If you were there, I was the young man in a dinner suit on the stairs you overheard saying, “Good evening, Dame Bridget.” On other nights I got to say, “Good evening, Dame Peggy” and “Good evening, Dame Ninette.” Greeting Richard D’Oyly Carte’s granddaughter was a lesson in theatre. Gilbert and Sullivan needed D’Oyly Carte to produce their plays; because of him the Savoy Operas are part of our theatre tradition. Outside Sadler’s Wells it was winter, and on some nights audiences wandered into the foyer peppered with glinting snowflakes. It was the sort of thing that delighted Australian eyes.…