Gilbert and Sullivan
Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined Victorian England comic opera with a series of internationally successful and timeless operettas. Their first major hit was "HMS Pinafore" (1878), spoofing the Royal Navy and the British obsession with class. "Patience" (1881) satirized the aesthetic movement in general and the playwright Oscar Wilde in particular, "Iolanthe" (1882) the House of Lords. Their greatest work was "The Mikado" (1885), where English bureaucracy was made fun of in a Japanese setting.
Gilbert's plots remain perfect examples of "topsy-turvydom," in which primeval fairies rub elbows with English lords, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy and pirates reconcile with major-generals. Gilbert's lyrics employ double (and triple) rhyming and punning, and served as the very model for such 20th century Broadway lyricists as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin and Lorenz Hart. Sullivan, a classically-trained musician who devoted much of his career to religious hymns and grand opera, contributed catchy melodies which were also emotionally moving. As seamless as their onstage collaboration was, Gilbert and Sullivan were temperamentally incompatible, and their partnership was frequently ruptured. Their last joint work, "The Grand Duke," opened in 1896, and the sickly Sullivan died four years later.
Their works were originally produced by British impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, who built the Savoy Theater in London to present their operas, and formed the D'Oyly Carte Company, which would perform the Savoy Operas with exacting detail until 1982. The Gilbert and Sullivan operas were even more popular abroad, and many American cities saw amateur and professional Gilbert and Sullivan performing groups.
Into the 21st century, the Gilbert and Sullivan operas remain popular. The 1999 Mike Leigh film "Topsy-Turvy" presented the creation of "The Mikado" to critical acclaim.
The works of Gilbert and Sullivan are frequently parodied or pastiched; a notable example of this is Tom Lehrer's reworking of "I am the very model of a model major-general", (from the operetta "The Pirates of Penzance"), resetting the chemical periodic table of elements to Sullivan's original music.