"ancestor and the device of the ghostly ancestors stepping out of their portraits. When ""Ruddigore"" closed, no new opera was ready. Gilbert again proposed a version of the ""lozenge"" plot for their next opera, and Sullivan reiterated his reluctance to set it. While the two men worked out their artistic differences, and Sullivan finished other obligations, Carte produced revivals of such old favourites as ""H.M.S. Pinafore"", ""The Pirates of Penzance"", and ""The Mikado"". ""The Yeomen of the Guard"" (1888), their only joint work with a serious ending, concerns a pair of strolling players—a jester and a singing girl—who are caught"
"Sullivan and Gilbert Sullivan and Gilbert is a jukebox musical by Ken Ludwig with music and lyrics by Gilbert and Sullivan. ""Sullivan and Gilbert"" features over 15 Gilbert and Sullivan songs. It examines a fictional day in 1890 when the Victorian era composer and dramatist, while embroiled in their 1890 ""carpet quarrel"", are requested by Queen Victoria to present a revue of songs from their operas on short notice. The musical premiered in 1983 in Milford, New Hampshire, and it has been revived several times in various places in North America. ""Sullivan and Gilbert"" premiered in 1983 in Milford, New"
"the leading lady, Nancy McIntosh, and refused to write another piece featuring her; Gilbert insisted that she must appear in his next opera. Instead, Sullivan teamed up again with his old partner, F. C. Burnand. ""The Chieftain"" (1894), a heavily revised version of their earlier two-act opera, ""The Contrabandista"", flopped. Gilbert and Sullivan reunited one more time, after McIntosh announced her retirement from the stage, for ""The Grand Duke"" (1896). It failed, and Sullivan never worked with Gilbert again, although their operas continued to be revived with success at the Savoy. In May 1897 Sullivan's full-length ballet, ""Victoria and Merrie"
"to manage, and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, micromanaging everything, the two men have much to argue about. But their admiration for each other as collaborators and friends triumphs. Sullivan and Gilbert Sullivan and Gilbert is a jukebox musical by Ken Ludwig with music and lyrics by Gilbert and Sullivan. ""Sullivan and Gilbert"" features over 15 Gilbert and Sullivan songs. It examines a fictional day in 1890 when the Victorian era composer and dramatist, while embroiled in their 1890 ""carpet quarrel"", are requested by Queen Victoria to present a revue of songs from their operas on short notice. The musical"
"everyone is simultaneously wishing he were one of the others – and consequently everyone is! [demonstrating Gilbert's] favourite theme of change of identity or personality."" As the original score is long lost, others have created their own, and Jonathan Strong's adaptation of Sullivan's non-Gilbert and Sullivan music may be heard on the video of the work by the Boston Massachusetts-based group, Royal Victorian Opera Company. Gilbert (who directed and designed his own shows) was busy in the days leading up to the opening of ""Happy Arcadia"": Four days before ""Happy Arcadia"" opened, Gilbert's one-act farce, ""A Medical Man"", opened at"
"His Excellency (opera) His Excellency is a two-act comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece concerns a practical-joking governor whose pranks threaten to make everyone miserable, until the Prince Regent kindly foils the governor's plans. Towards the end of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, Arthur Sullivan declined to write the music for this piece after Gilbert insisted on casting his protege, Nancy McIntosh, in the lead role; Sullivan and producer Richard D'Oyly Carte, proprietor of the Savoy Theatre, did not feel that McIntosh was adequate. The opera premiered instead under"
"the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Al Goodman and Groucho Marx also released Gilbert and Sullivan recordings. The operas are referred to in other popular media, including video games. For example, in """", a casino is called ""Pirates in Men’s Pants"", a crude play on ""Pirates of Penzance"". The 1970s popular music singer Gilbert O'Sullivan adopted his stage name as a pun on ""Gilbert and Sullivan"" when his manager suggested that it would be good marketing. In the 1950s, the British radio show ""Take It From Here"" featured parodies of Gilbert and Sullivan songs with lyrics about the buses in London."
"a defining part of Gilbert's work. His parodic pokes at grand opera continued to be seen in the Savoy operas. Gilbert's early burlesques were considered unusually tasteful, compared with the others on the London stage, and he would depart even further from the burlesque style after 1869, with plays containing original plots and fewer puns. These included his ""fairy comedies"", such as ""The Palace of Truth"" (1870) and ""Pygmalion and Galatea"" (1871), and his German Reed Entertainments, which led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Gilbert further developed the ""Dulcamara"" tale in ""The Sorcerer"" (1877) and ""The Mountebanks"" (1892),"
"the performance, however, news arrives of Sullivan's death. Some years later, Gilbert is finally knighted. The following additional singing voices were heard on the soundtrack: Elsie Morison, Marjorie Thomas, Owen Brannigan, Harold Williams, Muriel Brunskill, John Cameron and Jennifer Vyvyan. The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is a 1953 British technicolor film that dramatises the story of the collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 14 comic operas, later referred to as the Savoy Operas, which became the most popular series of musical entertainments of the Victorian era and"
"Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ""H.M.S. Pinafore"", ""The Pirates of Penzance"" and ""The Mikado"" are among the best known. Gilbert, who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful ""topsy-turvy"" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion—fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as"
"Gilbert and Sullivan that prevented the revival, and Gilbert's insistence upon her appearing in his 1894 opera, ""His Excellency"", caused Sullivan to refuse to set the piece. After ""His Excellency"" closed in April 1895, McIntosh wrote to Sullivan informing him that she planned to return to concert singing, and so the obstacle to his further collaboration with Gilbert was removed. Meanwhile, Sullivan had written a comic opera for the Savoy Theatre with F. C. Burnand, ""The Chieftain"", but that had closed in March 1895. Gilbert had begun working on the story of ""The Grand Duke"" in late 1894. Elements of"
"The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is a 1953 British technicolor film that dramatises the story of the collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 14 comic operas, later referred to as the Savoy Operas, which became the most popular series of musical entertainments of the Victorian era and are still popular today. The film was written by Leslie Baily, Sidney Gilliat and Vincent Korda, based on Baily's ""The Gilbert and Sullivan Book"". It was directed by Sidney Gilliat, with cinematography by Christopher Challis and production design by Hein"
"V). The success of ""Dulcamara"" and ""La Vivandière"" had shown that Gilbert could write entertainingly in this form, peppered with the dreadful puns traditional in burlesques of the period. The libretti also, at times, show signs of the satire that would later be a defining part of his work. They led to Gilbert's more mature ""fairy comedies"", such as ""The Palace of Truth"" (1870) and ""Pygmalion and Galatea"" (1871), and Gilbert's six German Reed Entertainments which, in turn, led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Although Gilbert gave up direct parodies of opera within a couple of years of"
"Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria (now known as Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria). Amateur groups in Britain produced the piece regularly through the 1920s and occasionally thereafter. A concert of the opera was performed by Valley Light Opera in Amherst, Massachusetts on 8 March 2008 with a narration written by Jonathan Strong. This was the first known U.S. performance of the opera with full orchestra since 1902. For much of the 1890s, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and his wife Helen Carte had struggled to find successful shows to fill the Savoy. They finally found a winning formula in ""The"
"both actresses: Their home was 26 Canterbury Road, St Kilda, Victoria. Mrs. Ralston later lived with daughter Edna at ""Surrey Court"", 137 Ormond Road, Elwood, Victoria. Gilbert and Sullivan Australian compositions John Ralston (baritone) John Morgan Ralston (ca.1882 – 17 April 1933) was an Australian baritone (or perhaps bass-baritone) singer noted for his work in musical comedies and Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Ralston was born in Brisbane, Queensland, the second son of J Ralston. He began singing as a boy soprano at St. Mary's (Anglican) Church, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane in 1894 He began acting with Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, led"
"Savoy opera Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later, those by other composer–librettist teams. The great bulk of the non-G&S Savoy Operas either failed to achieve a foothold in the standard repertory, or have faded over the years, leaving the term ""Savoy Opera"" as practically synonymous with Gilbert and Sullivan. The Savoy"
"""Topsy-Turvy"" (1999) is an award-winning film depiction of the team and the creation of their most popular opera, ""The Mikado"". Another G&S film is the 1953 ""The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan"" (or ""The Great Gilbert and Sullivan"" in the U.S.), starring Robert Morley as Gilbert and Maurice Evans as Sullivan, with Martyn Green as George Grossmith. In a short 1950 film called ""The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan"", Gilbert and Sullivan return to Earth to protest the jazz treatment of their work. In the 1951 film ""The Magic Box"" Sir Arthur Sullivan, played by the film conductor, Muir Mathieson,"
"Gilbert and Sullivan works as operettas. ""Patience"" (1881) was the first opera to appear at the Savoy Theatre, and thus, in a strict sense, the first true ""Savoy Opera"", although the term ""Savoy Opera"" has, for over a century, included the complete set of thirteen operas that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote for Richard D'Oyly Carte: During the years when the Gilbert and Sullivan (“G&S”) operas were being written, Richard D'Oyly Carte produced operas by other composer–librettist teams, either as curtain raisers to the G&S pieces, or to fill the theatre when no G&S piece was available. To their contemporaries, the"
"Gaiety Theatre's suggestiveness and the prudery expected in the drawing room"". In the drawing room version, the song's little maid sat ""by"" Cousin Robin's knee, not ""on"" it. Rather than ""weary of his lover's play"", he became ""fickle as the month of May"". And rather than ""Cousin Richard came to woo"", it was ""till another came to woo."" ""Climbing over rocky mountain"" is the best known piece from ""Thespis"", as it was transplanted in 1879 into one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most successful operas, ""The Pirates of Penzance"". In 1902, Gilbert told a correspondent that this had happened accidentally. He"
"The libretto does contain considerable humour, including a lot of pun-laden one-liners, but Gilbert's trademark satire and topsy-turvy plot complications are subdued in comparison with the other Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The dialogue, though in prose, is quasi-Shakespearean, or early modern English, in style. Critics considered the score to be Sullivan's finest, including its overture, which is in sonata form, rather than being written as a sequential pot-pourri of tunes from the opera, as in most of the other Gilbert and Sullivan overtures. This was the first Savoy Opera to use Sullivan's larger orchestra, including a second bassoon and third"
"to commission another full-length opera from the team. Gilbert and Sullivan scored their first international hit with ""H.M.S. Pinafore"" (1878), satirising the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority and poking good-natured fun at the Royal Navy and the English obsession with social status (building on a theme introduced in ""The Sorcerer"", love between members of different social classes). As with many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise twist changes everything dramatically near the end of the story. Gilbert oversaw the designs of sets and costumes, and he directed the performers on stage. He sought realism in"
"Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied ""Major-General's Song"". The opera was performed for over a century by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions include Joseph Papp's 1981 Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, and spawning many imitations and a 1983 film adaptation. ""Pirates"" remains popular today, taking its place along with ""The Mikado"" and ""H.M.S. Pinafore"" as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas. ""The Pirates"
"and The Two Ronnies' 1973 Christmas Special. Other comedians have used Gilbert and Sullivan songs as a key part of their routines, including Hinge and Bracket, Anna Russell, and the ""HMS Yakko"" episode of the animated TV series ""Animaniacs"". Songs from Gilbert and Sullivan are often pastiched in advertising, and elaborate advertising parodies have been published, as have the likenesses of various Gilbert and Sullivan performers throughout the decades. Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas are commonly referenced in literature, film and television in various ways that include extensive use of Sullivan's music or where action occurs during a performance of"
"some sharp satire at British imperialism, jingoism, the monarchy, party politics and other institutions that might have touched a more sensitive nerve if the opera had a British setting. In this work, Gilbert returns to the idea of an anti-Utopia, which he had explored, in various ways, in his early one-act operas, ""Happy Arcadia"", ""Our Island Home"", ""Topsyturveydom"", and some of his other early works, especially ""The Happy Land"". The previous Gilbert and Sullivan opera, ""The Gondoliers"", also concerns an imaginary island kingdom where the rules of court are considerably different from those in Britain. In ""Utopia"", the island begins"
"and the oratorio ""The Light of the World"" (Birmingham Festival, 1873). He provided incidental music for productions of ""The Merry Wives of Windsor"" at the Gaiety in 1874 and ""Henry VIII"" at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, in 1877. He continued to compose hymns throughout the decade. In 1873 Sullivan contributed songs to Burnand's Christmas ""drawing room extravaganza"", ""The Miller and His Man"". In 1875 the manager of the Royalty Theatre, Richard D'Oyly Carte, needed a short piece to fill out a bill with Offenbach's ""La Périchole"". Carte had conducted Sullivan's ""Cox and Box"". Remembering that Gilbert had suggested a libretto"
"Charles H. Workman Charles H. Workman (5 May 1873 – 1 May 1923) was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was sometimes credited as C. Herbert Workman or C. H. Workman. Charles Herbert Workman was born in Bootle, on the outskirts of Liverpool, Lancashire, and studied singing under his brother, Albert E. Workman, in Liverpool. A newcomer to the stage, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1894 as Calynx in a provincial tour of ""Utopia, Limited"". In 1895, he also played"
"is in love with another man. ""The Gondoliers"" was Gilbert and Sullivan's last great success. In this opera, Gilbert returns to the satire of class distinctions figuring in many of his earlier librettos. The libretto also reflects Gilbert's fascination with the ""Stock Company Act"", highlighting the absurd convergence of natural persons and legal entities, which plays an even larger part in the next opera, ""Utopia Limited"". As in several of their earlier operas, by setting the work comfortably far away from England, Gilbert was emboldened to direct sharper criticism at the nobility and the institution of the monarchy itself. ""The"
"in Gilbert's career, between 1866 and 1869. The first was ""Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack"", a musical spoof of Donizetti's ""L'elisir d'amore"" (1866). Next was ""La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps!"", a parody of Donizetti's ""La fille du régiment"" (1867). After ""The Merry Zingara"" came ""Robert the Devil"" (1868), parodying Meyerbeer's romantic opera ""Robert le diable"", and ""The Pretty Druidess; or, the Mother, the Maid, and the Mistletoe Bough"" (1869), a burlesque of Bellini's ""Norma"". ""The Merry Zingara"" premiered as the centrepiece in a triple bill. It was preceded by a ""domestic melodrama"", entitled ""Daddy"
"National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company (formerly the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company) is an English professional repertory company that performs Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. Founded in 1995 to perform at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, the company generally stages three or four productions each summer, giving up to 16 performances in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and also touring. The company performs full-scale productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan works, with orchestra, using period settings and costumes. Since 2010, in addition to its performances at the festival, the company has generally performed"
"in 1901 leaving the management of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the Savoy Theatre in the hands of his widow, Helen. After a successful repertory season at the Savoy ending in March 1909, the now-frail Helen leased the theatre to actor Charles H. Workman, who had been a long-time principal performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Encouraged by the success of the Gilbert and Sullivan seasons, Workman decided to produce his own season of light opera. He continued the run of ""The Yeomen of the Guard"" until the end of March and then closed the theatre until he"
"his work. He would depart even further from the burlesque style from about 1869 with plays containing original plots and fewer puns. The most successful of Gilbert's opera parodies, ""Robert the Devil"", opened in December 1868. These 1860s pieces led to Gilbert's more mature ""fairy comedies"", such as ""The Palace of Truth"" (1870) and ""Pygmalion and Galatea"" (1871), and to his German Reed Entertainments, which in turn led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The original Liverpool and London casts were as follows: Lord Margate and his five companions are discovered at luncheon. They compliment themselves on their rudeness"
"is not found in the librettos. Many other children's books have since been written retelling the stories of the operas or adapting characters or events from them. In the 19th century, the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan songs and music were adapted as dance pieces. Many musical theatre and film adaptations of the operas have been produced, including the following: Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas"
"cantata. He informs Sullivan that, if he would get around to finishing ""The Golden Legend"", Queen Victoria will attend the premiere. Likewise, when Gilbert calls on Sullivan, he sees him rehearsing ""The Golden Legend"", as Bennett stands watch. When Bennett dozes off, Sullivan turns back to ""The Mikado"". After both works debut, Sullivan is knighted. The Queen inquires if he will write a grand opera. Just before the premiere of their next opera, ""Ruddigore"", Sullivan asks Gilbert to write the libretto for his first grand opera. Gilbert declines, stating that in such a work the words play second fiddle to"