Henry Brougham Farnie

{{Short description|British librettist and author (1836–1889)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} right|thumb|1882 caricature of Farnie. '''Henry Brougham Farnie''' (8 April 1836 – 21 September 1889), also called '''H. B. Farnie''', was a British librettist, adapter of French operettas and author. Some of his English-language versions of operettas became record-setting hits on the London stage of the 1870s and 1880s, strongly competing with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas being played at the same time.

After attending Cambridge University, Farnie returned to his native Scotland, where he was appointed editor of the ''Cupar Gazette.'' In 1857, he wrote ''The Golfer's Manual'', the first book on golf instruction. In 1860, he wrote books on the flora of St Andrews and on ''The City of St. Rule''. His journalism career brought him to London in 1863 as editor of a new musical journal, ''The Orchestra''. He began to write the lyrics to popular songs, and, in 1867, he began to write plays. During the 1870s and 1880s, Farnie turned out translations and adaptations of dozens of French operas and operettas. Many of the latter had long and successful runs. Among his few enduring lyrics is the "Gendarmes' Duet", adapted from Offenbach's ''Geneviève de Brabant''.

==Life and career== right|thumb|400px|Farnie's golfer's manualFarnie was born in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland, one of seven children of James Farnie and the former Margaret Paterson Cairns.<ref name=genealogy>[http://chrisknight.info/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I8324&tree=Tiger&PHPSESSID=19a233b970ccd0a1fca0e186493c02d6 Information about Farnie from genealogy site]{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He was named after the Whig statesman Lord Brougham, to whom the family claimed to be related.<ref name=times>''The Times'' obituary, 24 September 1889, p. 9</ref> Farnie was educated at St. Andrews University, where he won a prize that took him to Cambridge University.<ref name=mp>''The Morning Post'', 24 September 1889, p. 5</ref> After leaving Cambridge, he returned to Scotland, where he was appointed editor of the ''Cupar Gazette.''<ref name=mp/> In 1857, Farnie wrote the first book on golf instruction, ''The Golfer's Manual: being an historical and descriptive account of the national game of Scotland'', under the pseudonym, "A Keen Hand".<ref>[http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6579142 Live auctioneers], accessed 13 June 2010; and [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50518455 World Cat listing], accessed 13 June 2010</ref> He also wrote the ''Handy book of St. Andrews'', about the flora of that area of Scotland, and ''The City of St. Rule with calotypes by Thomas Rodger'' (1860).<ref>[http://special.st-andrews.ac.uk/saspecial/index.php?a=collections&s=item&key=C&pg=17 University of St. Andrews library photographic archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717152043/http://special.st-andrews.ac.uk/saspecial/index.php?a=collections&s=item&key=C&pg=17 |date=17 July 2011 }}, accessed 13 June 2010</ref>

In 1863 Farnie moved to London, as editor of a new musical journal, ''The Orchestra''. In the first edition of the magazine, he printed one of his own verses, "The Last Stirrup Cup", which impressed the composer Luigi Arditi so much that he set it to music. The song was taken up by Charles Santley and became immensely popular. ''The Morning Post'' stated that it was familiar to "millions of people".<ref name=mp/> ''The Era'' later wrote, "the success of this casual attempt at song writing determined Farnie's future career."<ref name=era>''The Era'', obituary, 28 September 1889, p. 8</ref> The proprietors of ''The Orchestra'', the musical publishers Cramer and Co, engaged Farnie as their literary adviser, with a brief to adapt and translate foreign operas.<ref name=era/> Simultaneously, Farnie found himself in demand as the lyricist for popular songs. Among the songs for which he wrote lyrics were, "The Guards' Song" (music by Dan Godfrey<!-- Not the Dan Godfrey who has a WP article – this one is the latter's father-->),<ref>''The Musical Times'', April 1865, p. 44</ref> "Land Ho" (music by Henry Leslie),<ref>''The Musical Times'', July 1865, p. 103</ref> "The Message from the Battlefield" (music by John Hullah),<ref name=mt70>''The Musical Times'', September 1870, p. 581</ref> "The Dove and the Maiden" (to the tune of "La colombe et l'autour" from ''Le pont des soupirs'' by Jacques Offenbach),<ref>''The Musical Times'', April 1873, p. 53</ref> "The Fall of the Leaf" (music by George Macfarren),<ref>''The Musical Times'', October 1873, p. 251</ref> and "Summer is Nigh" (music by Julius Benedict).<ref>''The Musical Times'', September 1879, pp. 479-82</ref>

===Librettist and adapter of French operettas=== In 1867, Farnie's two-act drama ''Reverses'' was staged at the Strand Theatre. ''The Observer'', in a favourable review, said of Farnie, "if he has not before this tried his hand at dramatic writing, he has at all events now made a very successful essay in the art."<ref>"Strand Theatre", ''The Observer'', 14 July 1867, p. 7</ref> His principal work for the stage, however, was as a librettist. He wrote or adapted libretti for dozens of operettas in the 1870s and 1880s. Although many of Farnie's adaptations were extremely popular and enjoyed long and profitable runs in West End theatres, most of them did not survive beyond his lifetime. One obituary said of them, "few were of very high literary merit. They were furnished chiefly to suit ephemeral public taste, and for the most part ceased to exist with the excitement they created."<ref>"Obituary: Henry Brougham Farnie", ''The Musical Times'', October 1889, p. 603</ref> According to a 1914 article in ''The Times'', the translations were heavy-handed, and "The spoken dialogue was a kind of Sahara between the oases of song ... the attempts to fit English words to French music usually resulted in absolute nonsense."<ref>"Theatrical Humour in the Seventies", ''The Times'', 20 February 1914, p. 9</ref> Even harsher was the judgment of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'': "He had little or no original talent or literary faculty, but an immense knack of vamping up French ''opera bouffes'', glozing over licentiousness sufficiently to get it smuggled past the censor, spicing the dialogue with 'topical allusions,' and converting the lyrics into some sort of patter that would go with the music. The dogerel [sic] he used to produce was something appalling."<ref>''The Pall Mall Gazette'', 24 September 1889, p. 6</ref> Nevertheless, some of Farnie's lyrics have endured, including the "Gendarmes' Duet" (adapted from the comic duet for men-at-arms in Act 2 of Offenbach's ''Geneviève de Brabant'') and "Sweet Dreamer" (with Arthur Sullivan).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/other_sullivan/songs/charmante/charmante.html |title=Background information, lyrics and Midi file for "Sweet Dreamer" |access-date=21 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513105546/http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/other_sullivan/songs/charmante/charmante.html |archive-date=13 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

left|thumb|upright|1898 Tasmanian production [[File:Falka - Weir Collection.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Advertisement for Farnie's adaptation of Francis Chassaigne's ''Falka'']] Among Farnie's earliest adaptations were operas and plays with music by Gounod: ''La reine de Saba'', (which Farnie renamed ''Irene''),<ref>"Crystal Palace Concerts", ''The Daily News'', 14 August 1865 p. 2</ref>''Ulysse''<ref>"St. James's Hall: M. Gounod's ''Ulysse''", ''The Musical Times'', July 1866, p. 332 – a play by François Ponsard with incidental music by Gonoud</ref> and ''La colombe'' (''The Pet Dove'').<ref>''The Musical Times'', February 1871, p. 791; and Fairman, Richard. [https://www.ft.com/content/e69ad8fa-80fc-11e5-a01c-8650859a4767 "Gounod: La Colombe – review"], ''Financial Times'', 6 November 2015</ref> Farnie later prepared Gounod's ''Roméo et Juliette'' for its first British performance in English, given after his death by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890. Farnie's other adaptations include the English libretti for Offenbach's ''Breaking the Spell'' (''Le violoneux'') (1870; later played on tour as a companion piece with ''The Sorcerer''),<ref>Walters, Michael and George Low. [http://www.gsarchive.net/companions/break_spell/index.html ''Breaking the Spell''], The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 3 September 2011, accessed 26 May 2018</ref> ''Geneviève de Brabant'' (1871),<ref>Sherson, Erroll. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5AQ71r_JC6YC&dq=%22genevieve+de+brabant%22+Clodoche&pg=PA263 ''London's lost theatres of the nineteenth century''], p. 263, Ayer Publishing, 1925 {{ISBN|0-405-08969-4}}</ref> ''Barbe-bleue'' (1872, ''Bluebeard''), ''Fleur de Lys'', with music by Leo Delibes (based on ''La cour du roi Pétaud''), starring Selina Dolaro and Emily Soldene (1873),<ref>Adams, William Davenport. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1UM5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA524 "''Fleur de Lys"''], ''A dictionary of the drama'', Chatto & Windus, 1904</ref> a version of ''Dick Whittington and His Cat'' with music by Offenbach (1875),<ref>Gänzl, Kurt. [http://www.operetta-research-center.org/main.php?task=5&cat=4&sub_cat=10&id=00044 "Jacques Offenbach"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727082145/http://www.operetta-research-center.org/main.php?task=5&cat=4&sub_cat=10&id=00044 |date=27 July 2011 }}, Operetta Research Center, 1 January 2001</ref><ref>Elsom, H. E. [http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=2870 "And his cat"], Concertonet.com (2005)</ref> ''The Rose of Auvergne, or, Spoiling the Broth'' (based on ''La rose de Saint-Flour''),<ref>Northcott, Richard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WEtJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52 ''Jacques Offenbach: A Sketch of His Life and a Record of His Operas'']. Press Printers, 1917, p. 52</ref> ''The Barber of Bath'' (based on ''Apothicaire et perruquier''),<ref>Lamb, Andrew. [https://www.academia.edu/10701688/Of_Operatic_Barbers_and_Baghdad_Buxton_Festival_programme_2010_ "Of Operatic Barbers and Baghdad"], Buxton Festival programme, 2010</ref> ''La fille du tambour-major'', the very successful ''Madame Favart'' (1879) and ''The Blind Beggars'' (1882); for Robert Planquette's hit debut, ''Les cloches de Corneville'' (1878) and his ''Rip van Winkle'' (1882), ''Nell Gwynne'' (1884), ''Les voltigeurs de la 32ème (The Light Infantrymen of the 32nd Regiment)'' (1887) and ''Paul Jones'' (1889); for Edmond Audran's ''Olivette'' (1880; another hit), ''La mascotte'' (1881) and ''The Grand Mogul'' (1884, starring Florence St. John, Fred Leslie and Arthur Roberts);<ref>''The Times'', 19 November 1884, p. 6</ref> for Charles Lecocq's ''La fille de Madame Angot'' (1873); for Richard Genée's ''The Naval Cadets'' (1880); for Franz von Suppé's ''Boccaccio'' (1882); for Francis Chassaigne's ''Falka'' (1883); and for Hervé's ''Le petit Faust'' (''Little Faust!''; 1870)<ref>Soldene, Emily. ''My Theatrical and Musical Recollections'', Chapter X, ''The Evening News Supplement'', Sydney, NSW, Australia, Saturday, 20 March 1897, p. 2d; and [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=438896 ''Little Faust!''] Broadway Internet Database, accessed 22 September 2023</ref> and ''Chilpéric'' (1884). With Englishman Edward Solomon, Farnie wrote ''Rothomago or The Magic Watch'' in 1879. With William Marshall Hutchison, he wrote ''Glamour'' in 1886.

Farnie wrote some original libretti, including ''Nemesis''; ''The Bride of Song'', a one-act opera with music by Julius Benedict;<ref>''The Morning Post'', 3 December 1864, p. 4</ref> and ''The Sleeping Queen'' for Thomas German Reed, with music by Balfe.<ref>"New Entertainment at the Gallery of Illustration", ''The Era'', 4 September 1864, p. 5</ref> He collaborated with Robert Reece on 15 of his libretti or adaptations, including ''Up the River, or the Strict Kew-Tea'' (1877),<ref>[http://www.operetta-research-center.org/main.php?task=archart&cat=4&sub_cat=10&id=00090 Information from the Operetta Research Center] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727081746/http://www.operetta-research-center.org/main.php?task=archart&cat=4&sub_cat=10&id=00090 |date=27 July 2011 }}</ref> ''Stars and Garters'' (1878), ''Les cloches de Corneville'' (1878) and ''The Creole'', all at the Folly Theatre, London (where Farnie also acted as stage manager), and ''Boccaccio''.<ref>Adams, William Davenport. ''A Dictionary of the Drama'' (1904), Chatto & Windus, London</ref> At least one of Farnie's libretti was set by two different composers. His ''Nell Gwynne'', a three-act opera, was first set by Alfred Cellier and was staged at the Prince's Theatre in Manchester, where it opened on 17 October 1876 for a run of 24 performances. Later, Robert Planquette set Farnie's libretto, and that version was staged at the Avenue Theatre in London on 7 February 1884 before transferring to the Comedy Theatre for a total of 86 performances. The Planquette version also ran for 38 performances at the Casino Theatre in New York in November the same year. Farnie's shows that were performed on Broadway as well as in London include: ''Sinbad the Sailor'' (1869), ''Pluto'' (1869), ''The Forty Thieves'' (1869), ''Little Faust'' (1870, revived 1871), ''Bluebeard'' (1872), ''Nemesis Not Wisely But Too Well'' (1874),<ref>[http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/icons/playbills/bristololdtheatreroyal.htm Information about ''Nemesis'']</ref> ''Indiana'' (1887),<ref>[http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/html/specoll/WILLPOST.HTM Information about ''Indiana'']</ref> and ''Nell Gwynne'' (1901).

===Marriages and notable legal action=== Farnie married Elizabeth Bebb Davies, of Wales, in 1861, but the couple lived in Scotland. She divorced him for adultery after a few years, and he then married Alethea Emma Harvey, an Englishwoman, in 1865. In 1879, his second wife, also complaining of adultery and cruelty, petitioned the English courts for a declaration that their marriage was null and void. The case made legal history: Harvey's argument was that since the first marriage was solemnised in England, the courts in Scotland did not have the power to end that marriage by divorce, and therefore Farnie had not been free to marry Harvey. The Lords found that the divorce decree of the Scottish courts should be respected by the English courts.<ref>"The Scotch Marriage Law", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 23 April 1880, p. 8</ref>

Farnie died suddenly at the age of 53 in Paris.<ref name=times/> He left his entire estate of £23,072 to his sister, Isabella.<ref>''Reynolds's Newspaper'', 13 October 1889, p. 5. In 2008 values that sum equates to roughly £2million; see [http://www.measuringworth.com Measuring Worth]</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/planquette/plaquette_robert.htm Information about several Farnie and Planquette works] from musicaltheatreguide.com *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060420221553/http://www.gilbertandsullivanonline.com/programm.htm Information about several additional Farnie works] from musicaltheatreguide.com *{{IBDB name}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060504200025/http://www.gilbertandsullivanonline.com/vocalsco.htm Information about two Farnie works] *[http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/solomon/solomon_edward.htm Information about a work by Solomon and Farnie] * Works by [https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Farnie,_Henry_Brougham Henry Brougham Farnie] as Librettist, Translator, & Arranger on IMSLP {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnie, H. B.}} Category:1836 births Category:1889 deaths Category:Scottish opera librettists Category:People from Burntisland Category:19th-century Scottish poets Category:Scottish male poets Category:19th-century Scottish male writers Category:19th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights