Gilbert and Sullivan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan

Librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896.

The Gilbert and Sullivan works have enjoyed broad and enduring international success, particularly in the English-speaking world. H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, in particular, introduced innovations in content and form that directly influenced the musical theatre of the 20th century.[1] Their works have become known as the Savoy Operas, after the Savoy Theatre in London, which was built in 1881 by their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, to present their operas.[2]

Gilbert, who wrote the words, created fanciful worlds for these operas, where an absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion. In these worlds fairies rub elbows with English lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates turn out to be noblemen who have gone wrong. The lyrics employ double (and triple) rhyming and punning, and served as a model for such 20th century Broadway lyricists as P.G. Wodehouse,[3] Cole Porter,[4] Ira Gershwin,[5] and Lorenz Hart.[1] Sullivan, the composer, who also wrote many hymns, oratorios, part songs and orchestral works, contributed tuneful and memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos, and his musical ingenuity and craft equalled or surpassed that of many important classical composers.[6]

Gilbert and Sullivan sometimes had a strained working relationship, partly caused by the fact that each man saw himself allowing his work to be subjugated to the other's, and partly caused by the opposing personalities of the two – Gilbert was often confrontational and notoriously thin-skinned (though prone to acts of extraordinary kindness), while Sullivan eschewed conflict. In addition, Gilbert imbued his libretti with "topsy-turvy" situations in which the social order was turned upside down. After a time, these subjects were often at odds with Sullivan's desire for realism and emotional content.[7] In addition, Gilbert's political satire often poked fun at those in the circles of privilege, while Sullivan was eager to socialize among the wealthy and titled people who would become his friends and patrons.[8]

For over a century, until it closed in 1982, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performed the Gilbert and Sullivan operas (controlling the British copyrights to the works until 1961) and exercised great influence over the style and traditions for performing these works. Today, many cities, churches, schools, and universities have their own amateur Gilbert and Sullivan performing groups.[9] The most popular G&S works are also performed from time to time by major opera companies,[10] and there are a number of professional repertory companies that specialize in G&S.[11] In addition, every summer, there is a 3-week-long International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England.

Contents

For more information, see W. S. Gilbert
One of Gilbert's illustrations for his Bab Ballad "Gentle Alice Brown"
One of Gilbert's illustrations for his Bab Ballad "Gentle Alice Brown"

Gilbert was born on November 18, 1836. His father William was a naval surgeon who later became a novelist and short story writer.[12] Gilbert illustrated some of his father's stories,[12] and in 1861, he began to write illustrated stories, poems and articles of his own to supplement his income. The poems, published as the Bab Ballads, and the short stories would later be mined as a source of ideas for his later plays, including the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.[13] In the Bab Ballads, Gilbert had developed a unique "topsy-turvy" style, where the humour was derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. Gilbert had already produced half of his 75 plays and operas by 1871, and he also was an innovator in the art of stage direction, following theatrical reformer Tom Robertson.

Theatre at that time Gilbert began writing was in disrepute,[14] and Gilbert helped to reform and elevate the respectability of the theatre, especially beginning with his six family-friendly German Reed Entertainments.[15] At a rehearsal for Ages Ago in 1869, one of these entertainments, composed by Frederic Clay, Clay introduced Gilbert to Arthur Sullivan.[16] Two years later, they would create their first collaboration together.

For more information, see Arthur Sullivan
The Crystal Palace, where several early Sullivan works premiered
The Crystal Palace, where several early Sullivan works premiered

Sullivan was born in London on May 13, 1842. His father was a military bandmaster, and by the time Arthur had reached the age of 8, he was proficient with all the instruments in the band. In school he began to compose anthems and songs, and in 1856, he received the first Mendelssohn prize and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at Leipzig, where he also took up conducting. His graduation piece, completed in 1861, was a set of incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest. Revised and expanded, it was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1862 and was an immediate sensation. He began building a reputation as England's most promising young composer, composing a symphony, a concerto and his successful Overture di Ballo, in 1870.

His early works for the voice included The Masque at Kenilworth (1864); an oratorio, The Prodigal Son (1869); a dramatic cantata, On Shore and Sea (1871); and a song cycle, The Window; or, The Song of the Wrens (1871). He also composed a ballet, L'Île Enchantée and incidental music for a number of Shakespeare plays. These commissions were not sufficient to keep Sullivan afloat during this period. He also worked as a church organist and composed numerous hymns, including "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1872), popular songs and parlour ballads. Sullivan's first successful opera was Cox and Box (1866), followed by The Contrabandista (1867), both with librettos by F. C. Burnand.

The first Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration was Thespis, produced at the large Gaiety Theatre, an extravaganza in which the gods of the classical world, who have become elderly and ineffective, are temporarily replaced by a troupe of actors and actresses. The piece mocked Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld and La belle Hélène, which (in translation) then dominated the English musical stage. Thespis opened at the Gaiety Theatre on Boxing Day in 1871 and ran for 63 performances. Gilbert directed the production himself, as he did all of the G&S operas. Unlike the later G&S works, however, Thespis was hastily prepared and of a more risqué nature, like Gilbert's earlier travesties, with a broader style of comedy that allowed for improvisation by the actors. Two of the male characters were played by women, whose shapely legs were put on display in a fashion that Gilbert later condemned. The musical score to Thespis was never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in The Pirates of Penzance, and the Act II ballet. There have been numerous revivals, either with original scores or adaptations of Sullivan's other music. [1]

Thespis outran five of its nine competitors for the 1871 holiday season and was later revived for a benefit performance. No one at the time, however, anticipated that this was the beginning of a great collaboration, and Gilbert and Sullivan did not have occasion to work together for another four years. Gilbert worked with Clay on Happy Arcadia (1872) and with Alfred Cellier on Topsyturveydom (1874), as well as writing several other operetta libretti, farces, extravaganzas, fairy comedies, dramas, adaptations from novels, and translations from the French. Sullivan also was not idle. He completed his Festival Te Deum (1872), another oratorio, The Light of the World (1873), his only song cycle The Window; or, The Song of the Wrens (1871), incidental music to The Merry Wives of Windsor (1874) and more hymns, including "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1872), songs and parlour ballads. In short, during these years, each man became more eminent in his field.

By early 1875, Richard D'Oyly Carte was managing the Royalty Theatre, and he needed a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach's La Périchole. Gilbert had already written such a short piece on commission from producer-composer Carl Rosa, whose wife's unexpected death had left the libretto an orphan. Carte suggested that it be set to music by Sullivan. Sullivan was delighted with it, and Trial by Jury was composed in a matter of weeks. The little piece, starring Sullivan's brother, Fred, as the Learned Judge, was a runaway hit, outlasting the run of La Périchole and being revived at another theatre.[17]

An early poster showing scenes from The Sorcerer, Pinafore, and Trial by Jury.
An early poster showing scenes from The Sorcerer, Pinafore, and Trial by Jury.

The Sorcerer (1877) was the first full-length example of what came to be known as the Savoy Operas (although the Savoy Theatre had yet to be built). Carte, who was now interested in developing an English form of light opera that would displace the bawdy burlesques and badly translated French operettas then dominating the London stage, asked Gilbert for a comic opera that would serve as the centrepiece for an evening's entertainment. Gilbert found a subject in one of his short stories, "The Elixir of Love", which concerned a Cockney businessman who happened to be a sorcerer, a purveyor of blessings (not much called for) and curses (very popular). Gilbert and Sullivan were tireless taskmasters, seeing to it that The Sorcerer opened as a fully polished production at the Opera Comique, in marked contrast to the under-rehearsed Thespis.[2] The triumvirate of Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte was now an established entity that would survive through a dozen more collaborations.

With The Sorcerer, the D'Oyly Carte repertory and production system came into being. Previously, Gilbert had constructed his plays around the established stars of whatever theatre he happened to be writing for, as had been the case with Thespis. From The Sorcerer onwards, Gilbert would no longer hire stars; he would create them. He and Sullivan selected the performers, writing their operas for ensemble casts rather than individual stars. Gilbert oversaw the designs of sets and costumes, and he directed the performers on stage. Sullivan personally oversaw the musical preparation. The result was a new crispness and polish in the English musical theatre.

The libretto of The Sorcerer relied on stock character types, many of which were familiar from European opera: the heroic protagonist (tenor) and his love-interest (soprano); the elderly woman with fading charms (contralto) and a supporting bass-baritone or two. The "patter" or comic baritone, was often the leading role of their comic operas. This character most often gets to sing the speedy patter songs. Gilbert and Sullivan also fully integrated the male and female choruses into the action, making them, collectively, as important as any principal character.

The repertory system ensured that the comic patter man who would perform the role of the sorcerer, John Wellington Wells, would become the ruler of the Queen's navy as Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, then join the army as Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, and so on. Similarly, Mrs. Partlet in The Sorcerer would transform into Little Buttercup in Pinafore, then into Ruth, the piratical maid-of-all-work in Pirates. Relatively unknown performers whom Gilbert and Sullivan engaged for The Sorcerer and Pinafore would stay with the company for many years, becoming stars of the Victorian stage. These included George Grossmith, the comic baritone; Rutland Barrington, lyric baritone and character actor; Richard Temple, the bass-baritone; Jessie Bond, the soubrette; and Rosina Brandram the contralto.

Gilbert and Sullivan scored their first international hit with H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), satirizing incompetent government officials, the Royal Navy and the English obsession with social status. Hundreds of unauthorized, or "pirated", productions of this work appeared in America.[18] The Pirates of Penzance (1879), written in a fit of pique at the American copyright pirates, also poked fun at grand opera conventions, sense of duty, family obligation, and the relevance of a liberal education.

Patience (1881) satirized the aesthetic movement in general, and the poet and aesthete Algernon Swinburne in particular, as well as male vanity and chauvinism in the military. During the run of Patience, Carte built the large, modern Savoy Theatre, which became the partnership's permanent home. It was the first theatre (indeed the world's first public building) to be lit entirely by electric lighting.[19] Iolanthe (1882) was the first of their works to open at the Savoy. It poked fun at English law and the House of Lords and made much of the war between the sexes. Princess Ida (1884) spoofed women's education and male chauvinism.

In 1882, Gilbert had a telephone installed in his home and at the prompt desk at the Savoy Theatre, so that he could monitor performances and rehearsals from his home study. Gilbert had referred to the new technology in Pinafore in 1878, only two years after the device was invented and before London even had telephone service. Sullivan also installed a telephone at his home, and on May 13, 1883, at a party to celebrate the composer's 41st birthday, the guests, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), heard a direct relay of parts of Iolanthe from the Savoy. According to Ian C. Bradley, this was probably the first live "broadcast" of an opera.[20]

Lithograph from the Mikado
Lithograph from the Mikado

The most successful of the Savoy Operas was The Mikado (1885), which made fun of English bureaucracy in a Japanese setting. Ruddigore (1887), a topsy-turvy take on Victorian melodrama, was less successful. 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 up in a risky intrigue at the Tower of London. The Gondoliers (1889) was a recapitulation of many of the themes of the earlier operas, taking place in a kingdom ruled by a pair of gondoliers who attempt to remodel the monarchy in a spirit of "republican equality." [3]

Gilbert and Sullivan quarrelled several times over the choice of a subject. After both Princess Ida and Ruddigore, which were less successful than the seven other operas from H.M.S. Pinafore through The Gondoliers, Sullivan asked to leave the partnership, saying that he found Gilbert's plots repetitive and that the operas were not artistically satisfying to him. While the two artists worked out their differences, Carte kept the Savoy open with revivals of their earlier works. On each occasion, after a few months' pause, Gilbert responded with a libretto that met Sullivan's objections, and the partnership was able to continue successfully.[21]

During the run of The Gondoliers, however, Gilbert challenged Carte over the expenses of the production. Carte had charged the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre lobby to the partnership. Gilbert believed that this was a maintenance expense that should be charged to Carte alone. As scholar Andrew Crowther has explained:

After all, the carpet was only one of a number of disputed items, and the real issue lay not in the mere money value of these things, but in whether Carte could be trusted with the financial affairs of Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert contended that Carte had at best made a series of serious blunders in the accounts, and at worst deliberately attempted to swindle the others. It is not easy to settle the rights and wrongs of the issue at this distance, but it does seem fairly clear that there was something very wrong with the accounts at this time. Gilbert wrote to Sullivan on 28 May, 1891, a year after the end of the "Quarrel", that Carte had admitted "an unintentional overcharge of nearly £1,000 in the electric lighting accounts alone."[22]

Sullivan sided with Carte, who was building a theatre in London for the production of new English grand operas, with Sullivan's Ivanhoe as the inaugural work. While the protracted quarrel worked itself out in the courts and in public, Gilbert wrote The Mountebanks with Alfred Cellier and the flop Haste to the Wedding with George Grossmith,[23] and Sullivan wrote Haddon Hall with Sidney Grundy, in addition to Ivanhoe.

In 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation by the pair and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, Tom Chappell, stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded.[24]

The Drawing Room Scene from Act II of Utopia.
The Drawing Room Scene from Act II of Utopia.

Utopia, Limited (1893), their penultimate opera, was a very modest success, and The Grand Duke (1896) was an outright failure.[25] Neither work entered the "canon" of regularly-performed Gilbert and Sullivan works until the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made the first complete professional recordings of the two operas in the 1970s. Gilbert also offered a third libretto to Sullivan (His Excellency, 1894), but Gilbert's insistence on casting Nancy McIntosh, his protégée from Utopia, led to Sullivan's refusal.[26]

After The Grand Duke, the partners saw no reason to work together again. Sullivan, by this time in exceedingly poor health, died four years later, although to the end he continued to write new comic operas for the Savoy with other librettists, most successfully The Rose of Persia (1899), and The Emerald Isle (1901) (finished by Edward German after Sullivan's death). Gilbert went into semi-retirement, although he continued to direct revivals of the Savoy Operas and wrote new plays occasionally. He wrote only one more comic opera, Fallen Fairies (1909; music by Edward German), which was not a success. Richard D'Oyly Carte died in 1901, and his widow, Helen, and then his son, Rupert, followed by his granddaughter, Bridget, continued to direct the activities of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which staged revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas until it closed in 1982.

Because of the unusual success of the operas, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company were able, from the start, to license the works to other professional companies, such as the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and to amateur societies. For almost a century, until the British copyrights expired in 1961, and even afterwards, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company influenced productions of the operas worldwide, creating a "performing tradition" for most of the operas that is still referred to today by many directors. D'Oyly Carte also produced several attractive recordings of most of the operas, helping to keep them popular through the decades. Today, numerous repertory companies, opera companies and amateur societies continue to produce the works.

  • The Distant Shore (1874)
  • The Love that Loves Me Not (1875)
  • Sweethearts (1875), based on Gilbert's 1874 play, Sweethearts

Gilbert and Sullivan operas have been translated into many languages, including Portuguese, Yiddish, Hebrew, Swedish, Danish, Estonian, Spanish (including Pinafore, reportedly, in zarzuela style), and many others.

There are many German versions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including the popular Der Mikado. There is even a German version of The Grand Duke. Some German translations were made by Friedrich Zell and Richard Genée, librettists of Die Fledermaus, Eine Nacht in Venedig and other Viennese operettas. They even translated such a lesser-known opera as Sullivan's The Chieftain ("Der Häuptling").

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, filled as they are with parodies of their contemporary culture, are themselves frequently parodied or pastiched; a notable example of this is Tom Lehrer's The Elements, which consists of Lehrer's rhyming rendition of the names of all the chemical elements set to the music of the "Major-General's Song" from Pirates. Lehrer also includes a verse parodying a G&S finale in his patchwork of stylistic creations Clementine ("full of words and music and signifying nothing", as Lehrer put it, thus parodying G&S and Shakespeare in the same sentence).

The popular modern song, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here" is set to the tune of "With cat-like tread" from The Pirates of Penzance (in particular, the segment that starts, "Come, friends who plough the sea…"

Allan Sherman sang several parodies of Gilbert and Sullivan:

  • I'm called Little Butterball (about Sherman's admitted corpulence, based on a song from H.M.S. Pinafore)
  • When I was a lad I went to Yale (about a young advertising agent, based on the patter song from H.M.S. Pinafore)
  • You need an analyst, a psychoanalyst (a variant on "I've got a little list" from The Mikado)
  • Titwillow (about a Yiddish-talking bird that meets a sad fate, and based on the song from The Mikado with the same title)

Anna Russell performed a parody called "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera."

In "Runaround", a short story in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, Powell and Donovan encounter a robot who, while in a state similar to drunkenness, sings snippets of "There Grew a Little Flower" (from Ruddigore), "I'm Called Little Buttercup" (from Pinafore), "When I First Put This Uniform On" (from Patience), and "The Nightmare Song" (from Iolanthe). Asimov, who was a fan of G&S, wrote other stories with reference to their operas, including one which revolved around a time-traveller saving the score to Thespis.

P. G. Wodehouse makes dozens of references to Gilbert and Sullivan in his works.[27]

  • Colin Higgins's film Foul Play (1978) features an assassination attempt during a showing of The Mikado. The thwarted assassin falls into the rigging used as a backdrop for Pinafore. The backdrop then lowers behind the stage in full view of the audience.
  • Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy (1999) is an acclaimed film depiction of the team and the creation of their most popular opera, The Mikado.
  • The score of the film Chariots of Fire (1981) draws heavily on the G&S repertoire.
  • In Curtis Hanson's film The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992), the score includes songs from several Savoy operas.
  • In the ninth Star Trek feature film, Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), the characters Captain Picard, Worf and Data sing "A British Tar" from Pinafore.
  • In Walt Disney's cartoon Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), the finale where Mickey saves Princess Minnie and Daisy is set at the Paris Opera House where a performance is being held based on the works of G&S. The songs used are: "With Cat Like Tread", "The Major General's Song", "Poor Wandering One", and the overture from Princess Ida.
  • In the movie Kate and Leopold, there are multiple references made to Pirates including a scene where Leopold sings the "Major-General's Song" and accompanies himself on the piano.
  • In the movie The Good Shepherd, Matt Damon's character sings Little Buttercup's song falsetto in an all-male version of Pinafore at Yale University.
  • The character Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) sings Pinafore tunes when he is excited or overjoyed.

Gilbert and Sullivan and songs from the operas have been referenced in numerous TV series, including, for instance, the following: a "Magnum, P.I." episode is entitled "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime"; Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm uses Three Little Maids from The Mikado as background music; the Season 3 Finale of the computer-animated cartoon ReBoot featured a parody of the Major-General's Song; The Simpsons has referenced G&S in several episodes, including "Cape Feare", "Deep Space Homer", and "Bart's Inner Child"; numerous references in Animaniacs, such as the short entitled "HMS Yakko" (includes its famous parody of the Major-General's Song, "I Am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual"); numerous Frasier episodes; an Angel episode in the fifth season where Charles Gunn has the ability to be a good lawyer input into his head, along with a lot of G&S, because it's "great for elocution"; the episode "And It's Surely To Their Credit" (2x05) of The West Wing; the episode The Cold Open (1x02) of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; a Babylon 5 episode; in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Harold Bishop often makes G&S references; references in the VeggieTales episodes "Lyle the Kindly Viking", "The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment", "The Star of Christmas", and "Sumo of the Opera"; Family Guy drew referred to and parodied G&S a number of times, especially in season four; Muppet Wiki has a G&S page at http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Gilbert_and_Sullivan.

  1. ^ a b Peter Downs' Actors Cast Away Cares, on courant.com, downloaded 30 October 2006
  2. ^ Information about the Savoy Theatre
  3. ^ The Guardian Newspaper's overview of P.G. Wodehouse, downloaded 30 October 2006
  4. ^ PBS Guide to teachers lecturing on Cole Porter, downloaded 30 October 2006
  5. ^ Review of Philip Furia's Ira Gershwin: The Art of a Lyricist, downloaded 30 October 2006
  6. ^ Obituary of Sullivan in The Musical Times, December 1900. Note the quote from George Grove. (Downloaded 30 October 2006)
  7. ^ See, e.g. Ainger, p. 288, or Wolfson, p. 3
  8. ^ See, e.g. Jacobs, Arthur (1992); Crowther, Andrew, The Life of W.S. Gilbert; and Bond, Jessie, Chapter 16
  9. ^ List of amateur G&S performing societies
  10. ^ List of recent G&S productions at major opera companies
  11. ^ e.g., NYGASP, Carl Rosa Opera Company, Somerset Opera, Opera della Luna, Opera a la Carte, Skylight opera theatre, Ohio Light Opera, and Washington Savoyards
  12. ^ a b Crowther, Andrew, The Life of W. S. Gilbert
  13. ^ Stedman (1996), pp. 26-29, 123-4, and the introduction to Gilbert's Foggerty's Fairy and Other Tales.
  14. ^ Bond, Jessie, Introduction.. Bond created the mezzo-soprano roles in most of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and is here leading in to a description of Gilbert's role reforming the Victorian theatre.
  15. ^ Stedman (1996) pp 62-68; Bond, Jessie, Introduction., etc.
  16. ^ Crowther, Andrew, Analysis of Ages Ago
  17. ^ Walbrook, H. M. (1922), Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, a History and Comment(Chapter 3). See also Barker, John W. "Gilbert and Sullivan", which quotes Sullivan's recollection of Gilbert reading the libretto of Trial by Jury to him: "As soon as he had come to the last word he closed up the manuscript violently, apparently unconscious of the fact that he had achieved his purpose so far as I was concerned, in as much as I was screaming with laughter the whole time."
  18. ^ Article on the pirating of G&S operas (and other works) and the development of performance copyrights
  19. ^ Savoy Theatre history
  20. ^ Bradley (1996), p. 176.
  21. ^ Crowther, Andrew, The Carpet Quarrel Explained.
  22. ^ Crowther, Andrew, The Carpet Quarrel Explained
  23. ^ List of Gilbert's Plays at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
  24. ^ Wolfson, p. 7.
  25. ^ Wolfson, passim
  26. ^ Wolfson, pp. 61-65.
  27. ^ See this extensive list of P. G. Wodehouse references to G&S

  • Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan, a Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  • Baily, Leslie (1966). The Gilbert and Sullivan Book, new ed., London: Spring Books. 
  • Jacobs, Arthur (1992). Arthur Sullivan – A Victorian Musician, Second Edition, Portland, OR: Amadeus Press. 

  • Allen, Reginald (1975). The First Night Gilbert and Sullivan. London: Chappell & Co. Ltd. 
  • Benford, Harry (1999). The Gilbert & Sullivan Lexicon, 3rd Revised Edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Queensbury Press.  ISBN 0-9667916-1-4
  • Bradley, Ian (1982). The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. 
  • Bradley, Ian (1984). The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan 2. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. 
  • Bradley, Ian (1996). The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 
  • Gilbert, W. S. (1932). in Deems Taylor, ed.: Plays and Poems of W. S. Gilbert. New York: Random House. 
  • Gilbert, W. S. (1994). The Savoy Operas. Hertfordshire, England: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. 
  • Gilbert, W. S. (1976). The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 
  • Williamson, Audrey (1953). Gilbert and Sullivan Opera. London: Marion Boyars. 
  • Wilson, Robin; Frederic Lloyd (1984). Gilbert & Sullivan – The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 
  • Wolfson, John (1976). Final curtain: The last Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. London: Chappell in association with A. Deutsch.  ISBN 0-903443-12-0

v • d • e
Gilbert and Sullivan
The triumvirate: W. S. Gilbert • Arthur Sullivan • Richard D'Oyly Carte
The Gilbert and Sullivan operas: Thespis • Trial by Jury • The Sorcerer • H.M.S. Pinafore • The Pirates of Penzance • Patience • Iolanthe • Princess Ida • The Mikado • Ruddigore • The Yeomen of the Guard • The Gondoliers • Utopia, Limited • The Grand Duke
Other works and people: Other Works by W. S. Gilbert • Other Operas by Arthur Sullivan • Other Music by Arthur Sullivan • People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan • Gilbert and Sullivan performers

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