Editing Richard D'Oyly Carte (section)

===Early opera successes; property interests===
[[File:Pinafore1899.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Scene from ''H.M.S. Pinafore'']]
''H.M.S. Pinafore'' was so successful that Carte soon sent two companies out to tour the provinces.<ref>Stedman, p. 163</ref>{{refn|The company playing at the cities and larger towns was headed by [[W. S. Penley]]; that playing the smaller towns was headed by [[Richard Mansfield]].<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 30–31</ref>|group= n}} The opera ran for 571 performances in London, the second-longest run in musical theatre history up to that time.{{refn|The longest-running piece of musical theatre was the operetta ''[[Les Cloches de Corneville]]'', which held that distinction until the record-breaking run of ''[[Dorothy (opera)|Dorothy]]'' in 1886.<ref name=longest>Gaye, p. 1530; and Gillan, Don. [http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-longr.html "Longest Running Plays in London and New York"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613222559/http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net%2Fth-longr.html |date=13 June 2020 }}, Stagebeauty.net, 2007, accessed 8 October 2009</ref>|group= n}} Over 150 unauthorised productions sprang up in America alone, but because American law then offered no [[copyright]] protection to foreigners, Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan were not able to demand royalties from, or to control the artistic content of, these productions. Sullivan commented that in the US there was a belief "that a free and independent American citizen ought not to be robbed of his right of robbing someone else".<ref>Baldwin, p. 113</ref>

To try to counter this [[copyright infringement|copyright piracy]] and make some money from the popularity of their opera in America, Carte travelled to New York with the authors and the company to present an "authentic" production of ''Pinafore'', beginning in December 1879, as well as American tours.<ref name=Ainger182>Ainger, pp. 182–183</ref> Lenoir made fifteen visits to America in the 1880s and 1890s to promote Carte's interests, superintending arrangements for American productions and tours of each of the new Gilbert and Sullivan operas.<ref name=helenDNB>Stedman, Jane W. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/59169, "Carte, Helen (1852–1913)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004, accessed 12 September 2008 {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/59169}}</ref> Beginning with ''Pinafore'', Carte licensed the [[J. C. Williamson]] company to produce the works in Australia and New Zealand.<ref>Morrison, Robert. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/williamson.htm "The J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company"] {{Webarchive| url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125013641/http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/williamson.htm |date=25 January 2010 }}, ''A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography'', 12 November 2001, accessed 2 October 2009</ref><ref name=Bentley>Bentley, Paul. [http://www.twf.org.au/research/jcw.html "J. C. Williamson Limited"] {{Webarchive| url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203005928/http://www.twf.org.au/research/jcw.html |date=3 December 2008 }}, The Wolanski Foundation, January 2000, accessed 11 April 2009</ref>

In an effort to head off unauthorised American productions of their next opera, ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', Carte and his partners opened it in New York on 31 December 1879, prior to its 1880 London premiere.<ref name=Ainger182/> They hoped to forestall further "piracy" by establishing the authorised production and tours in America before others could copy it and by delaying publication of the score and libretto. They succeeded in keeping for themselves the direct profits of the venture, but they tried without success for many years to control the American performance copyrights over their operas.<ref name=Samuels>Samuels, Edward. [http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc10.htm "International Copyright Relations: 1790–1891"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028222322/http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc10.htm |date=28 October 2008 }}, ''The Illustrated Story of Copyright'' (2000), Edwardsamuels.com, accessed 16 October 2009</ref><ref>Rosen, Zvi S. [https://ssrn.com/abstract=963540 "The Twilight of the Opera Pirates"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210032126/https://ssrn.com/abstract=963540 |date=10 December 2008 }}, Papers.ssrn.com, ''Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal'', Vol. 24 (2007), accessed 16 October 2009.</ref> ''The Pirates'' was an immediate hit in New York, and later London, becoming one of the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas.<ref>Bradley, pp. 86–87</ref> To secure the British copyright, Lenoir arranged an ad hoc performance at the Royal Bijou Theatre, [[Paignton]], Devon, by the smaller of Carte's two ''Pinafore'' touring companies, the afternoon before the New York premiere.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 30; and Ainger, pp. 180–181</ref>

[[File:Savoy-theatre-1881-Phipps.jpg|left|thumb|[[Savoy Theatre]], 1881]]
The next Gilbert and Sullivan opera, ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]'', opened at the Opera Comique in April 1881 and was another big success, usurping ''Pinafore'''s position as the longest running piece in the series<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp 16–19</ref> with the second-longest run in musical theatre history to that date.<ref name=longest/> ''Patience'' satirised the self-indulgent [[Aestheticism|aesthetic]] movement of the 1870s and '80s in England.<ref>Stedman, pp. 181–182; and Jacobs, pp. 147–148</ref> To popularise the opera in America, in 1882 Carte sent one of the artistes under his management, the young poet Oscar Wilde, on a lecture tour to explain to Americans what the aesthetic movement was about.<ref>Crowther, Andrew. [https://www.gsarchive.net/patience/wilde/wilde.html "Bunthorne and Oscar Wilde"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505013114/https://www.gsarchive.net/patience/wilde/wilde.html |date=5 May 2011 }}, ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', 8 June 2009</ref> Carte told an interviewer at that time that he had fifteen theatrical companies and performers touring simultaneously in Europe, America and Australia.<ref>[https://www.gsarchive.net/carte/us_interview.html Richard D'Oyly Carte Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429114011/https://www.gsarchive.net/carte/us_interview.html |date=29 April 2015 }}, ''Freeman's Journal'', 25 January 1882, reprinted at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 2 November 2011</ref>

Carte had been planning for several years to build a new theatre to promote English comic opera and, in particular, the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.<ref name=savoyard>"100 Electrifying Years", ''The Savoyard'', Volume XX no. 2, D'Oyly Carte Opera Trust, September 1981, pp. 4–6; and Ainger, pp. 172–172</ref> With profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and his concert and lecture agency, he bought property along the Strand in 1880 with frontage onto the Thames Embankment, where he built the [[Savoy Theatre]] in 1881.{{refn|Carte chose the name in honour of the [[Savoy Palace]], which had been built on the site in the thirteenth century by [[Peter of Savoy, Earl of Richmond|Peter, Count of Savoy]]. It later passed to [[John of Gaunt]] but was destroyed in the [[Peasants' Revolt]] in 1381.<ref>Joseph, p. 79</ref>|group= n}} It was a state-of-the-art facility, setting a new standard for technology, comfort and decor. It was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electric lights<ref name=Burgess/> and seated nearly 1,300 people (compared to the Opera Comique's 862).<ref>[[J. P. Wearing|Wearing, J. P.]] [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3206178 "The London West End Theatre in the 1890s"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609050912/http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206178 |date=9 June 2016 }}, ''Educational Theatre Journal'', Vol. 29, No. 3 (October 1977), pp. 320–332 {{subscription required}}</ref>

''Patience'' was the first production at the new theatre, transferring there on 10 October 1881. The first generator proved too small to power the whole building, and though the entire [[front of house]] was electrically lit, the stage was lit by gas until 28 December 1881. At that performance, Carte stepped on stage and broke a glowing lightbulb before the audience to demonstrate the safety of the new technology.<ref name=bettany>Bettany, 26th (unnumbered) page</ref> ''The Times'' concluded that the theatre "is admirably adapted for its purpose, its acoustic qualities are excellent, and all reasonable demands of comfort and taste are complied with."<ref>"The Savoy Theatre", ''The Times'', 11 October 1881, p. 8</ref> Carte and his manager, [[George Edwardes]] (later famous as manager of the Gaiety Theatre), introduced several innovations at the theatre including free programme booklets, the orderly "queue" system with numbered tickets for the pit and gallery (an American idea), tea served at the interval and a policy of no tipping for [[cloakroom]] or other services.<ref name=bettany/> Daily expenses at the theatre were about half the possible takings from ticket sales.<ref name=Burgess/><ref>Dark and Grey, p. 85</ref> The last eight of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas were premiered at the Savoy, and all their operas came to be known as [[Savoy opera]]s.

[[File:Savoy-Hotel-from-Thames-1890s.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Savoy Hotel viewed from the Thames, 1890s]]
The [[Savoy Hotel]], designed by the architect [[Thomas Edward Collcutt]], opened in 1889. Financed by profits from ''[[The Mikado]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gsarchive.net/museum/mikado/1938film/book/default.html |title=Cinegram of the 1939 ''Mikado'' film |access-date=11 January 2019  }}{{dead link|date=January 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> it was the first hotel lit by electric lights and the first with electric [[elevator|lift]]s.<ref>[http://www.savoy2009.com/files/savoy_leading_the_past.pdf "Savoy 2009 Leading the Past"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219064916/http://www.savoy2009.com/files/savoy_leading_the_past.pdf |date=19 February 2009 }}, Savoy Hotel website, 2009</ref> In the 1890s, under its famous manager, [[César Ritz]], and chef [[Auguste Escoffier]], it became a well-known luxury hotel and would generate more income and contribute more to the D'Oyly Carte fortunes than any other enterprise, including the opera companies.<ref name=profit>See e.g."The Savoy Hotel" financial reports, ''The Times'', 27 March 1929, p. 23; 13 April 1933, p. 22; and 6 May 1942 p. 10</ref> Carte later acquired and refurbished [[Claridge's]] (1893), The Grand Hotel in Rome (1896), [[Simpson's-in-the-Strand]] (1898) and [[The Berkeley]] (1900).<ref>See, respectively, [http://www.claridges.co.uk/page.aspx?id=1846 www.claridges.co.uk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130073024/http://www.claridges.co.uk/page.aspx?id=1846 |date=30 November 2009 }}; [https://web.archive.org/web/20021221064512/http://www.the-savoy-group.com/Simpsons/AboutUs/History/history.asp www.the-savoy-group.com]; [http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/page.aspx?id=476 www.the-berkeley.co.uk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911015247/http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/page.aspx?id=476 |date=11 September 2009 }}; and [http://www.cosmopolis.ch/travel/rome/st_regis_grand_hotel_e0100.htm www.cosmopolis.ch] and ''The Times'', 21 July 1896, p. 4; and 20 December 1919, p. 18</ref>