Librettist:  Sir William Schwenck Gilbert

A Brief Biography

 Often associated with his musical collaborator, Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was a dramatist, published poet, and satirist before composing the lyrics for the operettas that have immoralized his name. Born in London on November 18, 1836, the son of a retired naval surgeon, he traveled with his parents throughout Europe.  Returning with this family (which included three sisters) to London in 1849, he studied first at the Great Ealing School and then at King's College, but decided upon a career in the military as an artillery office rather than continue studies at Oxford.  However, just as he finished his military training the Crimean War ended, and he found employment as a clerk of the Privy Council at the Educational Department (1857 to 1864).

 An inheritance enabled him to study law.  Although called to the bar in 1866, he could not attract enough wealthy clients to succeed financially, and switched to humorous freelance writing, making significant contributions to the magazines Punch and Fun from 1861.  In 1869, his various Bab Ballads were collected.  His first professionally produced play was Uncle Baby, which debuted at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, London, on October 31, 1863, and ran for seven weeks.  Other light satirical works for the popular stage include the Christmas pantomime Hush-a-By- Baby (1866) and burlesques Dulcemara, The Little Duck and The Great Quack (1866) and Pygmalion and Galatea, one of seven new Gilbert plays staged in 1871.

 The twenty-five-year partnership with Arthur Sullivan actually began in 1871, when the librettist and composer collaborated on Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, which premiered on December 23.  They scored their first big hit some four years later with Trial By Jury, which under the able management of Richard D'Oyly Carte debuted at the Royalty Theatre, London, on March 25, 1875, originally conceived of as a companion piece for Jacque Offenbach's comic opera La Perichole.  The story is apocryphally told of how the death of Gilbert's composer necessitated the hiring of another, and so D'Oyly arranged for the pair to meet.  Two weeks later the operetta was ready for reherasal (in fact, they first met in the autumn of 1870 and produced Palace of Truth together that November).  Their next three works -- The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), and The Pirates of Penzance (1879) -- were performed at the Opera Comique.  However, in 1881 their manager built the new Savoy Theatre especially for G & S productions.  Of eleven dramatic works which Gilbert wrote during the 1880's, seven were scored by Sullivan.  The quarrel that eventually destroyed the nineteenth-century theatre's most effective partnership began when Gilbert voiced his concern about the excessive cost of the carpets for the new playhouse.  The rift continued unabated until 1893, after which they collaborated on only two significant works:  Utopia Limited (October 7, 1893) and The Grand Duke (March 7, 1896).  After Sullivan's death on November 22, 1900, Gilbert teamed up with Edward German to produce the less-than-memorable Fallen Fairies (1909), an adaptation of The Wicked World.  Knighted by Edward VII in 1907, Gilbert died four years later when, aged 74, he attempted to rescue a drowning woman.  Despite the continuing popularity and calibre of his work, Gilbert's verse does not usually appear in anthologies of nineteenth-century British verse, the exception being Lionel Trilling and Harold Bloom's Victorian Prose and Poetry (Oxford, 1973), which features under "Poetry of the Nineties" Bunthorne's song, "The Aesthete," from Patience.                      

                  By Philip V. Allingham, Consulting Editor, Victoria Web; Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Composer: Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan

A Brief Biography

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, English composer of the 19th century, is best known for the series of sparkling and witty comic operettas he wrote in collaboration with librettist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert.  The humorous The Mikado is their most popular. 

 Aside from The Mikado, other popular Gilbert and Sullivan operettas include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Gondoliers.  Together, they produced 13 operettas.

Sullivan was born in London on May 13, 1842.  The son of a bandmaster, he was properly trained in the German tradition, won the first Mendelssohn Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London and studied further at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he met Liszt and Grieg, before returning to England as a church organist.  He became a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy.

 Prior to his partnership with Gilbert, Sullivan was already composing sacred music, with Onward, Christian Soldiers probably the best known.  He also composed serious instrumental music and concert works.  Although his compositions were overshadowed by the 19th century composers like Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schumann, his works were still attractive and crafted professionally.

 Sullivan much wanted to succeed as a composer of serious music, the oratorio, in particular, but it's his operettas with Gilbert that are well remembered and kept alive.  His operatic works, for example, the opera Ivanhoe in 1890, he valued highly.

 Together, Sullivan and librettist Gilbert produced successful operettas known as "Savoy Operas" usually performed at the Savoy Theatre in London's Strand.

 His partnership with Gilbert ended in 1896.  He died 4 years later, on November 22, 1900, following a heart attack.

 Although to this day The Mikado is a universal favorite, it is worth noting that H.M.S. Pinafore which opened in London in May 1878, ran for 700 consecutive performances.  From historical context their light opera paved way to the development of the stage and screen musical age.  Sullivan was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1883.              

                                                     From Classical Music, Tel Asiado, January 2008