Ivan Caryll

Felix Tilkins (May 12 1861–November 29 1921), better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language. He composed (or contributed to) some forty operettas and musical comedies.

Life and career

Caryll studied at the Liege Conservatoire in Belgium and moved to London in 1882. He was married for a time in the 1890s to Gilbert and Sullivan star Geraldine Ulmar. Later, he married Maud Hill. He had a daughter named Primrose Caryll, who became an actress.

The dashing, moustachioed Caryll was known as one of the best dressed men in London. He was an extravagant spender and a popular and lavish host, entertaining his theatrical friends in princely style. Caryll's free spending ways caused him trouble occasionally, and he had a few narrow escapes from his creditors.

Early career

Theatres.

Caryll's first notable theatre piece was "Lily of Léoville" in 1886, followed the same year by "Monte Christo Jr", a burlesque for the Gaiety Theatre, London and then by a number of shows produced for the Lyric Theatre, culminating with the very successful "Little Christopher Columbus" (1893). Caryll, known as a very expressive conductor, conducted W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Cellier's "The Mountebanks" in 1892. Cellier died during rehearsals for the piece, and Caryll had to write the overture, the entr'acte, and probably a number or two, though just which contributions are his and which are Cellier's is not clear.

Caryll's first big success at the Gaiety was "The Shop Girl" (1894), which ran for an almost unprecedented 546 performances and heralded a new form of respectable musical comedy in London. The composer conducted the piece himself. Meanwhile, Caryll also had success elsewhere. "The Gay Parisienne" (1896), written with George Dance, ran for 369 performances at the Duke of York's Theatre, played in New York as "The Girl from Paris" (281 performances) and toured internationally.

Caryll composed the music for almost all the Gaiety musical comedies for the next decade, in collaboration with Lionel Monckton, and also established himself as the most famous conductor of light music in England. Edwardes apparently liked to have the word 'girl' in the titles of the shows, so "The Shop Girl" was followed by "My Girl", "The Circus Girl" (with over 500 performances in 1896 and 1897), "The Girl from Paris" (1897) and "A Runaway Girl" (1898). "The Lucky Star" was a less successful three-act comic opera (1899, produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, based on "L'Etoile", an opéra-bouffe by Emmanuel Chabrier). It may have been too risqué for the Savoy Theatre audiences.

composed his shapely "Serenade Lyrique" in 1899. [ [http://www.musicweb-international.com/garlands/97.htm Profile of Caryll from Musicweb International] ]

20th century London pieces

After the turn of the century, Caryll wrote more successful scores, including "The Messenger Boy" (1900), "The Toreador" (1901) (with well over 600 performances), "The Girl From Kays" (1902), "The Earl and the Girl" (1903; another success, starring Walter Passmore and Henry Lytton) , "The Orchid" (1903), and "The Duchess of Dantzig" (1903), a hit comic opera based on the story of Napoleon and Madame Sans Gene, the washerwoman who married Marshal Lefebre and became a duchess. [ [http://www.nodanw.com/shows_d/duchess_of_dantzic.htm Information from the NODA website] ]

Despite these successes, Caryll began to grow jealous of Monckton, who often wrote the most popular numbers in the shows. Still, they continued to work together, producing the successful "The Spring Chicken" (1905), "The Little Cherub" (1906), "The New Aladdin" (1906), "The Girls of Gottenberg" (1907), and the even more successful "Our Miss Gibbs" (1909), which ran for 636 performances. Typical of the plots of these shows, "Our Miss Gibbs" concerns a shop girl, courted by an earl in disguise.

Broadway musicals

Caryll relocated to New York City in 1911, composing more than a dozen Broadway musicals, [ [http://www.musicals101.com/who2.htm#Caryll Brief profile of Caryll at the musicals101 website] ] including "The Pink Lady" (1911, with Hugh Morton), "Oh! Oh! Delphine!!!" (1912), "Chin-Chin" (1914), [ [http://www.archive.org/details/chinchinmusicalf00caryl Vocal score of "Chin-Chin"] ] "Jack o'Lantern" (1917), and "The Girl Behind the Gun (Kissing Time)" (Lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse) (1918). He had just completed the music for "Little Miss Raffles" a day before his death.

Caryll's ragtime "Temple Bells" (1914) is of special interest to ragtime enthusiasts.

Caryll died in New York City of a hemorrhage while rehearsing "Little Miss Raffles".

Notes

References

*
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/other_savoy/lucky_star/caryll.html Biography of Caryll]
*cite news
author=
title=IVAN CARYLL DIES AS HE FINISHES PLAY; Noted Composer Stricken With Hemorrhage at Rehearsal of "Little Miss Raffles." BLOOD TRANSFUSION FAILS Author of "The Pink Lady" and "Oh! Oh! Delphine," Was Prolific Writer of Musical Comedies.
date=
work=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E1D6113CE533A25753C3A9679D946095D6CF
accessdate=2008-08-08

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=11499 Internet Broadway Database entry]
* [http://www.halhkmusic.com/victorian.html Edwardian light opera site including midi files, lyrics and cast lists for almost 20 Caryll shows]
*cite news
author=
title=" AMERICAN CHORUS GIRLS BETTER THAN ENGLISH ONES"; So Says Ivan Caryll the Well-Known London Composer and Musical Director -- He Ought to Know.
date=
work=New York Times
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A02E7DC1E39E333A25753C1A9619C946196D6CF
accessdate=2008-08-08
* [http://www.nodanw.com/composers/c-composers/caryll.html Listing of Caryll shows]
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/british/musicals.html Listing of English musicals with links]