SULLIVAN, ARTHUR (b. London, England 13 May 1842; d. London 22 Nov, 1900 ) GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENK (b. London, 18 Nov, 1836; d. Harrow Weald, England, 29 May, 1911. )
The phenomenal creative relationship between the composer, Sullivan and the librettist, Gilbert, resulted in the Savoy Operas, which first took London theatre by storm in the late 1870s.
The partnership was brought together on a regular basis by the impresario, Richard D'Oyly Carte. In 1877 he premièred The Sorcerer, the first of a series of their operettas performed at The Savoy Theatre. The same theatre was home to the D'Oyly Carte company, which continued to perform the works of Gilbert and Sullivan for over a hundred years.
The essence of a Savoy Opera is quickness of wit and brilliance of parody, both in words and music. Gilbert's entertaining, paradoxical, dramatic situations are models of music theatre writing. His lyrics constantly drive the characterisation and plots, offering a kaleidoscope of references and images, but never faltering in essential storytelling.
Sullivan's musical responses to Gilbert's use of rhythm and rhyming are always apt. His outrageous and intelligent tilting at the operatic styles and conventions of his time is a constant delight to musically literate audiences. But, like all good writing, the works succeed on many levels. Millions of theatregoers have laughed their way through The Mikado, for example, without realising its references to Madame Butterfly.
The partnership was not without its tensions. Sullivan cherished ideas of moving on to grand opera, working with other librettists. His ambition was crushed when Ivanhoe, a serious work based on the novel by Walter Scott, failed miserably in 1891. In 1892 he quarrelled with Gilbert and worked on an operetta with the librettist Sidney Grundy. But by 1893 the old team was back together, writing their thirteenth Gilbert and Sullivan work.
More than anything else, the Savoy operas are remembered for their patter songs, the ultimate tests of a singer's diction. So popular were they that Gilbert himself joked about them in a trio in Ruddigore. "This particularly rapid, unintelligible, patter isn't generally heard and, if it is, it doesn't matter. "
