Isidore Godfrey
Encyclopedia
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
for 39 years, from 1929 to 1968. He conducted most of the company's performances during that period, except for a few London seasons when Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
was guest conductor and brief periods in the summers of 1947 and 1948 when Boyd Neel
Boyd Neel
Louis Boyd Neel was an English conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.-Early years:...
filled in as guest conductor.
Godfrey led the company in numerous tours, both domestic and foreign, during his tenure, and he conducted most of the company's recordings over that long period.
Life and career
Godfrey was born in London and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' SchoolHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School is a British independent school for boys aged 4–19. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Haileybury Group....
. He studied the piano under George Woodhouse, a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky
Teodor Leszetycki
Theodor Leschetizky was a Polish pianist, professor and composer.-Life:Theodor Leschetizky was born on the estate of the family of Count Potocki in Łańcut. His father was a gifted pianist and music teacher of Viennese birth. His mother Therèse Ulmann was a gifted singer of German origin...
, and in 1914 made a public appearance, at the age of 13, playing in a joint recital at the Bechstein Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
given by Woodhouse's pupils. Godfrey subsequently trained at the Guildhall School of Music
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, where he won prizes for ensemble playing, the Gold Medal
Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
The Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is awarded in April of each year to the winner of the school's music competition.-List of winners of the Gold Medal:*1910: Myra Hess *1924: Isidore Godfrey *1933: Max Jaffa...
for piano and the annual Mercers' Scholarship. While still a student, he performed as an accompanist in London.
Early career
On the recommendation of Sir Landon RonaldLandon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
, Godfrey joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
as chorus master and assistant musical director of its smaller touring company in April 1925. He moved to the main company in May 1926 and in 1929 took over as musical director on the retirement of Harry Norris
Harry Norris (conductor)
Harry Norris was a New Zealand-born conductor best remembered as musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company between 1919 and 1929. After leaving that company, Norris emigrated to Canada to teach but returned to retire in England in the 1960s.-Life and career:Norris was born in...
. Thereafter, his entire career was with D'Oyly Carte. A rare exception to touring with the company came in December 1932, when he shared the conducting with Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
at a royal charity matinée before King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. In the same month, Godfrey conducted the first complete broadcast of a Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
opera, The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
, on Christmas Eve 1932, relayed live from the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Godfrey conducted all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas plus Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
, in performance and for recordings, except Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke
The Grand Duke
The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel, is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and last opera together. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on March 7, 1896, and ran for 123 performances...
, though he recorded excerpts from the former. (Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
had considered reviving Utopia in the 1920s, but abandoned the idea as too expensive.)
Godfrey conducted most of the company's performances during his four decades as musical director, except for a few London seasons, when Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
was guest conductor, and brief periods in the summers of 1947 and 1948, when Boyd Neel
Boyd Neel
Louis Boyd Neel was an English conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.-Early years:...
was guest conductor. Godfrey's assistant musical directors included Alan E. Ward (1930–49), William Cox-Ife (1951–61) and James Walker
James Walker (conductor)
James Walker was an Australian musician, known both as a conductor of ballet and opera and as a recording producer, supervising classical recording sessions....
(1961–68). During Godfrey's long reign as musical director, he conducted artists who had worked under the direction of W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
, such as Henry Lytton
Henry Lytton
Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
, Leo Sheffield
Leo Sheffield
Leo Sheffield was an English singer and actor best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
and Sydney Granville
Sydney Granville
Sydney Granville was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
, and those who were performing at the last night of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1982, such as John Reed
John Reed (actor)
John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
and Kenneth Sandford
Kenneth Sandford
Kenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan....
. In his early years in charge, Godfrey, with Rupert D'Oyly Carte's backing, gradually cut down the number of encores routinely given at the company's performances. The stars and the audiences both resisted, but Godfrey eventually made progress, particularly after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when it was important to keep running times down to a reasonable length.
Touring and later years
During his four decades as musical director, Godfrey took the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on many tours, including eleven to America. The company did not travel with a band but instead used orchestra players hired locally. Godfrey recalled, "we would pick up perhaps eight orchestral players in the first town, take them with us on the tour and make up the orchestra with local players from each of the towns we visited.... On one occasion, I was rehearsing the MikadoThe Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
overture when I noticed that one of the double-basses was plucking the strings in the opening bars. I pointed out that it was not to be played pizzicato but arco, with the bow. "Yeah", he said. "But I haven't got a bow." That's how it was sometimes!"
In wartime Britain, the orchestral situation on tour sometimes verged on collapse. Godfrey’s weekly reports to the company office in London included wry accounts of drummers in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
who could not read music, a nervous cellist in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
who played on three strings at once and a bass player in Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
who took a night off and sent an inebriated substitute. Even in peacetime Godfrey was not lavishly provided for in the orchestra pit. In the 1950s, the magazine The Gramophone
The Gramophone
Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London by Haymarket devoted to classical music and jazz, particularly recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie...
commented: "Whenever Mr. Isidore Godfrey enters the orchestra pit to direct an opera by Sullivan, to whose music he has devoted much of his life, he must presumably steel his aesthetic sense to doing justice to the composer with the tiny forces at his disposal. ... One presumes that an opera company with a repertory of ten operas, playing to capacity without expensive stars and only repairs to scenery and costumes and with royalties pouring in from all over the country, could afford a permanent orchestra of reasonable strength."
In June 1965 Godfrey was awarded the O.B.E.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, on which The Gramophone commented that "nothing short of a dukedom" could adequately reward him. He retired from the D'Oyly Carte company in February 1968 and was succeeded as musical director by his deputy, James Walker
James Walker (conductor)
James Walker was an Australian musician, known both as a conductor of ballet and opera and as a recording producer, supervising classical recording sessions....
, formerly of Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. Godfrey married two members of the company – first, soprano chorister Marguerite Kynaston (they later divorced), and, in 1940, soprano (later contralto) principal Ann Drummond-Grant
Ann Drummond-Grant
Ann Drummond-Grant was a British singer and actress, best known for her performances in contralto roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.Drummond-Grant began her career as a soprano...
. After Drummond-Grant died, Godfrey married a third time in 1961. After retirement, when he held the honorary position of President of the associate members of the D'Oyly Carte Trust, ill-health prevented him from making many guest appearances, but he conducted H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
during the company's centenary season in 1975.
Godfrey died in London in 1977 just short of his 77th birthday.
Reputation
Godfrey was widely admired for his consistent skill in giving Arthur SullivanArthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's scores their essential joie de vivre. As early as 1926, Malcolm Sargent joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company found "a brilliant young assistant named Isidore Godfrey whom I realised at once was made of the right stuff for Sullivan". In the 1930s, Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
praised Godfrey's musicianship and commanding presence, adding, "Mr Godfrey deserves a bigger band":
- Mr Isidore Godfrey approaches his evening's labours with an imperious gesture; he swings round, and with a comprehensive eye reduces even a Gilbert and Sullivan audience to silence for an overture – a very remarkable feat of hypnotism. And then Mr Godfrey's baton attacks the score, as though about to plunge us into GötterdämmerungGötterdämmerungis the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
with his thin Falstaff's army of an orchestra.... Mr Godfrey by sheer force seems to draw some sonority out of his pitifully inadequate instrumental forces; ToscaniniArturo ToscaniniArturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
could do no more.
In the 1960s, Philip Hope-Wallace of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
spoke of "the animation, command and sheer genius for keeping things up to the mark of this most devoted servant of the tradition." Of a 1964 production of Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
at New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
, the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
reported, "The carrot thatch we have loved all these years has now burnished to a silver gold alloy but it could have been dark green for all we cared. What really mattered was that [Godfrey] was there... and that the Company was in superb condition, the best that it has been in for years." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
concurred, "Isidore Godfrey, happily a fixture in the pit, leads the overture with a respect and affection for its delicacies and that is the fashion in which he orders the musical side of the entire performance." "If ever a knighthood were deserved in the cause of true musical devotion, it is here," wrote the critic Ivan March in The Great Records. In 2007 The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music praised him as "inimitable".
A dissenting voice was the critic Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes Blumer is an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.He attended Rugby School and Oxford University before working in publishing....
, who spoke of Godfrey’s recordings as "leaden, lumpen and dull", but his fellow critic Hugo Cole, who had been a D'Oyly Carte orchestra player under Godfrey, wrote admiringly, "he was like Henry Wood
Henry Wood (conductor)
Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...
in that if you watched him you couldn't come in wrong." Members of the company from Leslie Rands
Leslie Rands
Leslie Rands was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married D'Oyly Carte soprano Marjorie Eyre in 1926.-Life and career:...
in the 1920s to John Reed
John Reed (actor)
John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
in the 1960s praised Godfrey – known to company members as "Goddie" – for his musicianship and friendliness.
Recordings
Godfrey's first recording with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was the 1933 The SorcererThe Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
highlights for HMV, followed by his first complete opera, The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
in 1936. When the company returned to the recording studio after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Godfrey conducted a series of eleven complete recordings from 1949–55 for Decca, comprising all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in its repertory.
From 1957–66, the company re-recorded its full repertory for Decca, this time in stereo, adding the first professional recording of Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
and highlights from Utopia Limited. Godfrey once again conducted the entire series, except for Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
and The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
, for which Sir Malcolm Sargent was guest conductor.
His final recordings for the company were a film of The Mikado in 1966 and the company's second stereo recording of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
in 1968.
External links
- Appreciation piece regarding Godfrey's career, Memories of the D'Oyly Carte website