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 lodgers, one who works at night and one who works during the day. When one of them has the day off, they meet each other in the room and tempers flare. Sullivan wrote this piece five years before his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Thespis.
The piece premiered in 1866 and was seen a few times at charity benefits in 1867. Once given a professional production in 1869, it became popular, running for 264 performances and enjoying many revivals and further charity performances. During the 20th century, it was frequently played by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in an abridged version, as a curtain raiser for the shorter Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It has been played by numerous professional and amateur companies throughout the world and continues to be frequently produced.
Background
The Moray Minstrels were an informal gathering of notable men involved in London society and the arts, including painters, actors and writers, who were mostly amateur musicians. They would meet for musical evenings at Moray Lodge, in Kensington, the home of Arthur James Lewis (1824–1901), a haberdasher and silk merchant (of the firm Lewis & Allenby), who married the actress Kate Terry in 1867.Gielgud, p. 5; and "Arthur James Lewis, 1824-1901", The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, accessed 15 June 2013 The Minstrels would discuss the arts, smoke and sing part-songs and other popular music at monthly gatherings of more than 150 lovers of the arts; their conductor was John Foster. Foster, as well as the dramatist F. C. Burnand and many other members were friendly with young Arthur Sullivan, who joined the group.Walker, Raymond. "The Original Cox and Box", The Gilbert & Sullivan News, vol. II, no. 13, Autumn–Winter 1998; pp. 13–15 On one occasion in early 1865, they heard a performance of Offenbach's short two-man operetta Les deux aveugles ("The Two Blind Men")."Leisure Hours of the Art World". The Musical World, p. 174, 25 March 1865 After seeing another operetta at Moray Lodge the following winter, Burnand asked Sullivan to collaborate on a new piece to be performed for the Minstrels.Armstrong, pp. 20–21
Burnand adapted the libretto for this "triumviretta" from John Maddison Morton's famous farce, Box and Cox, which had premiered in London in 1847, starring J. B. Buckstone.Morton, John Maddison. Box and Cox. accessed 11 August 2010 The text follows Morton's play closely, differing in only two notable respects. First, in the play the protagonists lodge with Mrs Bouncer; in Burnand's version the character is Sergeant Bouncer. This change was necessitated by the intention of performing the piece for the all-male gathering of the Moray Minstrels. Secondly, Burnand wrote original lyrics to be set to music by the 24-year-old Sullivan. The date and venue of the first performance was much disputed, starting in 1890, in duelling letters to The World, with Burnand and Lewis each claiming to have hosted it. Andrew Lamb has concluded that the run-through at Burnand's home on 23 May 1866, without costumes or sets, was a rehearsal before a small group of invited friends, followed by the first performance at Lewis's home on 26 May 1866.Lamb, Andrew. "Cox and Box" – A Postscript", The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal, 1968, volume IX, 7, pp.132–133 A printed programme dated 23 May later surfaced, suggesting more than a mere rehearsal,Hulme, David Russell. "The Evolution of Cox and Box" in Eden, pp. 5–6 but the composer himself supported the later date, writing to The World: "I feel bound to say that Burnand's version came upon me with the freshness of a novel. My own recollection of the business is perfectly distinct".Harris, p. VIII, n. 8 John Foster, who played Bouncer in the production, called the run-through at Burnand's house a rehearsal."Mr. John Foster", The Musical Herald, 1 April 1901, pp. 99–101 The original cast also included George du Maurier as Box and Harold Power as Cox, with Sullivan improvising the accompaniment at the piano.
Another performance at Moray Lodge took place eleven months later on 26 April 1867. This was followed by the first public performance, which was given as part of a charity benefit by the Moray Minstrels (along with Kate, Florence and Ellen Terry and others) for the widow and children of C. H. Bennett, on 11 May 1867 at the Adelphi Theatre, with du Maurier as Box, Quintin Twiss as Cox and Arthur Cecil as Bouncer, performing as an amateur under his birth name, Arthur Blunt.Jacobs, p. 51 A review in The Times commented that Burnand had adapted Morton's libretto well, and that Sullivan's music was "full of sparking tune and real comic humour". The rest of the evening's entertainment included a musicale by the Moray Minstrels, the play A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and Les deux aveugles.Gilbert, W. S. Fun magazine, issue for 1 June 1867, pp.128–29 The opera was heard with a full orchestra for the first time on that occasion, with Sullivan completing the orchestration a matter of hours before the first rehearsal. The Musical World praised both author and composer, suggesting that the piece would gain success if presented professionally."Amateur Performance for the Late Mr. C. H. Bennett". The Musical World, 18 May 1867, vol. 45, p. 318 It was repeated on 18 May 1867 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street. The critic for the magazine Fun, W. S. Gilbert, wrote of the 11 May performance:
At yet another charity performance, at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, on 29 July 1867, the overture was heard for the first time. The autograph full score is inscribed, Ouverture à la Triumvirette musicale 'Cox et Boxe' et 'Bouncer' composée par Arthur S. Sullivan, Paris, 23 Juillet 1867. Hotel Meurice.Wimbush, Roger. "Here and There", The Gramophone, October 1966, p. 202 The duet "Stay, Bouncer, stay!" was probably first heard in this revival.Harris, p. XI
There were discussions about an 1867 professional production under the management of Thomas German Reed, but instead Reed commissioned Sullivan and Burnand to write a two-act comic opera, The Contrabandista, which was less well received. Cox and Box had its first professional production under Reed's management, at the Royal Gallery of Illustration, opening on Easter Monday, 29 March 1869, with Gilbert and Frederic Clay's No Cards preceding it on the bill. The occasion marked the professional debut of Arthur Cecil, who played Box. German Reed played Cox and F. Seymour played Bouncer."Royal Gallery of Illustration". Review of the premiere of No Cards and Cox and Box in The Musical World, p. 234, J. Alfredo Novello, 3 April 1869 Cox and Box ran until 20 March 1870, a total of 264 performances, with a further 23 performances on tour. The production was a hit, although critics lamented the loss of Sullivan's orchestration (the Gallery of Illustration was too small for an orchestra): "The operetta loses something by the substitution ... of a piano and harmonium accompaniment for the orchestral parts which Mr. Sullivan knows so well how to write; but the music is nevertheless welcome in any shape."The Athenæum, 3 April 1869, quoted in Harris, p. XII, n. 24
Subsequent productions
Cox and Box quickly became a Victorian staple, with additional productions in Manchester in 1869 and on tour in 1871 (conducted by Richard D'Oyly Carte, with the composer's brother Fred playing Cox),"Public Amusements", Liverpool Mercury, 2 September 1871, p. 6 at London's Alhambra Theatre in 1871, with Fred as Cox,Biography of Fred Sullivan at the Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte website and at the Gaiety Theatre in 1872, 1873, and 1874 (the last of these again starring Fred as Cox and Cecil as Box), and Manchester again in 1874 (paired with The Contrabandista). There were also numerous charity performances beginning in 1867, including two at the Gaiety during the run of Thespis, and another in Switzerland in 1879 with Sullivan himself as Cox and Cecil as Box.Adams, pp. 348–49 Sullivan sometimes accompanied these performances.See, e.g., "Amateurs at Canterbury", The Athenaeum, 20 August 1870, p. 251 The cast for a performance at the Gaiety in 1880 included Cecil as Box, George Grossmith as Cox and Corney Grain as Bouncer. The first documented American production opened on 14 April 1879 at the Standard Theatre, in New York, as a curtain raiser to a "pirated" production of H.M.S. Pinafore.Harris, p. XIV In an 1884 production at the Court Theatre, the piece played together with Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (but later in the year with other pieces), with Richard Temple as Cox, Cecil as Box, and Furneaux Cook as Bouncer."Theatres", The Times, 15 April 1884, p. 6 This production was revived in 1888, with Cecil, Eric Lewis and William Lugg playing Box, Cox and Bouncer.Moss, Simon. "Cox and Box". Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia – Archive: Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, accessed 11 August 2010
The first D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performance of the piece was on 31 December 1894, to accompany another Sullivan–Burnand opera, The Chieftain, which had opened on 12 December at the Savoy Theatre. For this production Sullivan cut the "Sixes" duet and verses from several other numbers, and dialogue cuts were also made. Temple played Bouncer and Scott Russell was Cox. It then was played by several D'Oyly Carte touring companies in 1895 and 1896.Rollins and Witts, pp. 92–97 In 1900, the piece was presented at the Coronet Theatre with Courtice Pounds as Box."The Coronet Theatre", The Morning Post, 25 July 1900, p. 3 In 1921, Rupert D'Oyly Carte introduced Cox and Box as a curtain raiser to The Sorcerer, with additional cuts prepared by J. M. Gordon and Harry Norris. This slimmed-down "Savoy Version" remained in the company's repertory as curtain raiser for the shorter Savoy Operas. By the 1960s, Cox and Box was the usual companion piece to The Pirates of Penzance.Rollins and Witts, pp. 184–86 It received its final D'Oyly Carte performance on 16 February 1977.Turnbull, Stephen. "Cox and Box 1869–1994", in Eden, p. 53
Many amateur theatre companies have also staged Cox and Box – either alone or together with one of the shorter Savoy Operas."Cox and Box", G&S Opera, accessed 28 February 2014 In recent years, after the rediscovery of the one-act Sullivan and B. C. Stephenson opera, The Zoo, Cox and Box has sometimes been presented as part of an evening of the three Sullivan one-act operas, sharing a bill with The Zoo and Trial by Jury.Goldberg, Eric. "Arthur Sullivan: Cox and Box (The Long-Lost Brothers), operetta", Allmusic, accessed 1 March 2014; Benford, p. 19; "Where to Find Offbeat Operas", The New York Times 20 March 1981; and "The Zoo", PBGS, accessed 1 March 2104
Roles James John Cox, A Journeyman Hatter (baritone) John James Box, A Journeyman Printer (tenor) Sergeant Bouncer, Late of the Dampshire Yeomanry, with military reminiscences (Baritone, later bass-baritone) [See "Versions" below]
Synopsis Note: The following synopsis describes the original version. For other versions, see the discussion below.