The Great Game
I received my latest magazine from the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society. There is a lengthy article about recent discoveries and developments in research, including the treasure trove that is the dispersed Tams-Witmark collection, which has brought to light significant amounts of material, including manuscripts and marked-up libretti and scores dating from the earliest productions. Last year, upon the death of Frederick Woodbridge Wilson, who had stolen things from Gilbert-and-Sullivan collections in London and New York, the manuscript of The Mountebanks, missing for decades, resurfaced. It was sold to pay for Wilson's final burial expenses, and I was lucky enough to meet the man who bought it. I am also working with a colleague in London who is preparing the score for publication, so I have had further insights into the mess that is this particular manuscript. I was also lucky enough to meet the man who owns Sullivan's autograph score for his canatata On Shore and Sea, which he keeps in his sterile, museum-quality home in suburban Virginia. He also has a lots of other material, photographs and other ephemera. It was incredible!
This Tams-Witmark trove has yielded exciting material, including additional Mountebanks material. There is also substantial material from Edward Solomon's operas (not, alas, The Nautch Girl) and missing/lost stuff from The Pirates of Penzance and other Sullivan operas, as well as operas by other contemporary British and American composers. And I think the Wilson thievery included Lady Sangazure's lost song from The Sorcerer. And someone else has uncovered Rita's lost song from The Chieftain.
And here I sit, having to work for a living, no money, and unable to participate in these great discoveries. I feel so strongly that I have things to contribute. While I was glad that all these things have resurfaced, I cannot help but feel very unhappy that I am not making discoveries of this kind as well. There are so many things I want to find, and I am stuck, so stuck. I want to dig in libraries and collections and talk to like-minded people on a professional level about these things. I have my theories about the whereabouts of the score for Thespis, and I can't investigate them because, well, here I am.
Well, I suppose I have no one to credit for the path my life has taken but myself. Still, I can't help but feel that the G&S research world is passing me by.
This Tams-Witmark trove has yielded exciting material, including additional Mountebanks material. There is also substantial material from Edward Solomon's operas (not, alas, The Nautch Girl) and missing/lost stuff from The Pirates of Penzance and other Sullivan operas, as well as operas by other contemporary British and American composers. And I think the Wilson thievery included Lady Sangazure's lost song from The Sorcerer. And someone else has uncovered Rita's lost song from The Chieftain.
And here I sit, having to work for a living, no money, and unable to participate in these great discoveries. I feel so strongly that I have things to contribute. While I was glad that all these things have resurfaced, I cannot help but feel very unhappy that I am not making discoveries of this kind as well. There are so many things I want to find, and I am stuck, so stuck. I want to dig in libraries and collections and talk to like-minded people on a professional level about these things. I have my theories about the whereabouts of the score for Thespis, and I can't investigate them because, well, here I am.
Well, I suppose I have no one to credit for the path my life has taken but myself. Still, I can't help but feel that the G&S research world is passing me by.