Editing Richard D'Oyly Carte (section)

===Founding his opera company===
[[File:Trial by Jury cover.jpg|right|thumb|Programme for ''[[Trial by Jury]]'', 1875]]
In 1874, Carte leased the [[Opera Comique]], a theatre off [[Strand, London|the Strand]], where he presented [[Charles Lecocq]]'s new [[opéra bouffe]] ''[[Giroflé-Girofla]]'', given in French by the company who had premiered the work three months earlier in Brussels.<ref>"Opera Comique", ''The Era'', 7 June 1874, p. 12</ref> It did poor box-office business, and had to be closed after two weeks.<ref>Seeley, Chapter 3</ref> He followed it with a modest success, ''The Broken Branch'', an English adaptation of [[Gaston Serpette]]'s ''La branche cassée''.<ref name=DNB/> Carte announced his ambitions on the front of the programme for the latter: "It is my desire to establish in London a permanent abode for light Opera."<ref>"Our Representative Man", ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', 10 October 1874, p. 151</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'' commented, "Mr D'Oyly Carte is not only a skilful manager, but a trained musician, and he appears to have grasped the fact that the public are beginning to become weary of what is known as a genuine opéra bouffe, and are ready to welcome a musical entertainment of a higher order, such as a musician might produce with satisfaction".<ref>''[[The Observer]]'', 23 August 1874, p. 3</ref>

Carte later said it was "the scheme of my life" to found a school of high-quality, family-friendly English comic opera,<ref name="Joseph, p. 11">Joseph, p. 11</ref> in contrast to the crude [[Victorian burlesque|burlesques]] and adaptations of French operettas that dominated the London musical stage at that time.<ref>Ainger, pp. 108–109; and Stedman, pp. 128–129</ref> His experience in writing operettas had convinced him that his own creative talents were inadequate for the task. He later wrote to the dramatist [[W. S. Gilbert]], "I envy your position but I could never attain it. If I could be an author like you I would certainly not be a manager. I am simply the tradesman who sells your works of art".<ref>Stedman, p. 232</ref> Furthermore, in 1874 Carte did not yet have the resources to make his idea into reality, and after his season at the Opera Comique, he terminated his lease.<ref>Ainger, p. 107</ref>

In 1875 Carte became the business manager of the [[Royalty Theatre]], under the direction of his client, the popular singing actress Selina Dolaro who was the licensee of the theatre and star of its production of Offenbach's ''[[La Périchole]]''. To fill out the evening (as long programmes were the fashion in Victorian theatre), he needed another piece. He remembered a libretto for a one-act [[comic opera]] that W. S. Gilbert had written and shown to him in 1873, called ''[[Trial by Jury]]''.<ref>Stedman, p. 125</ref> Meanwhile, Sullivan's popular 1867 opera, ''Cox and Box'', had been revived at the [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]] in 1874, and Carte had already asked him to write a piece for the Royalty. Carte knew that Gilbert had worked with Sullivan to create ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]'' in 1871, and he now suggested that Sullivan could write the music for ''Trial by Jury''.<ref name=Ainger108>Ainger, p. 108</ref><ref>McElroy, George. "Whose ''Zoo''; or, When Did the ''Trial'' Begin?", ''Nineteenth Century Theatre Research'', 12, December 1984, pp. 39–54</ref>  ''Trial by Jury'', a comic treatment of an English courtroom, was an unexpected hit, outrunning ''La Périchole'', and becoming the first step in Carte's scheme to establish a new genre of English comic opera.<ref>Stedman, pp. 129–130; and Ainger, pp. 109 and 111</ref>

[[File:Helen Carte Parasol.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Helen Carte]], formerly Helen Lenoir, Carte's assistant and second wife]]
In June 1875 the Royalty closed for the summer, and Dolaro took her company on tour. While ''Trial by Jury'' and ''La Périchole'' were playing at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in September,<ref>"Public Amusements", ''[[Freeman's Journal]]'', 6 September 1875, p. 1</ref> Carte met [[Michael Ralph Thomas Gunn|Michael Gunn]], a co-owner of the Gaiety. Gunn became a close friend of Carte's, later served as a manager in his theatrical company and was a shareholder and director in his hotel business.<ref>Ainger, pp. 157, 169–171, 184, 193 and 283</ref> Even after the initial production of ''Trial by Jury'' Carte continued to produce continental operetta, touring in the summer of 1876 with a repertoire consisting of English adaptations of French opéra bouffe (Offenbach's ''La Périchole'', and ''[[La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein]]'', Lecocq's ''[[La fille de Madame Angot]]'' and [[Léon Vasseur]]'s ''La Timbale d'argent''), paired with two one-act English after-pieces (''Happy Hampstead'' and ''Trial by Jury''). Carte was the musical director of this travelling company.<ref>''Liverpool Mercury'', 4 July 1876, p. 6; ''The Freeman's Journal'' (Dublin), 28 July 1876, p. 1; and ''The Era'', 23 July 1876, p. 6</ref>

In February 1877 Carte, organising a company for a provincial tour of a successful London [[farce]], auditioned a novice actress called [[Helen Lenoir]]. He engaged her for a small role, but after a few weeks she left the tour and returned to London where she secured an office post in Carte's agency. She gradually assumed a key role in his business affairs and his personal life.<ref name=s22>Seeley, p. 22</ref> [[Frank Desprez]], the editor of ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'', wrote: "Her character exactly compensated for the deficiencies in his."<ref>[[Frank Desprez|Desprez, Frank]]. "The Late Mrs. D'Oyly Carte", ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'', 10 May 1913, p. 19</ref>

Encouraged by the success of ''Trial by Jury'', Carte had been attempting since 1875 to raise money for either a revival of ''Thespis'' or a new piece.<ref>Ainger, pp. 113 and 119</ref> In 1877 he finally found four backers and formed the "Comedy Opera Company" to produce new works by Gilbert and Sullivan, along with those of other British authors and composers.<ref name=DNB/> This allowed Carte to lease the Opera Comique and to give Gilbert and Sullivan firm terms for a new opera.<ref name=Burgess/><ref>Ainger, pp. 130–131</ref> The first comic opera produced by the new company was Gilbert and Sullivan's ''[[The Sorcerer]]'' in 1877, with a plot involving a tradesmanlike London magician and his patented love potion. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte were able to select their own cast, instead of using the players under contract to the theatre where the work was produced, as had been the case with their earlier works. They chose talented actors, few of whom were well-known stars; Carte's agency provided many of them.<ref>Jacobs, p. 111; and Ainger, pp. 133–134</ref> The reception of the piece showed that Carte had been right that there was a promising future in family-friendly English comic opera.<ref>Ainger, pp. 141–148; and Jacobs, pp. 113–114</ref>

''The Sorcerer'' was followed by ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' in 1878. It opened to great enthusiasm but within days of the premiere London experienced an unusually strong and protracted heat wave,<ref>"London", ''The Standard'', 28 June 1878, p. 4</ref> and business in the ill-ventilated Opera Comique was badly affected.<ref>Traubner, pp.  151–152</ref> Takings dropped to £40 a night, and Carte's directors in the Comedy Opera Company advocated cutting their losses and closing the show.<ref>Traubner, p. 152; Jacobs, p. 122; and Joseph, p. 17</ref> After promotional efforts by Carte and Sullivan, who programmed some of the ''Pinafore'' music when he conducted a season of [[promenade concert]]s at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]], the opera became a hit.<ref>Ainger, p. 162</ref> Carte convinced Gilbert and Sullivan that when their original agreement with the Comedy Opera Company expired in July 1879, a business partnership among the three of them would be to their advantage.<ref name=joseph18>Joseph, p. 18</ref> Each put up £1,000 and formed a new partnership under the name "[[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company|Mr Richard D'Oyly Carte's Opera Company]]".<ref>Ainger, pp. 162–167</ref> Under the partnership agreement, once the expenses of mounting the productions had been deducted, each of the three partners was entitled to one third of the profits.<ref name=DNB/>

On 31 July 1879, the last day of their agreement with Carte, the directors of the Comedy Opera Company attempted to repossess the ''Pinafore'' set by force during a performance, causing a celebrated fracas.<ref>Ainger, pp. 170–172</ref> Carte's stagehands managed to ward off their backstage attackers and protect the scenery and props.<ref>Stedman, pp. 170–171</ref><ref>[http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-opcom.html "The Fracas at the Opera Comique"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723085638/http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-opcom.html |date=23 July 2011 }}, ''The Theatre'', 1 September 1879, reprinted at the Stage Beauty website, accessed 6 May 2009. See also "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", ''The Era'', 10 August 1879, p. 5 and "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", ''The Leeds Mercury'', 13 August 1879, p. 8.</ref> The Comedy Opera Company opened a rival production of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' in London, but it was not as popular as the D'Oyly Carte production and soon closed.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 6</ref> Legal action over the ownership of the rights ended in victory for Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan.<ref name=joseph18/><ref>"Supreme Court of Judicature, Aug. 1 – Court of Appeal – Gilbert v. The Comedy Opera Company Limited", ''The Times'', 2 August 1879, p. 4</ref> From 1 August 1879, the new company, later called the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, became the sole authorised producer of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.<ref name=joseph18/>