Mock Turtles (opera)

Mock Turtles is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Eaton Faning. It was first produced at the Savoy Theatre on 11 October 1881 as a curtain raiser to Patience,^[1] then from 26 November 1882 to 30 March 1883 with Iolanthe. The piece also toured from December 1881 throughout 1882. It also toured in 1883 and 1884^[2] and enjoyed further revivals, including a tour in 1897 with J. M. Gordon and his company.^[3]

A vocal score was published by Chappells, in 1882, which contains full dialogue as well as music. A copy is in the British Library. The libretto to Mock Turtles was republished by The Gaiety journal in September 2001.

The fashion in the late Victorian era was to present long evenings in the theatre, and so producer Richard D'Oyly Carte preceded his Savoy operas with curtain raisers such as Mock Turtles.^[4] 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.^[5]