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Description:
Carmen Up To Data, a Souvenir of the Gaiety Theater
Carmen Up To Data, a Souvenir of the Gaiety Theater. Wilhem Meyer Lutz (c.1828 – 31 January 1903) was a composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well known works. He was born in Männerstadt, Bavaria, Germany and moved to England at the age of 19. Originally an organist, Lutz soon began composing works for the Surrey Theatre and the Royalty Theatre. In 1869 he was appointed resident musical director and conductor at the Gaiety Theatre. In this capacity, he conducted Thespis, the first Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, in 1871. Lutz's popular Gaiety burlesques in this period included Carmen up to Data in 1885. Later in the 19th centrury, Lutz conducted a band playing Summer seasons at the spa in Scarborough. He continued to compose songs into the 20th century.The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Music Hall, in 1864. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the start of World War II in 1939 and never reopened, having suffered bomb damage during the hostilities. The theatre, at first known for music hall and burlesque, played a key role in the development of modern musical comedy in the late Victorian era.This large theatre with over 2,000 seats was built at a time when many new theatres were being built in London. While known as a music hall, the proprietors decided to ban smoking and drinking within the hall, and these activities were accommodated in the adjacent saloons. A novel gas lighting system was incorporated in the hall, using prisms and mirrors to create a soft light. Exhausting the heat of the gas jets drew fresh air into the building. The house was approached through an ambitious arcade, from the Strand. This was never successful and, with the theatre, was demolished to allow the building of the Aldwych.In 1868, the theatre was rebuilt, as the Gaiety Theatre, on a nearby prominent site at the centre of the Aldwych, facing the eastern end of the Strand by the theatre architect C. J. Phipps (who also designed the Gaiety Theatre (1871) in Dublin). A restaurant operated in the building, and patrons could eat before seeing the show and then go directly to their seats without having to worry about the weather outside.In the December, 1890 issue of Punch magazine, the reviewer wrote "…In calling their burlesque "Carmen up to Data" possibly the two dear clever boys who wrote it intended some crypto-jocosity of which the hidden meaning is known only to the initiated in these sublime mysteries. Why "Data"? On the other hand, "Why not?" However attractive or not as a heading in a bill of the play, the Gaiety "Carmen" is, on the whole, a merry, bright, and light burlesque-ish piece.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: 1400 |
| Condition:
Excellent |
Year:
1885
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| Height:
9.75 in. (24.76 cm) |
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Width: 6.25 in. (15.88 cm)
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| Title:
Carmen |
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