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Henry Brougham Farnie

February 05, 2023

Henry Brougham Farnie (8 April 1836 – 21 September 1889), often called H. B. Farnie, was a British librettist and adapter of French operettas and an author. Some of his English-language versions of operettas became record-setting hits on the London stage of the 1870s and 1880s, strongly competing with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas being played at the same time.

1882 caricature of Farnie.

After attending Cambridge University, Farnie returned to his native Scotland, where he was appointed editor of the Cupar Gazette. In 1857, he wrote The Golfer's Manual, the first book on golf instruction. In 1860, he wrote books on the flora of St Andrews and on The City of St. Rule. His journalism career brought him to London in 1863 as editor of a new musical journal, The Orchestra. He began to write the lyrics to popular songs, and, in 1867, he began to write plays. During the 1870s and 1880s, Farnie turned out translations and adaptations of dozens of French operas and operettas. Many of the latter had long and successful runs. Among his few enduring lyrics is the "Gendarmes' Duet", adapted from Offenbach's Geneviève de Brabant.

Life and career

 
Farnie's golfer's manual

Farnie was born in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland, one of seven children of James Farnie and the former Margaret Paterson Cairns.[1] He was named after the Whig statesman Lord Brougham, to whom the family claimed to be related.[2] Farnie was educated at St. Andrews University, where he won a prize that took him to Cambridge University.[3] After leaving Cambridge, he returned to Scotland, where he was appointed editor of the Cupar Gazette.[3] In 1857, Farnie wrote the first book on golf instruction, The Golfer's Manual: being an historical and descriptive account of the national game of Scotland, under the pseudonym, "A Keen Hand".[4] He also wrote the Handy book of St. Andrews about the flora of that area of Scotland, and The City of St. Rule with calotypes by Thomas Rodger (1860).[5]

In 1863 Farnie moved to London, as editor of a new musical journal, The Orchestra. In the first edition of the magazine, he printed one of his own verses, "The Last Stirrup Cup", which impressed the composer Luigi Arditi so much that he set it to music. The song was taken up by Charles Santley and became immensely popular. The Morning Post stated that it was familiar to "millions of people".[3] The Era later wrote, "the success of this casual attempt at song writing determined Farnie's future career."[6] The proprietors of The Orchestra, the musical publishers Cramer and Co, engaged Farnie as their literary adviser, with a brief to adapt and translate foreign operas.[6] Simultaneously, Farnie found himself in demand as the lyricist for popular songs. Among the songs for which he wrote lyrics were, "The Guards' Song" (music by Dan Godfrey),[7] "Land Ho" (music by Henry Leslie),[8] "The Message from the Battlefield" (music by John Hullah),[9] "The Dove and the Maiden" (music by Jacques Offenbach),[10] "The Fall of the Leaf" (music by George Macfarren),[11] and "Summer is Nigh" (music by Julius Benedict).[12]

Librettist and adapter of French operettas

In 1867, Farnie's two-act drama Reverses was staged at the Strand Theatre. The Observer, in a favourable review, said of Farnie, "if he has not before this tried his hand at dramatic writing, he has at all events now made a very successful essay in the art."[13] His principal work for the stage, however, was as a librettist. He wrote or adapted libretti for dozens of operettas in the 1870s and 1880s. Although many of Farnie's adaptations were extremely popular and enjoyed long and profitable runs in West End theatres, most of them did not survive beyond his lifetime. One obituary said of them, "few were of very high literary merit. They were furnished chiefly to suit ephemeral public taste, and for the most part ceased to exist with the excitement they created."[14] According to a 1914 article in The Times, the translations were heavy-handed, and "The spoken dialogue was a kind of Sahara between the oases of song ... the attempts to fit English words to French music usually resulted in absolute nonsense."[15] Even harsher was the judgment of The Pall Mall Gazette: "He had little or no original talent or literary faculty, but an immense knack of vamping up French opera bouffes, glozing over licentiousness sufficiently to get it smuggled past the censor, spicing the dialogue with 'topical allusions,' and converting the lyrics into some sort of patter that would go with the music. The dogerel [sic] he used to produce was something appalling."[16] Nevertheless, some of Farnie's lyrics have endured, including the "Gendarmes' Duet" (adapted from Offenbach's Geneviève de Brabant), and "Sweet Dreamer" (with Arthur Sullivan).[17]

 
1898 Tasmanian production

Among Farnie's earliest adaptations were operas by Gounod: La reine de Saba, (which Farnie renamed Irene),[18]Ulysse[19] and The Pet Dove.[20] Farnie later prepared Gounod's Roméo et Juliette for its first British performance in English, given after his death by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890. Farnie's other adaptations include the English libretti for Offenbach's Breaking the Spell (Le violoneux) (1870; later played on tour as a companion piece with The Sorcerer),[21] Geneviève de Brabant (1871),[22] Barbe-bleue (1872, Bluebeard), Fleur de Lys, with music by Leo Delibes (based on La cour du roi Pétaud), starring Selina Dolaro and Emily Soldene (1873),[23] a version of Dick Whittington and His Cat with music by Offenbach (1875),[24][25] The Rose of Auvergne, or, Spoiling the Broth, The Barber of Bath, La fille du tambour-major, the very successful Madame Favart (1879), and The Blind Beggars (1882); for Robert Planquette's hit debut, Les cloches de Corneville (1878) and his Rip van Winkle (1882), Nell Gwynne (1884), Les voltigeurs de la 32ème (The Light Infantrymen of the 32nd Regiment) (1887), and Paul Jones (1889); for Edmond Audran's Olivette (1880; another hit), La mascotte (1881) and The Grand Mogul (1884, starring Florence St. John, Fred Leslie and Arthur Roberts);[26] for Charles Lecocq's La fille de Madame Angot (1873); for Richard Genée's The Naval Cadets (1880); for Franz von Suppé's Boccaccio (1882); for Francis Chassaigne's Falka (1883); and for Hervé's Little Faust! (1870)[27] and Chilpéric (1884). With Englishman Edward Solomon, Farnie wrote Rothomago or The Magic Watch in 1879. With William Marshall Hutchison, he wrote Glamour in 1886.

Farnie wrote some original libretti, including Nemesis; The Bride of Song, a one-act opera with music by Julius Benedict;[28] and The Sleeping Queen for Thomas German Reed, with music by Balfe.[29] He collaborated with Robert Reece on 15 of his libretti or adaptations, including Up the River, or the Strict Kew-Tea (1877),[30] Stars and Garters (1878), Les cloches de Corneville (1878) and The Creole, all at the Folly Theatre, London (where Farnie also acted as stage manager), and Boccaccio.[31] At least one of Farnie's libretti was set by two different composers. His Nell Gwynne, a three-act opera, was first set by Alfred Cellier and was staged at the Prince's Theatre in Manchester, where it opened on 17 October 1876 for a run of 24 performances. Later, Robert Planquette set Farnie's libretto, and that version was staged at the Avenue Theatre in London on 7 February 1884 before transferring to the Comedy Theatre for a total of 86 performances. The Planquette version also ran for 38 performances at the Casino Theatre in New York in November the same year. Farnie's shows that were performed on Broadway as well as in London include: Sinbad the Sailor (1869), Pluto (1869), The Forty Thieves (1869), Little Faust (1870, revived 1871), Bluebeard (1872), Nemesis Not Wisely But Too Well (1874),[32] Indiana (1887),[33] and Nell Gwynne (1901).

Marriages and notable legal action

Farnie married Elizabeth Bebb Davies, of Wales, in 1861, but the couple lived in Scotland. She divorced him for adultery after a few years, and he then married Alethea Emma Harvey, an Englishwoman, in 1865. In 1879, his second wife, also complaining of adultery and cruelty, petitioned the English courts for a declaration that their marriage was null and void. The case made legal history: Harvey's argument was that since the first marriage was solemnised in England, the courts in Scotland did not have the power to end that marriage by divorce, and therefore, Farnie had not been free to marry Harvey. The Lords found that the divorce decree of the Scottish courts should be respected by the English courts.[34]

Farnie died suddenly at the age of 53 in Paris.[2] He left his entire estate of £23,072 to his sister, Isabella.[35]

Notes

  1. ^ Information about Farnie from genealogy site[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ a b The Times obituary, 24 September 1889, p. 9
  3. ^ a b c The Morning Post, 24 September 1889, p. 5
  4. ^ Live auctioneers, accessed 13 June 2010; and World Cat listing, accessed 13 June 2010
  5. ^ University of St. Andrews library photographic archive 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 13 June 2010
  6. ^ a b The Era, obituary, 28 September 1889, p. 8
  7. ^ The Musical Times, April 1865, p. 44
  8. ^ The Musical Times, July 1865, p. 103
  9. ^ The Musical Times, September 1870, p. 581
  10. ^ The Musical Times, April 1873, p. 53
  11. ^ The Musical Times, October 1873, p. 251
  12. ^ The Musical Times, September 1879, pp. 479-82
  13. ^ "Strand Theatre", The Observer, 14 July 1867, p. 7
  14. ^ "Obituary: Henry Brougham Farnie", The Musical Times, October 1889, p. 603
  15. ^ "Theatrical Humour in the Seventies", The Times, 20 February 1914, p. 9
  16. ^ The Pall Mall Gazette, 24 September 1889, p. 6
  17. ^ . Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  18. ^ "Crystal Palace Concerts", The Daily News, 14 August 1865 p. 2
  19. ^ "St. James's Hall: M. Gounod's Ulysse", The Musical Times, July 1866, p. 332
  20. ^ The Musical Times, February 1871, p. 791
  21. ^ Walters, Michael and George Low. Breaking the Spell, The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 3 September 2011, accessed 26 May 2018
  22. ^ Sherson, Erroll. London's lost theatres of the nineteenth century, p. 263, Ayer Publishing, 1925 ISBN 0-405-08969-4
  23. ^ Adams, William Davenport. "Fleur de Lys", A dictionary of the drama, Chatto & Windus, 1904
  24. ^ Gänzl, Kurt. "Jacques Offenbach" 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, Operetta Research Center, 1 January 2001
  25. ^ Elsom, H. E. "And his cat", Concertonet.com (2005)
  26. ^ The Times, 19 November 1884, p. 6
  27. ^ Information about the Broadway production of Little Faust!
  28. ^ The Morning Post, 3 December 1864, p. 4
  29. ^ "New Entertainment at the Gallery of Illustration", The Era, 4 September 1864, p. 5
  30. ^ Information from the Operetta Research Center 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
  31. ^ Adams, William Davenport. A Dictionary of the Drama (1904), Chatto & Windus, London
  32. ^ Information about Nemesis
  33. ^ Information about Indiana
  34. ^ "The Scotch Marriage Law", The Manchester Guardian, 23 April 1880, p. 8
  35. ^ Reynolds's Newspaper, 13 October 1889, p. 5. In 2008 values that sum equates to roughly £2million; see Measuring Worth

External links

  • Information about several Farnie and Planquette works from musicaltheatreguide.com
  • from musicaltheatreguide.com
  • Henry Brougham Farnie at the Internet Broadway Database  
  • Information about a work by Solomon and Farnie

February 05, 2023
henry, brougham, farnie, april, 1836, september, 1889, often, called, farnie, british, librettist, adapter, french, operettas, author, some, english, language, versions, operettas, became, record, setting, hits, london, stage, 1870s, 1880s, strongly, competing. Henry Brougham Farnie 8 April 1836 21 September 1889 often called H B Farnie was a British librettist and adapter of French operettas and an author Some of his English language versions of operettas became record setting hits on the London stage of the 1870s and 1880s strongly competing with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas being played at the same time 1882 caricature of Farnie After attending Cambridge University Farnie returned to his native Scotland where he was appointed editor of the Cupar Gazette In 1857 he wrote The Golfer s Manual the first book on golf instruction In 1860 he wrote books on the flora of St Andrews and on The City of St Rule His journalism career brought him to London in 1863 as editor of a new musical journal The Orchestra He began to write the lyrics to popular songs and in 1867 he began to write plays During the 1870s and 1880s Farnie turned out translations and adaptations of dozens of French operas and operettas Many of the latter had long and successful runs Among his few enduring lyrics is the Gendarmes Duet adapted from Offenbach s Genevieve de Brabant Contents 1 Life and career 1 1 Librettist and adapter of French operettas 1 2 Marriages and notable legal action 2 Notes 3 External linksLife and career Edit Farnie s golfer s manualFarnie was born in Burntisland Fife Scotland one of seven children of James Farnie and the former Margaret Paterson Cairns 1 He was named after the Whig statesman Lord Brougham to whom the family claimed to be related 2 Farnie was educated at St Andrews University where he won a prize that took him to Cambridge University 3 After leaving Cambridge he returned to Scotland where he was appointed editor of the Cupar Gazette 3 In 1857 Farnie wrote the first book on golf instruction The Golfer s Manual being an historical and descriptive account of the national game of Scotland under the pseudonym A Keen Hand 4 He also wrote the Handy book of St Andrews about the flora of that area of Scotland and The City of St Rule with calotypes by Thomas Rodger 1860 5 In 1863 Farnie moved to London as editor of a new musical journal The Orchestra In the first edition of the magazine he printed one of his own verses The Last Stirrup Cup which impressed the composer Luigi Arditi so much that he set it to music The song was taken up by Charles Santley and became immensely popular The Morning Post stated that it was familiar to millions of people 3 The Era later wrote the success of this casual attempt at song writing determined Farnie s future career 6 The proprietors of The Orchestra the musical publishers Cramer and Co engaged Farnie as their literary adviser with a brief to adapt and translate foreign operas 6 Simultaneously Farnie found himself in demand as the lyricist for popular songs Among the songs for which he wrote lyrics were The Guards Song music by Dan Godfrey 7 Land Ho music by Henry Leslie 8 The Message from the Battlefield music by John Hullah 9 The Dove and the Maiden music by Jacques Offenbach 10 The Fall of the Leaf music by George Macfarren 11 and Summer is Nigh music by Julius Benedict 12 Librettist and adapter of French operettas Edit In 1867 Farnie s two act drama Reverses was staged at the Strand Theatre The Observer in a favourable review said of Farnie if he has not before this tried his hand at dramatic writing he has at all events now made a very successful essay in the art 13 His principal work for the stage however was as a librettist He wrote or adapted libretti for dozens of operettas in the 1870s and 1880s Although many of Farnie s adaptations were extremely popular and enjoyed long and profitable runs in West End theatres most of them did not survive beyond his lifetime One obituary said of them few were of very high literary merit They were furnished chiefly to suit ephemeral public taste and for the most part ceased to exist with the excitement they created 14 According to a 1914 article in The Times the translations were heavy handed and The spoken dialogue was a kind of Sahara between the oases of song the attempts to fit English words to French music usually resulted in absolute nonsense 15 Even harsher was the judgment of The Pall Mall Gazette He had little or no original talent or literary faculty but an immense knack of vamping up French opera bouffes glozing over licentiousness sufficiently to get it smuggled past the censor spicing the dialogue with topical allusions and converting the lyrics into some sort of patter that would go with the music The dogerel sic he used to produce was something appalling 16 Nevertheless some of Farnie s lyrics have endured including the Gendarmes Duet adapted from Offenbach s Genevieve de Brabant and Sweet Dreamer with Arthur Sullivan 17 1898 Tasmanian production Among Farnie s earliest adaptations were operas by Gounod La reine de Saba which Farnie renamed Irene 18 Ulysse 19 and The Pet Dove 20 Farnie later prepared Gounod s Romeo et Juliette for its first British performance in English given after his death by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890 Farnie s other adaptations include the English libretti for Offenbach s Breaking the Spell Le violoneux 1870 later played on tour as a companion piece with The Sorcerer 21 Genevieve de Brabant 1871 22 Barbe bleue 1872 Bluebeard Fleur de Lys with music by Leo Delibes based on La cour du roi Petaud starring Selina Dolaro and Emily Soldene 1873 23 a version of Dick Whittington and His Cat with music by Offenbach 1875 24 25 The Rose of Auvergne or Spoiling the Broth The Barber of Bath La fille du tambour major the very successful Madame Favart 1879 and The Blind Beggars 1882 for Robert Planquette s hit debut Les cloches de Corneville 1878 and his Rip van Winkle 1882 Nell Gwynne 1884 Les voltigeurs de la 32eme The Light Infantrymen of the 32nd Regiment 1887 and Paul Jones 1889 for Edmond Audran s Olivette 1880 another hit La mascotte 1881 and The Grand Mogul 1884 starring Florence St John Fred Leslie and Arthur Roberts 26 for Charles Lecocq s La fille de Madame Angot 1873 for Richard Genee s The Naval Cadets 1880 for Franz von Suppe s Boccaccio 1882 for Francis Chassaigne s Falka 1883 and for Herve s Little Faust 1870 27 and Chilperic 1884 With Englishman Edward Solomon Farnie wrote Rothomago or The Magic Watch in 1879 With William Marshall Hutchison he wrote Glamour in 1886 Farnie wrote some original libretti including Nemesis The Bride of Song a one act opera with music by Julius Benedict 28 and The Sleeping Queen for Thomas German Reed with music by Balfe 29 He collaborated with Robert Reece on 15 of his libretti or adaptations including Up the River or the Strict Kew Tea 1877 30 Stars and Garters 1878 Les cloches de Corneville 1878 and The Creole all at the Folly Theatre London where Farnie also acted as stage manager and Boccaccio 31 At least one of Farnie s libretti was set by two different composers His Nell Gwynne a three act opera was first set by Alfred Cellier and was staged at the Prince s Theatre in Manchester where it opened on 17 October 1876 for a run of 24 performances Later Robert Planquette set Farnie s libretto and that version was staged at the Avenue Theatre in London on 7 February 1884 before transferring to the Comedy Theatre for a total of 86 performances The Planquette version also ran for 38 performances at the Casino Theatre in New York in November the same year Farnie s shows that were performed on Broadway as well as in London include Sinbad the Sailor 1869 Pluto 1869 The Forty Thieves 1869 Little Faust 1870 revived 1871 Bluebeard 1872 Nemesis Not Wisely But Too Well 1874 32 Indiana 1887 33 and Nell Gwynne 1901 Marriages and notable legal action Edit Farnie married Elizabeth Bebb Davies of Wales in 1861 but the couple lived in Scotland She divorced him for adultery after a few years and he then married Alethea Emma Harvey an Englishwoman in 1865 In 1879 his second wife also complaining of adultery and cruelty petitioned the English courts for a declaration that their marriage was null and void The case made legal history Harvey s argument was that since the first marriage was solemnised in England the courts in Scotland did not have the power to end that marriage by divorce and therefore Farnie had not been free to marry Harvey The Lords found that the divorce decree of the Scottish courts should be respected by the English courts 34 Farnie died suddenly at the age of 53 in Paris 2 He left his entire estate of 23 072 to his sister Isabella 35 Notes Edit Information about Farnie from genealogy site permanent dead link a b The Times obituary 24 September 1889 p 9 a b c The Morning Post 24 September 1889 p 5 Live auctioneers accessed 13 June 2010 and World Cat listing accessed 13 June 2010 University of St Andrews library photographic archive Archived 2011 07 17 at the Wayback Machine accessed 13 June 2010 a b The Era obituary 28 September 1889 p 8 The Musical Times April 1865 p 44 The Musical Times July 1865 p 103 The Musical Times September 1870 p 581 The Musical Times April 1873 p 53 The Musical Times October 1873 p 251 The Musical Times September 1879 pp 479 82 Strand Theatre The Observer 14 July 1867 p 7 Obituary Henry Brougham Farnie The Musical Times October 1889 p 603 Theatrical Humour in the Seventies The Times 20 February 1914 p 9 The Pall Mall Gazette 24 September 1889 p 6 Background information lyrics and Midi file for Sweet Dreamer Archived from the original on 13 May 2008 Retrieved 21 September 2007 Crystal Palace Concerts The Daily News 14 August 1865 p 2 St James s Hall M Gounod s Ulysse The Musical Times July 1866 p 332 The Musical Times February 1871 p 791 Walters Michael and George Low Breaking the Spell The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive 3 September 2011 accessed 26 May 2018 Sherson Erroll London s lost theatres of the nineteenth century p 263 Ayer Publishing 1925 ISBN 0 405 08969 4 Adams William Davenport Fleur de Lys A dictionary of the drama Chatto amp Windus 1904 Ganzl Kurt Jacques Offenbach Archived 2011 07 27 at the Wayback Machine Operetta Research Center 1 January 2001 Elsom H E And his cat Concertonet com 2005 The Times 19 November 1884 p 6 Information about the Broadway production of Little Faust The Morning Post 3 December 1864 p 4 New Entertainment at the Gallery of Illustration The Era 4 September 1864 p 5 Information from the Operetta Research Center Archived 2011 07 27 at the Wayback Machine Adams William Davenport A Dictionary of the Drama 1904 Chatto amp Windus London Information about Nemesis Information about Indiana The Scotch Marriage Law The Manchester Guardian 23 April 1880 p 8 Reynolds s Newspaper 13 October 1889 p 5 In 2008 values that sum equates to roughly 2million see Measuring WorthExternal links EditInformation about several Farnie and Planquette works from musicaltheatreguide com Information about several additional Farnie works from musicaltheatreguide com Henry Brougham Farnie at the Internet Broadway Database Information about two Farnie works Information about a work by Solomon and Farnie Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Henry Brougham Farnie amp oldid 1084410995, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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