The Grand Duke
or
The Statutory Duel
The Grand Duke opened on March 7, 1896 at the Savoy
Theatre, London. This last G&S opera ran for only 123
performances.
In the Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan come full circle,
back to the theme of their first collaboration: A troupe of
actors takes political power. The Grand Duke suffers from
many of the same problems as Utopia Limited — it has a long
and rambling libretto — and it calls for more principal
quality voices than the typical G&S opera.
Nevertheless, the story contains a number of hilarious
moments and funny characters, the settings are colourful
and the music is cheery and flavourful. Some find this
opera to be the most underrated of the G&S works.
Ludwig, an actor, replaces the company manager, Ernest, and
then he replaces the miserly Grand Duke Rudolph of Pfennig
Halbfennig, after "killing" each of them by drawing the ace
from a deck of cards in two "statutory" duels. By winning
the statutory duels, Ludwig assumes all of Ernest's and
Rudolph's rights and obligations. Soon he finds himself
with far more wives, and prospective wives, than he knows
what to do with. Never fear: once again, a lawyer solves
the problem and all ends happily.