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W.S. GILBERT and ARTHUR SULLIVAN
The names “Gilbert and Sullivan” are permanently entwined, yet long before joining forces both men were leaders of their respective fields. In fact neither Gilbert nor Sullivan regarded their work together as his greatest artistic achievement or greatest contribution to Victorian culture. By age twenty-one William Schwenck Gilbert was a successful professional humorist, contributing light verses to the periodical Fun, which were subsequently collected and published as the Bab Ballads. In addition, he wrote comic sketches, short stories, dramatic criticism, plays and rhymed theatrical pieces of all kinds. He died from a heart attack in 1911, four years after being knighted. Before collaborating with Gilbert, Arthur Seymour Sullivan was widely praised as the most promising young musician in England during the 1860s. In his early years, he composed symphonic music, songs for recital, church compositions, oratorios and full-bodied operas. In 1867, Sullivan composed his first score for a “light opera,” Cox and Box. From then on, he flourished as a composer of comic opera, writing countless lighthearted melodies. Together, Gilbert and Sullivan wrote fourteen pieces between 1871 and 1896: 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 and The Grand Duke.