D’Oyly Carte Opera Company

The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company  – 1875-1982

The unique and quintessential classic D’Oyly Carte Opera Company closed in 1982 after 107 years. During those years, which encompassed two world wars and great social change, countless numbers of people were involved in maintaining the success of the company – those working in it as well as the audiences who flocked to enjoy the matchless wit of Gilbert & Sullivan. When the copyright on the operas began to expire in the 1960s, new, less traditional, productions appeared, and the company struggled to maintain its hitherto unrivaled position. Alongside the rising costs of the 1970s, it became obvious that unless a heavy injection of financial assistance made itself available and, some would say, a shift in attitude, the company couldn’t survive the slings and arrows of a changing world. At a low point in the company’s history Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte declared her intention to close the company after the centenary season in 1975. However, fate intervened in the form of the American Impresario, James Nederlander, who made an offer the company couldn’t refuse: Two extensive tours of the USA in 1976 and 1978.

This boosted the company’s morale and they forged ahead with renewed incentive. Four more Decca recordings were in the pipeline, and following on the heels of the American tours came a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand. But after those heady years of grace the situation deteriorated and as the 1980s began, it was again clear that unless some serious funding presented itself, the company couldn’t survive. In 1982, after a last-ditch attempt to obtain funding from the Arts Council had failed, the D’Oyly Carte finally shut its doors. Thus the 107 year lineage of that unique                                                     and quintessential company, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company,                                                 was broken and an era was over. *      

The Yeomen of the Guard – Jane Metcalfe, John Reed and Barbara Lilley 1976

 * Full details of the history of the D’Oyly Carte may                                                                           be found at:  http://www.doylycarte.org.uk/about