Captain Billy by François Cellier is a rare and fascinating example of a genre of Savoy opera initiated by Trial by Jury in 1875, yet all but forgotten today. Premiered in September 1891, it was written to precede as curtain-raiser the main, full-length work of the evening. To words by gifted librettist Harry Greenbank, author of The Geisha, it is the only one-act operetta by Cellier, a composer who was a key figure in the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, that is known to have survived with complete ...