Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English librettist and dramatist who also directed his own plays from 1836 to 1911. Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan was an English composer and conductor who lived from 1842 to 1900. Gilbert and Sullivan, as a duo, are responsible for a series of operettas that were hugely popular during their lifetimes and are still popular today.
Parody, sarcasm, irony, and satire abound in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Thespis, their first collaboration, premiered during the Christmas season of 1871. Gilbert went back to blank-verse plays for four years before reuniting with Sullivan in 1875 for Trial by Jury, their first joint success. Richard D’Oyly Carte, who went on to produce the 12 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas that followed, bringing the total number of Gilbert and Sullivan works to fourteen, commissioned and produced it.
The following is a complete list of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works:
• Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old — 1871
• Trial by Jury — 1875
• The Sorcerer — 1877
• HMS Pinafore, or The Lass that loved a Sailor — 1878
• The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty — 1879
• Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride — 1881
• Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri — 1882
• Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant — 1884
• The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu — 1885
• Ruddigore, or The Witch’s Curse — 1887
• The Yeoman of the Guard, or The Merryman and his Maid — 1888
• The Gondoliers, or The King of Barataria — 1889
• Utopia (Limited), or The Flowers of Progress — 1893
• The Grand Duke, or The Statutory Duel — 1896
The operas from 1875 to 1889 are the ones most closely associated with Gilbert and Sullivan’s partnership. They poke fun at culture, education, the melodrama genre, and human nature in general.
It was not always easy for the partners to get along. Gilbert and Sullivan had a falling out, and Gilbert and Carte had a falling out, with Gilbert eventually suing Carte after The Gondoliers was staged. The threesome reconciled, resulting in Gilbert and Sullivan’s final two collaborative efforts.