Background and Productions
The fashion in the late Victorian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so producer Richard D'Oyly Carte preceded his Savoy operas with curtain raisers such as Quite an Adventure. W. J. MacQueen-Pope commented, concerning such curtain raisers:
- This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers. It would play to empty boxes, half-empty upper circle, to a gradually filling stalls and dress circle, but to an attentive, grateful and appreciative pit and gallery. Often these plays were little gems. They deserved much better treatment than they got, but those who saw them delighted in them. ... served to give young actors and actresses a chance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser, but to them dinner was more important.
Quite an Adventure was first produced on tour in the English provinces by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a curtain raiser for H.M.S. Pinafore. The London premiere was at the Olympic Theatre on 7 September 1881, under the management of Michael Gunn, as a companion piece for Solomon's operetta Claude Duval. It ran until the end of October 1881. D'Oyly Carte again toured the piece in tandem with Patience in 1881, and with Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance in 1882, and 1883.
Quite an Adventure was revived at the Savoy Theatre from 15 December 1894 to 29 December 1894 as a companion piece to The Chieftain. Further provincial performances were given when D'Oyly Carte took The Vicar of Bray and The Chieftain on tour between 1892 and 1895.
A copy of the vocal score (published in 1882 by Chappell & Co.), but no printed libretto, is found in British Library. The score contains music only, no dialogue. A copy of the libretto is in the Lord Chamberlain's collection (filed September/October 1880).
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