Editing Savoy opera (section)

==Other definitions==
During the years when the [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] ("G&S") operas were being written, [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] also produced, at the Savoy Theatre, operas by other composer–librettist teams, either as [[curtain raiser (drama)|curtain raisers]] to the G&S pieces, or to fill the theatre when no G&S piece was available.<ref name=CR>Walters, Michael and George Low. [http://gsarchive.net/companions/walters_low.html "Curtain Raisers"], The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 16 August 2011, retrieved 27 February 2017</ref> To his contemporaries, the term "Savoy Opera" referred to any opera that appeared at that theatre, regardless of who wrote it.

Aside from curtain raisers (which are listed in the second table below), the G&S operas were the only works produced at the [[Savoy Theatre]] from the date it opened (10 October 1881) until ''[[The Gondoliers]]'' closed on 20 June 1891.  Over the next decade, there were only two new G&S pieces (''[[Utopia Limited]]'' and ''[[The Grand Duke]]''), both of which had comparatively brief runs. To fill the gap, Carte mounted G&S revivals, Sullivan operas with different librettists, and works by other composer–librettist teams.  Richard D'Oyly Carte died on 3 April 1901. If the nexus of Carte and the [[Savoy Theatre]] is used to define "Savoy Opera," then the last new Savoy Opera was ''[[The Rose of Persia]]'' (music by Sullivan, libretto by [[Basil Hood]]), which ran from 28 November 1899 – 28 June 1900.

[[File:Gilbert-workman-german.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Gilbert, Workman and German at a rehearsal]]
After Carte's death, his wife [[Helen Carte]] assumed management of the theatre. In 1901, she produced Sullivan's last opera, ''[[The Emerald Isle]]'' (finished after Sullivan's death by [[Edward German]]), and during the run of that opera, she hired [[William Greet]] as manager of the theatre. Later that year, she leased the theatre to Greet, who then produced ''[[Ib and Little Christina]]'', ''[[The Willow Pattern (opera)|The Willow Pattern]]'', a revival of ''Iolanthe'', ''[[Merrie England (opera)|Merrie England]]'' (1902) and ''[[A Princess of Kensington]]'' (1903), each with a cast made up largely of Carte's Savoy company. Cyril Rollins and R. John Witts adopt ''A Princess of Kensington'' as the last of the Savoy Operas. After ''A Princess of Kensington'' closed in May 1903, Mrs. Carte leased the theatre to unrelated parties until late 1906, when she produced the first of her two seasons of G&S revivals in repertory at the Savoy, with Gilbert returning to direct.

In March 1909, [[Charles H. Workman]] leased the theatre, producing three new pieces, including one by Gilbert, ''[[Fallen Fairies]]'' (music by Edward German). The last of these Workman-produced works came in early 1910, ''[[Two Merry Monarchs]]'', by [[Arthur Anderson (dramatist)|Arthur Anderson]], George Levy, and Hartley Carrick, with music by [[Orlando Morgan]]. The contemporary press referred to these works as "Savoy Operas",<ref>See, e.g., ''The Manchester Guardian'', 17 September 1910, p. 1, advertising ''[[The Mountaineers (opera)|The Mountaineers]]''.</ref> and S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald regarded Workman's pieces as the last Savoy Operas.<ref>See also Farrell, ''passim''</ref>

Fitz-Gerald wrote his book, ''The Story of the Savoy Opera'', in 1924, when these other pieces were still within living memory. But over the ensuing decades, the works produced at the Savoy by composers and librettists other than [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] were forgotten or infrequently revived. The term "Savoy Opera" came to be synonymous with the thirteen extant works of Gilbert and Sullivan. The first collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan – the 1871 opera ''[[Thespis (operetta)|Thespis]]'' – was not a Savoy Opera under any of the definitions mentioned to this point, as Richard D'Oyly Carte did not produce it, nor was it ever performed at the Savoy Theatre. Nevertheless, Rollins & Witts include it in their compendium of the Savoy Operas, as does [[Geoffrey Smith (radio presenter)|Geoffrey Smith]]. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines the phrase as: "Designating any of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas originally presented at the Savoy Theatre in London by the D'Oyly Carte company. Also used more generally to designate any of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including those first presented before the Savoy Theatre opened in 1881, or to designate any comic opera of a similar style which appeared at the theatre".<ref>[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/171499?redirectedFrom=Savoy+ "Savoy"], ''Oxford English Dictionary", Oxford University Press, June 2017, retrieved 9 December 2017 {{subscription required}}</ref>