The Nautch Girl

The Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Edward Solomon, a book by George Dance, and lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez. It opened on 30 June 1891 at the Savoy Theatre, managed by Richard D'Oyly Carte, and ran until 16 January 1892, for a respectable 200 performances, and then Carte toured the piece in the British provinces and colonies.^[1]

The cast included several players familiar to the Savoy's audiences: Courtice Pounds (Indru), Frank Thornton (Pyjama), W. H. Denny (Bumbo), Frank Wyatt (Baboo Currie) and Rutland Barrington (Punka, replaced by W. S. Penley, when Barrington left the company for several months to tour in a series of "musical duologues" with Jessie Bond). The part of Chinna Loofa was the last role that Jessie Bond created at the Savoy. She wrote in her memoirs that it was one of her favourites. The title role was played by Lenore Snyder, the last of a number of actresses who had played Gianetta in The Gondoliers.^[2] The opera has been absent from the professional stage since the 19th century but has been revived occasionally by amateur companies.^[3]

Carte authorized his American producing partner, John Stetson, to mount the opera in the United States, but Rudolph Aronson claimed that he had an ongoing right of first refusal to produce any new Solomon works in the US and threatened a lawsuit; neither of them produced the piece.^[4] The Nautch Girl received its only known North American performances on 7 and 8 August 2004, in an incomplete version by the Royal English Opera Company of Rockford, Illinois.^[5]