Thank you, thank you, thank you for "The Grand Duke". It's receiving its first fully-staged professional performance in a few weeks' time in London, and it richly deserves it. I don't think the libretto is too bad at all! If there had been a performing tradition, I think some cuts and polishes would have been made. But it's pretty entertaining and even quite thought-provoking. Perhaps not as much in the way of belly-laughs, but some more rounded and interesting (less cartoonish) characters than one usually gets from Gilbert. Especially the flirty and manipulative Julia, who's very far from being a prim and proper (and boring) Gilbertian soprano. And Ludwig... what a part.
I wonder if the real reason for its neglect (or one main reason) was that it's set in Germany - and by the time D'Oyly Carte set up its repertory company in 1906/7, that was no longer something people were comfortable with. I can't really see my grandparents happily going to watch their precious D'Oyly Carte soprano talking in a thick German accent as the "lovely English comédienne – the beautiful Julia, whose dramatic ability is so overwhelming that our audiences forgive even her strong English accent".
Anyway, it's wonderful to have such a good and complete performance of it. And at the very least, it definitely knocks "The Sorcerer" and "Ruddigore" into a cocked hat, and even "The Gondoliers" with its dreadful second act...
