I took immense pains over my Gretchen, but it only ran a fortnight. He later told an interviewer: 'I consider the two best plays I ever wrote were Broken Hearts and a version of the Faust legend called Gretchen. The box-office receipts fell off sharply after an enthusiastic opening. Gilbert wrote, in an introductory 'Notice' to the printed version, that the play 'was received with exceptional favour by a crowded house', and that the theatre manager had not given the play a chance by closing it so soon, when it had premiered during Lent. After the failure of Gretchen, Gilbert concentrated on the highly profitable Savoy Operas, writing only a few more plays during the rest of his life. Gretchen lasted only three weeks, although it was given in America in 1886, with May Fortescue in the title role. The Devil, in Gilbert's version, becomes a mere anticlerical raisonneur. The Devil shows him a vision of Gretchen, and Gretchen sees Faust in a dream before she meets him. Gilbert's version of the story differs from most Faust tellings in that Faust makes no agreement with the Devil. The cover of the theatre programme carried a lengthy note by Gilbert earnestly explaining that he was not attempting to put Faust on stage in its entirety, but simply to 're-model. He finished writing the play in December 1878 but did not agree with Neville on many production details, including which set and costume designers to use and some of the casting decisions. Gilbert worked for a total of ten months on the play. He began to study Goethe's Faust in April 1878 and was ready to show his plot outline to Henry Neville, manager of the Olympic Theatre, in June 1878. Gilbert was inspired to write Gretchen after seeing a picture called 'Regrets', showing two priests, one of whom looks wistfully at a pair of lovers. Although Gilbert had met with some success in earlier dramas, his last such piece, The Ne'er-do-Weel (also at the Olympic), had met with a difficult reception in 1878. Gilbert was by then one of the most famous playwrights in England, but he was known more for comedies than dramas, and so Gretchen was anticipated with much curiosity. Pinafore in May 1878, and Gilbert turned to Gretchen as his next project.

Gilbert and Sullivan produced their hit comic opera H.M.S.

Gretchen arthur de pins