The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Carte, Richard DOyly
(doi´l kärt) (KEY) , 18441901, English impresario. His choice of presentations did much to raise the level of English musical theater. In 1875 he produced Trial by Jury, the first operetta of Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, and he subsequently produced all their other works. In 1881 he built the Savoy Theatre (the first to be lighted electrically), which the operettas made famous. The DOyly Carte company, suspended from 1982 to 1988, continues to perform Gilbert and Sullivans works.