The Foresters

and Maid Marian".

The play

Sullivan and Tennyson had worked together before, on a song cycle for tenor, "The Window", written and composed in 1867–68, but not published until 1871. Ten years later, Tennyson started work on a play based on the Robin Hood legend, but the project was not taken up by Henry Irving, to whom Tennyson offered it, and not until 1891 did the 82-year-old Tennyson find a producer willing to stage the play. The American impresario Augustin Daly offered to produce it in New York.

The text, consisting of a mixture of blank verse and prose, contained songs and dances which Daly, at Tennyson’s suggestion, approached Sullivan to compose. Daly made numerous changes to Tennyson's text, cutting dialogue, moving events from one act to another, and reassigning songs and dialogue to different characters. Henry Widmer, Daly's musical assistant, may have contributed some music to the score. [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/foresters/for_intro.html Introduction to "The Foresters",] The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive] Sullivan completed the score by December 1891, and the play opened in New York on 17 March 1892. It was a success and was then played in seven other major American cities. The piece starred John Drew Jr. as Robin and Ada Rehan as Marian. A single performance of the play was given at the Lyceum Theatre in London on the same day, presumably to secure the British copyright.

An English production opened at the new Daly's Theatre, in London, on 3 October 1893, by which time the author had died. Despite the respect in which Lord Tennyson was held, the play received poor notices in London and ran for only seventeen performances. Sullivan’s music, by contrast, was well reviewed.

Sullivan’s biographers and scholars of his work have been unanimous in censuring Tennyson’s text. Gervase Hughes wrote, "How did the author of "The Idylls of the King" come to put his name to such puerile rubbish?" Arthur Jacobs called the piece "perhaps the oddest of all the stage works which [Sullivan] was invited to undertake." Percy Young scoffed, "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever." But they did not praise Sullivan’s score either: "One of Sullivan’s lamest... resourceless in magic" (Young); " [not] even one memorable number" (Jacobs). Recent critics, however, have praised Sullivan's contribution.See [http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/contra_hyperion.htm Reviews of Hyperion's 2004 recording of "The Contrabandista" and "The Foresters",] A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography]

Roles

Vocal ranges noted for roles that sing parts in the incidental music:
*Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon
*King Richard, Coeur de Lion
*Prince John
*Followers of Robin Hood::Little John:Will Scarlet (tenor):Friar Tuck:Much
*A Justiciary
*Sheriff of Nottingham
*Abbot of St. Mary's
*Sir Richard Lea
*Walter Lea, Son of Sir Richard Lea
*Maid Marian, Daughter of Sir Richard Lea (mezzo-soprano)
*Kate, Attendant on Marian (soprano)
*Titania (soprano)
*Fairy (soprano)
*Old Woman
*Retainers, Messengers, Merry Men, Mercenaries, Friars, Beggars, Sailors, Peasants, etc.

Musical numbers

The nine musical numbers, with the opening lines of text for each, are:
Act I (‘The Bond’ )
*Song sung by Kate, attendant to Maid Marian:The warrior Earl of Allendale,
:He loved the Lady Anne;
:The lady loved the master well,
:The maid she loved the man.

*Song sung by Maid Marian:Love flew in at the window,
:As Wealth walk'd in at the door.
:'You have come for you saw Wealth coming,' said I.
:But he flutter'd his wings with a sweet little cry,
:'I'll cleave to you rich or poor.'

*Chorus:Long live Richard,
:Robin and Richard!
:Long live Richard!
:Down with John!
:Drink to the Lion-heart
:Every-one!

*Chorus [originally a solo for Robin Hood] :To sleep! to sleep! The long bright day is done,
:And darkness rises from the fallen sun.
:To sleep! to sleep!

Act II (‘The Flight of Marian’)
*Song sung by Will Scarlet [originally a chorus] :There is no land like England,
:Where'er the light of day be;
:There are no hearts like English hearts,
:Such hearts of oak as they be.

*Scene for Titania and fairies:Evil Fairy! do you hear?
:So he said who lieth here.
:We be fairies of the wood.
:We be neither bad nor good.
:Back and side and hip and rib,
:Nip, nip him for his fib.

Act III (‘The Crowning of Marian’)
*Song sung by Will Scarlet:By all the deer that spring
:Thro' wood and lawn and ling,
:When all the leaves are green;
:By arrow and gray goosewing

Act IV (‘The Conclusion’)
*Song sung by Maid Marian:The bee buzz'd up in the heat:
:'I am faint for your honey, my sweet.'
:The flower said, 'Take, it my dear,
:For now is the spring of the year.
:So come, come!'
:'Hum!'
:And the bee buzz'd down from the heat.

*Chorus and dance:Now the King is home again, and nevermore to roam again.
:Now the King is home again, the King will have his own again,
:Home again, home again, and each will have his own again,
:All the birds in merry Sherwood sing and sing him home again.

Recording

A recording was made of the music in 2004 by the New London Orchestra, the London Chorus and soloists conducted by Ronald Corp. It is published on the Hyperion label. The Northamptonshire Theatre Orchestra and A La Carte & Friends performed the piece at the 2008 international Gilbert and Sullivan Festival claiming that theirs was the first live performance with orchestra since the nineteenth century.

Notes

References

*Eden, David and Parry, William: Notes to 2004 Hyperion recording mentioned above.
*Hughes, Gervase: "The Music of Arthur Sullivan", Macmillan, London 1960
*Jacobs, Arthur: "Arthur Sullivan", OUP, Oxford, 1986 ISBN 0-19-282033-8
*Young, Percy M: "Sir Arthur Sullivan", J M Dent & Sons, London 1971 ISBN 0-460-03932-2
*Website: [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/CAMELOT/rh/forest.htm The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester] consulted 17 December 2006

External links

* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/foresters/index.html "The Foresters"] at The G&S Archive
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/foresters/for_webop.html Links to Midi files, lyricsand script of the play]
* [http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/sullinci.htm#foresters Discussion of "The Foresters" and Sullivan's other incidental music] at the G&S Discography
* [http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/contra_hyperion.htm Discussion of the Hyperion recording of "The Foresters" (and "The Contrabandista")]