherton, who had been appearing with success in the New York Variety Halls is announced. The news will be received with wide regret, especially by that narrowing circle of playgoers who remember this talented lady at her best--in

780-633: Is recognized for introducing Victorian burlesque to the United States in August 1868, to great acclaim and notoriety. Atherton was enrolled as one of her girls in "Ixion". This was Thompson's first U.S. show and it was a huge success. It included wit, parody, song, dance, spectacle, music, and it has since been said it even empowered women. This launched her career and that of several actresses, including Lisa Weber , and Rose Coghlan . It also drew fierce criticism from those who felt it transgressed

840-411: Is told "These showers of 'Hail' anticipate your 'reign'". Musically, Shakespearean burlesques were as varied as the others of the genre. An 1859 burlesque of Romeo and Juliet contained 23 musical numbers, some from opera, such as the serenade from Don Pasquale , and some from traditional airs and popular songs of the day including " Buffalo Gals ", and "Nix my Dolly". The dialogue for burlesques

900-622: The Christy Minstrels . In 1869, he was engaged as the music director of the Gaiety Theatre, London , arranging and later composing a series of popular burlesques over the next 25 years. Lutz continued to compose songs into the 20th century. Lutz was born in Münnerstadt , Bavaria, Germany. His parents were Joseph Lutz (1801–1879), a music professor, and Magdalena (1809–1862). His older brother, Baron Johann Lutz , became

960-400: The bass Thomas Aynsley Cook and the baritone John Furneaux Cook , and their sister, Alice Aynsley Cook (c. 1850–1938) was an opera singer and musical comedy actress. His niece, Annie, married Eugene Goossens, Jr. Lutz also had a son, Caspar, who became a clergyman. In printed works, such as scores and theatre programmes, Lutz was usually credited simply as Meyer Lutz. Some of his music

1020-705: The 1880s, sometimes featured original scores. Dance played an important part, and great attention was paid to the staging, costumes and other spectacular elements of stagecraft, as many of the pieces were staged as extravaganzas . Many of the male roles were played by actresses as breeches roles , to show off women's legs in tights, and some of the older female roles were taken by male actors. Originally short, one-act pieces, burlesques were later full-length shows, occupying most or all of an evening's programme. Authors who wrote burlesques included J. R. Planché , H. J. Byron , G. R. Sims , F. C. Burnand , W. S. Gilbert and Fred Leslie . Burlesque theatre became popular around

1080-665: The 1880s, when comedian-writer Fred Leslie joined the Gaiety, composers like Meyer Lutz and Osmond Carr contributed original music to the burlesques, which were extended to a full-length two- or three-act format. These later Gaiety burlesques starred Farren and Leslie. They often included Leslie's libretti , written under his pseudonym, "A. C. Torr", and were usually given an original score by Lutz: Little Jack Sheppard (1885), Monte Cristo Jr. (1886), Pretty Esmeralda (1887), Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (1887), Mazeppa and Faust up to Date (1888). Ruy Blas and

1140-483: The Blasé Roué (1889) made fun of the play Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo . The title was a pun, and the worse the pun, the more Victorian audiences were amused. The last Gaiety burlesques were Carmen up to Data (1890), Cinder Ellen up too Late (1891), and Don Juan (1892, with lyrics by Adrian Ross ). In the early 1890s, Farren retired, Leslie died, and musical burlesque went out of fashion in London, as

1200-552: The Blasé Roué (1889, libretto by Frederick Hobson Leslie and Herbert F. Clark); Carmen up to Data (1890, libretto by Sims and Pettitt); Cinder Ellen up too Late (1891, libretto by Leslie); and Don Juan (1892, book by Leslie, lyrics by Adrian Ross ). The "Pas de quatre", a sprightly barn-dance written for Faust up to Date , remained popular for more than fifty years and has had at least two modern recordings. In 1893, with Albert O'Donnell Bartholeyns , he wrote A la Française . During these years, Lutz continued in demand as

1260-675: The British provinces and touring opera troupes for Giulia Grisi , the tenor Mario and others. Some of these were led by the tenor Elliot Galer (the founder, in 1877, of the Royal Opera House in Leicester ), who produced Lutz's opera Zaida, or, The Pearl of Granada (with a libretto by Oliver Summers) in 1859 in Liverpool . In the 1850s and 1860s he shared the concert podium at classical concerts with Julius Benedict both in

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1320-711: The Church Service. Her obituaries were extensive and on February 5, 1899, the Chicago Tribune marked her passing, describing her as an actress of merit: Alice Atherton Dead Was an actress of merit, best known for her laughing song. Made her first decided hit as the squaw in the burlesque of "Hiawatha" - Was born in St. Louis in 1860 - Married when only 16 years old to Willie Edouin, the English Comedian - Has played all sorts of parts in her twenty years’ career. New York, Feb 4 - Alice Atherton,

1380-572: The Coville burlesque companies. He organized the entertainment "Dreams, or Fun in the Photograph Gallery," a piece that showed off her skill for impersonation and popularized the comic skit as a stage form. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art , in NYC, which displays her cards, they were issued between 1880 and 1892 by Thomas H. Hall Tobacco, in order to promote stage actors between

1440-549: The Gaiety Theatre's "principal boy" from 1868, and John D'Auban choreographed the burlesques there from 1868 to 1891. Edward O'Connor Terry joined the theatre in 1876. Early Gaiety burlesques included Robert the Devil (1868, by Gilbert), The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Blue Beard (1882), Ariel (1883, by F. C. Burnand ) and Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed (1883). Beginning in

1500-474: The Gaiety in 1885 and expanded the format of the burlesques, commissioning Lutz to write original scores for the "new burlesques" at the theatre: Little Jack Sheppard (1885, libretto by Stephens); Monte Cristo Jr. (1886); Miss Esmeralda , or The Maid and the Monkey (1887); Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (1887); Faust up to Date (1888, libretto by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt); Ruy Blas and

1560-541: The Gaiety in 1894 and was replaced by Ivan Caryll . For the Opera Comique in 1895, Lutz composed A Model Trilby, or A Day or Two after du Maurier . He also wrote additional songs for Baron Golosh for the Trafalgar Theatre (1895). Lutz wrote a string quartet and ballads such as "Thy Silv'ry Tones", "Enchant Mine Ear" and "Sail on Silver Cloud." In the last years of the 19th century, Lutz conducted

1620-479: The Hunter ( The Crystal Palace , 1862) and King Christmas ( Oxford Music Hall , 1863), and music for the Christy Minstrels . In 1869, manager John Hollingshead hired Lutz as the resident musical director and conductor at the recently opened Gaiety Theatre , composing dances and songs for productions at that theatre, as well as conducting the orchestra for the operas, operettas , plays and burlesques mounted at

1680-667: The Little Duck and the Great Quack (1866), the most successful of which was Robert the Devil (1868). In the 1870s, Lydia Thompson 's burlesque troupe, with Willie Edouin , became famous for their burlesques, by such authors as H. B. Farnie and Robert Reece , both in Britain and the U.S. The Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells notes that although parodies of Shakespeare had appeared even in Shakespeare's lifetime,

1740-475: The Lys , was performed. He also composed music for such shows as On Condition (1882) and Posterity (1884) for Lila Clay's all-ladies troupe. He also composed the popular song, "Eyes of English Blue" for Alice Atherton . At the Gaiety, Lutz compiled the scores, and later often composed original music, for a series of popular pasticcio entertainments, opera-bouffes and burlesques, including The Bohemian G-yurl and

1800-619: The Mother the Maiden and the Musicianer (1863) and Il Trovatore or Larks with a Libretto (1880). The operas of Bellini , Bizet , Donizetti , Gounod , Handel , Meyerbeer , Mozart , Rossini , Wagner and Weber were burlesqued. In a 2003 study of the subject, Roberta Montemorra Marvin noted: By the 1880s, almost every truly popular opera had become the subject of a burlesque. Generally appearing after an opera's premiere or following

1860-473: The Thompson troupe prematurely packing on a tour around the United States and Canada. Other shows followed, such as "Sinbad" and Atherton went on to become recognized as one of the best-natured, adventurous performers of the stage during the 1870s–1890s. Atherton’s versatility as a performer became legendary, as a comic singer, a virtuoso whistler, and her "laughing song" became her signature piece. Though

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1920-558: The Unapproachable Pole (1877); Robbing Roy (1879 by F. C. Burnand ); a version of The Forty Thieves (1880, libretto by Robert Reece ; Lutz had conducted an 1878 version of the same story); All in the Downs; or, Black-Eyed Susan (1881); Aladdin (1881); Oh! Those Girls (1882); Blue Beard (1882); Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed (1883, with a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens ); Ariel (1883, libretto by Burnand); and Mazeppa (1884). George Edwardes took over management of

1980-555: The actors. For example, Olympic Revels opens with the gods of Olympus in classical Greek dress playing whist . In the early burlesques, the words of the songs were written to popular music, as had been done earlier in The Beggar's Opera . Later in the Victorian era, burlesque mixed operetta , music hall and revue , and some of the large-scale burlesque spectacles were known as extravaganzas . The English style of burlesque

2040-431: The actress, died today from pleuropneumonia in her apartments in the Hotel Audubon, 1416 Broadway. Although Miss Atherton had been ill for three weeks her death was a shock to her friends, as her condition on Friday was so favorable that she expected to leave her bed tomorrow. Early this morning, however, a sudden change for the worse occurred. She sank rapidly and died at 7:30 o’clock. Miss Atherton’s fatal illness began with

2100-536: The acts as well as the brand called Bravo Cigarettes. Atherton moved to London with her English husband in 1883. There she would spend the majority of the final decade and a half of her career in music halls. During this period, Meyer Lutz , the German-born British composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well-known works composed the popular song "Eyes of English Blue" for her. In 1885 she took to

2160-525: The age of 73. He was buried in St Mary's, Kensal Green. Victorian burlesque Victorian burlesque , sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza , is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-19th century. It is a form of parody in which a well-known opera or piece of classical theatre or ballet is adapted into

2220-425: The audience and the players. It debases the public taste." Gilbert expressed his own views on the worth of burlesque: The question whether burlesque has a claim to rank as art is, I think, one of degree. Bad burlesque is as far removed from true art as is a bad picture. But burlesque in its higher development calls for high intellectual power on the part of its professors. Aristophanes , Rabelais , Geo Cruikshank ,

2280-810: The authors of the Rejected Addresses , John Leech , Planché were all in their respective lines professors of true burlesque. In his 1859 Longfellow burlesque Hi-A-Wa-Tha , the American playwright Charles Walcot encapsulated the character of burlesque in the epilogue, addressed to the audience by Mrs. John Wood as Minnehaha: In a similar vein, ten years later, Gilbert gave an English viewpoint on burlesque, in his epilogue to The Pretty Druidess : Actresses in burlesque would often play breeches roles , which were male roles played by women; likewise, men eventually began to play older female roles. These reversals allowed viewers to distance themselves from

2340-579: The beginning of the Victorian era . The word "burlesque" is derived from the Italian burla , which means "ridicule or mockery". According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Victorian burlesque was "related to and in part derived from pantomime and may be considered an extension of the introductory section of pantomime with the addition of gags and 'turns'." Another antecedent

2400-436: The boundaries of propriety at the time. Burlesques, colloquially referred to as leg-shows, started off very tame, clever, and sophisticated, drawing in all types of people, especially women. Unfortunately, “the female audiences for burlesque did not last for long. In the summer of 1869 a wave of ‘anti-burlesque hysteria’ in the New York press frightened away the middle-class audiences that had initially been drawn to Ixion and sent

2460-514: The century, German opera was popular with London audiences. Verdi 's Il trovatore and La traviata received their British premieres in 1855 and 1856 respectively; British burlesques of them followed quickly. Our Lady of the Cameleon by Leicester Silk Buckingham and Our Traviata by William F. Vandervell (both 1857) were followed by five different burlesque treatments of Il trovatore , two of them by H. J. Byron: Ill Treated Trovatore, or

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2520-522: The first “talkies” during the 1920s, known as Vitaphone Varieties . Her sister Lavinia Hogan, also had a successful career on the stage both sides of the Atlantic, and was known as Venie Atherton, who continued her own career on stage until 1926. She died on February 4, 1899, at her apartment within the Hotel Audubon in New York City of pneumonia. The New York Times announced the location of

2580-632: The focus of the Gaiety and other burlesque theatres changed to the new genre of Edwardian musical comedy . In 1896, Seymour Hicks declared that burlesque "is dead as a doornail and will never be revived." From her retirement, Nellie Farren endorsed this judgment. Alice Atherton Born Alice Atherton Hogan in Cincinnati ; she was the daughter of William Hogan (1827–1907) and Sarah Bennett. Her family resided in Cincinnati (1860 census) with her Kentucky born father's profession being listed as

2640-538: The heyday of Shakespearean burlesque was the Victorian era. Wells observes that the typical Victorian Shakespeare burlesque "takes a Shakespeare play as its point of departure and creates from it a mainly comic entertainment, often in ways that bear no relation to the original play." Wells gives, as an example of the puns in the texts, the following: Macbeth and Banquo make their first entrance under an umbrella. The witches greet them with "Hail! hail! hail!": Macbeth asks Banquo, "What mean these salutations, noble thane?" and

2700-657: The later years of the Byron-Farnie period. Acting with her husband, Mr. Edouin, in Blue Beard, the Babes, and The Japs she showed remarkable vivacity as an actress, considerable gifts as a mimic, and the faculty of making the most of a song. The Times of India announced on March 1, 1899: Playgoers and music-ball visitors will a like regret to learn that Miss Alice Atherton, the wife of Mr. Bryer, professionally known as Mr. Willie Edouin, died of pneumonia in New York after

2760-742: The lead characters. In 1894 she starred as Jane in Jaunty Jane Shore at the Royal Strand Theatre . Atherton eventually returned to the American vaudeville stage in 1897. Atherton had two daughters May and Daisy, and both took to the stage, and in honor of their mother they adopted the stage names of May Atherton (b. February 18, 1875) and Daisy Atherton (b. September 30, 1876). Both were born in London, England. Daisy starred in The Torch-Bearers and other theatrical productions on Broadway. She also played roles in

2820-556: The morality of the play, focusing more on joy and entertainment than catharsis, a definitive shift away from neoclassical ideas. The depiction of female sexuality in Victorian burlesque was an example of the connection between women as performers and women as sexual objects in Victorian culture. Throughout the history of theatre the participation of women on stage has been questioned. Victorian culture, according to Buszek in 2012, viewed paid female performance as being closely associated with prostitution, "a profession in which most women in

2880-485: The most popular burlesque actresses here and in England. In 1878 she attracted the notice of Edward E. Rice and made her first decided hit as the squaw in his burlesque, “Hiawatha.” For the succeeding twenty years she was identified with Rice’s enterprises, and, as she often remarked, played “Naughty girls, good girls, rich girls, poor girls, starving mothers, and hungry boys, pages, sailors, soldiers, and saints. ”When she

2940-517: The prime minister of Bavaria under King Ludwig II of Bavaria . Lutz studied music first with his father, then in Würzburg at the University. He visited Britain, as a pianist, in 1846, and then moved to England in 1848 at the age of 19. Lutz began as an organist in churches at Birmingham and Leeds . Then, for many years, he played the organ at St George's Cathedral, Southwark . Lutz was also

3000-750: The provinces and at St. James's Hall in London. In 1859, in Derby , England, Lutz played the piano for a series of ten "Concerts for the People" at the Temperance Hall. Galer also mounted three other Lutz operas at the Royalty Theatre in London: Blonde or Brunette (1862), Cousin Kate (1863), and Felix, or The Festival of the Roses (1865). During these years, Lutz also composed the cantatas Herne

3060-695: The stage at the Prince's Theatre in Bristol and the Novelty Theatre in London, alongside Harriet Vernon , Lionel Brough and of course Willie Edouin in The Japs; or, The Doomed Daimio , a burlesque by Harry Paulton and Mostyn Teddea. On February 25, 1888, her husband began his first managerial period at the Royal Strand Theatre , producing "Katti, the Family Help", with both of them playing

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3120-433: The theatre dabbled, if not took on as a primary source of income". Burlesque became the specialty of London's Royal Strand Theatre and Gaiety Theatre from the 1860s to the early 1890s. In the 1860s and 1870s, burlesques were often one-act pieces running less than an hour and using pastiches and parodies of popular songs, opera arias and other music that the audience would readily recognize. Nellie Farren starred as

3180-611: The theatre. In this capacity, he conducted Thespis , the first Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera , in 1871. Lutz's early compositions for the Gaiety theatre included incidental music for Dreams (1869), a play by Thomas W. Robertson . The Miller of Milburg (1872). At the same time, Christine Nilsson performed his scena Xenia the Sclavonian Maiden (1869), and at the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts in 1873, his cantata, Legend of

3240-471: Was ballad opera , in which new words were fitted to existing tunes. Madame Vestris produced burlesques at the Olympic Theatre beginning in 1831 with Olympic Revels by J. R. Planché . In these pieces, comedy stemmed from the incongruity and absurdity of the grand classical subjects, with realistic historical dress and settings, being juxtaposed with the everyday modern activities portrayed by

3300-468: Was 16 she married Willie Edouin, the English comedian, and up to within two years ago they shared their successes. Miss Atherton returned here in 1897, after an absence of several years in England, to make another reputation for herself. The tights which had made her so well known were discarded for skirts. Her laughing song is almost famous, and earned for her the sobriquet of “Laughing Alice.” Miss Atherton

3360-409: Was a happy combination of good looks and talent, a signer of pleasing method, a dancer of skill and originality, a good mimic, and a perfectly trained player. Her daughter, May Atherton, greatly resembles her, and is already a great favorite on the London burlesque stage. Her sister, Mrs. John A. Mackay, wife of the comedian, better known by her stage name, Venie Bennett, was devoted to Miss Atherton, and

3420-459: Was aimed at a narrower, highly literate audience; some writers, such as the Brough brothers, aimed at a conservative middle class audience, and H. J. Byron 's success was attributed to his skill in appealing to the lower middle classes. Some of the most frequent subjects for burlesque were the plays of Shakespeare and grand opera. From the 1850s onwards, burlesquing of Italian, French and, later in

3480-720: Was arranged for military band by J. A. Kappey. Lutz is mentioned in a P. G. Wodehouse novel, A Damsel in Distress (1919). In addition, a character called Herr Toots in the 1912 novel Bella by Edward Booth is based on Lutz, as is the character Meyer Klootz in the 1940 novel Town and Haven by Oswald Harland, both novels being set in late Victorian Scarborough (named "Spathorpe" in Bella , and "Whitcliff" in Town and Haven ). Lutz died of bronchitis at his home in Kensington , London at

3540-503: Was generally written in rhyming couplets, or, less often, in other verse forms, such as blank verse; it was notable for its bad puns . For example, in Faust up to Date (1888), a couplet reads: According to Grove , although "an almost indispensable element of burlesque was the display of attractive women dressed in tights, often in travesty roles ... the plays themselves did not normally tend to indecency." Some contemporary critics took

3600-490: Was successfully launched in New York in the 1840s by the manager and comedian William Mitchell, who had opened his Olympic Theatre in December 1839. Like the London prototypes, his burlesques included characters with nonsensical names such as Wunsuponatyme and The King of Neverminditsnamia, and made fun of all kinds of music currently being presented in the city. Unlike pantomime, which aimed at all ages and classes, burlesque

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