Weather or No is a one-act comic opera, styled a "musical duologue", by Bertram Luard-Selby with a libretto by Adrian Ross and William Beach. It was produced at the Savoy Theatre from 10 August 1896 to 17 February 1897 as a companion piece to The Mikado, and from 2 March 1897 to 24 April 1897 with His Majesty, for a total of 209 performances. Copies of the libretto and the vocal score (published in 1896 by J. Williams) are found in British Library. There are five musical numbers, including three duets and a solo for each character.

Background

When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership disbanded after the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte filled the Savoy Theatre with a combination of new works and revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. 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. W. J. MacQueen-Pope commented, concerning such curtain raisers: One of the writers of Weather or No, Adrian Ross, would go on to become one of the most prolific and successful lyricists of Edwardian musical comedies.

Synopsis

The story concerns two figures who come in and out of a toy weather house according to whether it is wet or dry, and so they cannot meet. Nevertheless, the couple fall in love and eventually wrench themselves away from their supports so that they may be together.

Cast information

The original cast was:

Critical reception

A review in The Musical Times of 1 September 1896 stated,