Mr. Jericho

Mr. Jericho is a comic opera in one act with words by Harry Greenbank and music by Ernest Ford.

The work was first performed at the Savoy Theatre, London, on 18 March 1893 as a curtain raiser to Arthur Sullivan's Haddon Hall in March and April 1893, and to Ford's Jane Annie in June and July 1893, for a total of 45 performances.

A production of the work was given by Glimmerglass Opera in 1989.

When the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership disbanded after the production of The Gondoliers in 1889, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte needed new works to fill the Savoy Theatre. He asked Sullivan to write additional operas, and one of these was Haddon Hall. 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:

Mr. Jericho was successful enough as a curtain raiser to Haddon Hall that it was selected again to precede Jane Annie. To create the piece, Carte had selected a composer that he knew could get the job done: Ford had studied under Arthur Sullivan and written several operas up to that point. Greenbank was also a known quantity, having supplied the theatre with another curtain raiser, Captain Billy. Greenbank also collaborated on A Gaiety Girl in 1893, a piece that would become a hit and establish his reputation.

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