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CHAPTER VIII |
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SOME COMPOSERS OF SULLIVAN'S DAY
T
HE mention of Sullivan's Savoy operas calls to mind the names of two other operatic composers, Alfred Cellier and Edward Solomon. The latter is chiefly remembered as the composer ot The Nautch Girl, The Red Hussar, and The Vicar of Bray, an opera that had only a moderate run. Of his separate songs " The Bonny Oak Tree" and "The Stile at the End of the Lane" were fairly popular.
The most famous of Cellier's songs were "So Fare Thee Well," out of Doris, and "Queen of My Heart" and "Be Wise in Time," from Dorothy. "So Fare Thee Well" is one of Ben Davies's favourite songs, and he has probably sung it more often than any singer living. It may not be generally remembered that Cellier wrote a "serious" cycle which Ben Davies produced. The cycle, says the latter, was an immense success with the audience, but the critics would have none of it. For them Cellier was a writer of light operas, and as such incapable of any good serious work.
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