Willian Schwenk Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, favoured composer and librettist of Bart Simpson, as far as I can tell. Their earliest collaboration of note is Trial by Jury, which is significant as Gilbert was a lawyer by training. Another early work was the Sorcerer, about a second-rate wizard in suburban London. The Mikado is one of their most famous works, inspired by a notable Japanese exhibition, although Gilbert subsequently claimed that he had had the idea when a samurai sword spontaneously dropped off his wall. Sullivan was always wanting to write a Grand Opera, but when he did, it was a flop, and Queen Victoria much preferred his more humorous works anyway. The operas are known as the Savoy operas, due to their production at the Savoy Theatre, in the Strand, or the D'Oyly Carte operas, after the producer. The last collaboration was the unsuccessful the Grand Duke, about a man who is declared legally dead.

Here are all of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas in order (with the date they opened):

  1. Thespis (1871)
  2. Trial by Jury (1875)
  3. The Sorcerer (1877)
  4. H.M.S. Pinafore (1878)
  5. The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
  6. Patience (1881) - the first of the Savoy Operas
  7. Iolanthe (1882)
  8. Princess Ida (1884)
  9. The Mikado (1885)
  10. Ruddigore (1887)
  11. The Yeomen of the Guard (1888)
  12. The Gondoliers (1889)
  13. Utopia Limited (1893)
  14. The Grand Duke (1896)

http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/
http://www.doylycarte.org.uk

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.