The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel, is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and last opera together. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 March 1896, and ran for 123 performances. Despite a successful opening night, the production had a relatively short run and was the partnership's only financial failure, and the two men never worked together again. In recent decades, the opera has been revived professionally, first in the US and then in the UK.
In The Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan come full circle, back to the theme of their first collaboration, Thespis: a troupe of actors taking political power. The plot hinges on the mis-interpretation of a 100-year-old law regarding statutory duels (decided by drawing cards). The baffled leading man of the troupe, Ludwig, spearheads the rebellion against the hypochondriac, miserly Grand Duke and becomes engaged to four different women before the plot is resolved. The frugality and phoniness of the wealthy classes and the nobility are lampooned and, as in Princess Ida, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, and Utopia, Limited, the foreign setting emboldens Gilbert to use some particularly pointed satire. Sullivan's varied score includes lilting Viennese waltz music.
Grandduke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status...
TheGrandDuke; or, The Statutory Duel, is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and...
GrandDuke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia (Russian: Михаил Михайлович; 16 October 1861 – 26 April 1929) was a son of GrandDuke Michael Nicolaievich of...
GrandDuke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (Russian: Владимир Кириллович Романов; 30 August [O.S. 17 August] 1917 – 21 April 1992) was the Head of the...
Poland and GrandDuke of Lithuania). The title of theGrandDuke of Lithuania mostly came into force during the reign of GrandDuke Vytautas the Great, who...
GrandDuke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian: Сергей Александрович; 11 May 1857 – 17 February 1905) was the fifth son and seventh child of Emperor...
GrandDuke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (Russian: Великий Князь Дмитрий Павлович; 18 September 1891 – 5 March 1942) was a son of GrandDuke Paul Alexandrovich...
Alexander III of Russia and the senior GrandDuke of the House of Romanov during the reign of his nephew, Emperor Nicholas II. GrandDuke Vladimir followed a...
GrandDuke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia (Russian: Великий князь Константин Николаевич; 21 September 1827 – 25 January 1892) was the Emperor's Viceroy...
GrandDuke George Mikhailovich of Russia (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Романов, romanized: Georgij Mihajlovič Romanov, also spelled Romanoff; German: Georg...
TheGrandDuke of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzog vu Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-duc de Luxembourg, German: Großherzog von Luxemburg) is the head...
GrandDuke Alexander Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian: Великий Князь Александр Александрович Романов; 7 June 1869 – 2 May 1870) was the second son of...
GrandDuke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia (Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович; 14 January [O.S. 2 January] 1850 in St. Petersburg – 14 November 1908 in Paris) was...
GrandDuke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia (25 October 1832 – 18 December 1909) was the fourth son and seventh child of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and...
reforms was begun, with the aim of unifying the disparate territories under thegrandduke's control. The political history of thegrand duchy during this period...
GrandDuke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (Russian: Павел Александрович; 3 October 1860 – 28 January 1919) was the sixth son and youngest child of Emperor...
GrandDuke of Finland, alternatively theGrand Prince of Finland (Finnish: Suomen suuriruhtinas, Swedish: Storfurste av Finland, Russian: Великий князь...
state and its head, theGrandDuke, is a sovereign monarch reigning over his Luxembourgish subjects. TheDuke of Cornwall holds both the dukedom (title) and...
1933) was an Imperial GrandDuke and dynast of the House of Romanov of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor...
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