December 16, 2024 – The great absurdist operetta team of Gilbert and Sullivan were, according to Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra Founder/Conductor Les 
Marsden: the Monty Python of their day - but with ever funnier music.
But not widely known: the great Sir Arthur Sullivan - the utmost symbol of the proper Victorian British gentleman and music composer of the team - actually had a fascinating connection to Yosemite National Park.
(Pictured) Gilbert and Sullivan (L-R) Victorian-era period caricature.
On Saturday December 21 at 2:00 P.M., the audible sounds of the Holidays will burst forth via the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra's Festive Holiday Concert, including the overture to the team's most famous operetta: "The Mikado." The concert, to be held in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School at 5074 Old Highway North in Mariposa, will also include a great many other upbeat, festive works, including Gioacchino Rossini's great comic Overture to "The Barber of Seville," Felix Mendelssohn's sunny "4th - "Italian" Symphony," the fleet-footed horsemen of Franz von Suppé's great "Light Cavalry" Overture, the glorious "Blue Danube Waltzes" by Johann Strauss (II) and the world premiere of MYSO Principal Horn Player Ken Mackie's "Deck the Halls à la Bach," Leroy Anderson's incredibly familiar "Sleigh Ride" and Marsden's "Sierra Christmas Party" - the piece which has closed every single Festive Holiday Concert of the MYSO since their very first concert on December 21 2002. And as the orchestra continues to celebrate its 20th Anniversary Season, this Saturday's Matinee Concert will be held exactly 22 years to the very day since that first concert.
But Sir Arthur Sullivan? What's the story? (Excerpted below from Marsden's program notes, available for downloading or reading at: http://myso.live/FestiveHoliday.pdf.
"One last note on Sir Arthur Sullivan. Queen Victoria knighted Sullivan in 1883 for his services to (serious concert) music, and encouraged him to write a grand opera and presumably, to stop writing the sort of frivolity he had been composing with William S. Gilbert. It’s fascinating to imagine Gilbert boiling away over the fact HE wasn’t granted a knighthood, too – although he FINALLY was, nearly a quarter century after Sullivan received HIS, and seven years after Sullivan’s death. He received his knighthood from Victoria’s son George; Victoria had died in 1901. And I do have to share this: Sir Arthur Sullivan’s older brother Frederic had performed in three of the team’s operas before he died of tuberculosis in 1877, just three weeks after his 39th birthday. His younger brother Arthur sat by his bedside, and was inspired to write the hugely successful parlor song "The Lost Chord" as his brother lay dying.
Frederic left behind his pregnant wife with seven children (and that last one to come) to raise alone, and Arthur became their guardian and supported his brother’s family until he himself died, leaving most of his estate to the children.
And regarding those children? Arthur still supported the family even after they moved to California, against Arthur’s advice. But while there, one of those children – Frederic(k), who bore a striking resemblance to his Uncle Arthur, became an actor and director, and (here’s one of those great coincidences, or IS it?) appeared in extra roles in two Marx Brothers films! (For those who may not know, I've had a 50-year personal and professional partnership with the entire Marx family, beginning with Groucho himself in the early 1970s.)
Frederick appears briefly in 1931’s "Monkey Business" onboard the luxury liner upon which the four brothers are stowaways. He also has a slightly more substantial role in which he sings two lines: 1933’s "Duck Soup" during the trial scene in which Chico is being tried as a spy, but which suddenly breaks out into a major musical number which is even more absurd than anything found in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. In that musical number ("Freedonia’s Going to War!") Sullivan– whose unbilled role as a 
member of the judges’ panel, listed as "Judge #2" – jumps up during the number to sing the lyrics William S. Gilbert might have written: "Each native son will grab a gun…" and his moment of glory is over! Frederick would die four years later, in 1937, of a heart ailment six days after his 65th birthday. Which just made me realize: I knew a man (Groucho,) who knew Sir Arthur Sullivan’s nephew, who certainly knew his uncle… so I have three degrees of separation from Sir Arthur Sullivan: the man who wrote "The Mikado!"
Now: Sir Arthur Sullivan's late brother Frederic had been married to Charlotte Louisa Lacy and as I wrote above, when Frederic died in 1877, Charlotte was pregnant and had seven children under the age of 14. One daughter - Edith, died just after her father. Four years later - in 1881, Charlotte married Captain Benjamin Hutchinson, 13 years her junior. Charlotte's brother William Lacy – who had established a thriving business in Los Angeles, convinced Charlotte, her new husband, and six of her seven surviving children to emigrate to L.A. Her eldest son (Bertie) was left with Sir Arthur, who also paid for the family’s relocation to California. THEN, in January of 1885: Charlotte died, less than a year after the move to California. And so, the now internationally-celebrated Uncle (Sir) Arthur stepped up again a few months later, and just after he finished the score to "The Mikado," and before its London premiere later that year, trekked all the way to Los Angeles for a visit with his surviving nieces and nephews, as well as Captain Hutchinson from June through August. And he then took the family on a trip to see the sights of the Western US, including Yosemite.
While in Yosemite, the news of the July 23rd death of former President Ulysses S. Grant reached the park. Sir Arthur Sullivan’s presence was something of a big deal and he was well-known as an organist in addition to being one half of that famous team. And so, he was asked if he might play the Chapel’s organ during a memorial service honoring Grant, and: he did. The Chapel was built and held its first services in 1879, just six years before Sullivan's visit. Amazingly small world, isn’t it? And now, 139 years after that visit by Sir Arthur Sullivan to Yosemite – little more than 45 minutes away, 139 years after the premiere of "The Mikado" in London, we will offer you the overture to his greatest hit – live, and right here in Mariposa!"
Full concert details are available on the orchestra's website: http://MYSO.live. Advance secure online ticket purchasing is strongly advised; advance tickets are discounted to $10/Adults and $10/Students and are available at http://tinyurl.com/MYSO12-21-24. Tickets are $15/Adults and $10/Students at the door, if not purchased in advance.
This concert is one of the orchestra's most popular annual events and this year's 2:00 P.M. Matinee presentation is offered to those who don't wish to drive after dark.
Sir Arthur Sullivan circa 1888, roughly three years after his Yosemite visit.
Sullivan's nephew Frederick in the Marx Brothers' 1931 film "Monkey Business."
L-R: Frederick Sullivan, Harpo Marx, Groucho Marx
The Yosemite Valley Chapel prior to 1901 - at its original location in
Yosemite Valley near the base of the Glacier Point Four-Mile Trail.
Photographer and date unknown.
Source & photos: MYSO