Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/A Peculiar Family

A Peculiar Family

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Original – Illustration to William Brough's A Peculiar Family (1865), for the Royal Gallery of Illustration.

Reason

The play itself is... obscure. It does exist, and it probably just about meets GNG since there's newspaper reviews.

However, this is the only illustration of William Brough's plays we have, and also part of a highly notable theatrical troupe's early days. I think it's great for that reason, even if the play is obscure.

Articles in which this image appears

William Brough (writer), Royal Gallery of Illustration.

FP category for this image

WP:FP/THEATRE

Creator

Robert Jacob Hamerton, restored by Adam Cuerden

• Support as nominator – Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 00:45, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
• Support. MER-C 10:04, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
• Support Charlesjsharp (talk) 17:21, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
• Comment - Not sure I'm seeing the EV with Brough, as the play is not mentioned anywhere, not even in a bibliography. Excellent image, per usual.  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 20:08, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

  Might add it in: We actually have more Brough sources at Royal Gallery of Illustration than at his article. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 04:04, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  @Crisco 1492: I've added the information from the footnote in Royal Gallery of Illustration to his article. It's not a complete bibliography, but it goes a ways to improving things. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 12:41, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  Support now that there is at least a mention.  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 10:18, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

• Support – I see that one reviewer described it as a burletta (i.e., a comic opera), but The Musical Times (April 1, 1865, p. 29) was not impressed by its musical qualities: "A Peculiar Family, although cleverly written, and acted ... with more real intelligence than we often see at the regular theatres, has so little claim on our notice in a strictly musical point of view, that we content ourselves with merely recording its success." Ouch. Still, the image gets a support from me. I wish the text were online, because I really want to know what the significance of the china plate is, and what the suspicious German soldier is writing down in his little notebook. Choliamb (talk) 12:21, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  I believe the music was by Thomas German Reed, as most of Brough's works had music arranged or written by German Reed. He's honesly not a terrible composer; We did A Sensation Novel a bit before COVID, and - while we had a score by a modern composer (Mike Nash), we had a listen to the extant Reed pieces. They're a mixed bag, though:

  • "No father's care" is sentimental smaltz, but pretty good sentimental smaltz.
  • "Oh Agony, and O despair" is pretty decent
  • The Detective's Song is good - but not good enough for six verses without variation!
  • the Jewel Song was actually really good (and we used it instead of the Nash setting; we also used O agony, but Nash never set that one as he knew O agony existed, but the rest were discovered after he set them).

  However, given those survived by being published, it's quite possible that those are the best of the opera's songs, so A Peculiar Family might well be a middling score with a few highlights. It's also possible at least a few of the songs exist, as I don't think anyone's been looking for them (A Sensation Novel's songs were literally right there in the V&A archives, though I don't think they were indexed as Sensation Novel songs, even if the opera's name was in small print on the cover), and it wasn't unheard of for songs to get new lyrics added for publication to make them more generic for a general audience. ("Hushed is the bacon" from Cox and Box has a de-sillified version, for instance) Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 13:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  Maybe this is from it! it's by Reed and Brough. Is it from this opera? Is it from one of the eight others? Who knooooows.... 13:06, 19 April 2023 (UTC) Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 13:06, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  @Choliamb: What about this one? ...Who knoooows? Unless we know what the script is, we can't say. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 13:08, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  Found a date on the first. Could be Seaside Studies, but given the lyrics, The Rival Composers seems likely. But, anyway. That's just the V&A. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 13:13, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  Shame about the 1861 date on "I Never Does Nothing at All". If it were later I could easily persuade myself that it was sung by the maid holding the plate in the scene from A Peculiar Family. (Of course, you can persuade yourself of nearly anything if you try hard enough, and if there's no actual evidence to stop you.) Choliamb (talk) 13:44, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

  Conveniently, checking this British Library copy of a third song would probably put you in the place to check the script anyway. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.2% of all FPs. Currently celebrating his 600^th FP!} 14:58, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Promoted File:William Brough's A Peculiar Family - Royal Gallery of Illustration.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 08:38, 24 April 2023 (UTC)