Mrs. Jarramie's Genie is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier and François Cellier. The piece was first presented at the Savoy Theatre as a curtain raiser to the revival of H.M.S. Pinafore (November 1887 - March 1888). It was subsequently presented as a curtain raiser to revivals of The Pirates of Penzance (March - June 1888) and The Mikado (June - September 1888), and then with The Yeomen of the Guard (October 1888 - November 1889).
No printed libretto or vocal score is found in British Library, and no libretto is filed in the Lord Chamberlain's collection. The score and orchestra parts were apparently lost at sea in a shipwreck off the west coast of South America in 1892, and in 1910, Helen Carte, the widow of the work's producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, gave the libretto to Desprez.[1]
The fashion in the late Victorian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so Richard D'Oyly Carte preceded the savoy operas with curtain raisers.[2]
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The scene is the morning room of Mr. Jarramie's house, Harley Street, London.
The original cast was:
When the piece was performed with Yeomen, Brownlow was replaced by J. M. Gordon. Shortly after opening, Le Breton was replaced by Jesse Smith. In August 1889, Wilkinson was replaced by A. Medcalf and Bowden Haswell replaced Medcalf as Jim. Other substitutions occasionally took place.
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