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- The Willow Pattern is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Basil Hood and music by Cecil Cook. It was first produced by William Greet at the Savoy Theatre on 14 November 1901, running for a total of 110 performances until 29 March 1902. It toured thereafter. The Willow Pattern was a companion piece to Ib and Little Christina (for 16 performances) and later Iolanthe (94 performances). It and was toured in Britain and America. A copy of the printed libretto is in the British Library, at 11778.f.23(5). (1901). The vocal score was published by Chappells, and a copy is in British Library at F.690.j.(2) [1902]. A silent film of the legend was made in 1914, called Story of the Willow Pattern. When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership disbanded after the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and, after his death, his widow Helen Carte and then lessee William Greet, filled the Savoy Theatre with a combination of new works and revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The fashion in the late Victorian era and Edwardian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so these Savoy operas were paired with curtain raisers, such as The Willow Pattern. 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. ... [They] 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. (en)
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