Fun with Gilbert & Sullivan

Last week (May 14) was the birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan. A composer of operas, ballets, choral works, hymns (including “Onward, Christian Soldiers”), songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces, and incidental music to plays, he is probably best known as the collaborator of W.S. Gilbert on 14 comic operas (or operettas as they are sometimes known). Probably the best known today are The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. 

Sullivan studied music from a young age and won several scholarships to study in England and Germany. His collaboration with Gilbert began in 1875 when Richard D’Oyly Carte, an impresario, commissioned them to write a one-act opera (Trial by Jury). It was an instant success and led to them composing eleven other works before their split in 1890. 

D’Oyly Carte also formed the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and built the Savoy Theatre where the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were performed. The D’Olyly Carte Opera Company is probably still the most famous group to sing these operas. In Minneapolis we are fortunate to have The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company who will again be performing live in the spring of 2022. We have seen many of their performances in years past and enjoyed them greatly.

I love all the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, but forced to choose a favorite, I’d have to pick The Pirates of Penzance. Years – and years and years – ago our Junior High School music class mounted a staging of it and I got to be one of the major general's daughters (otherwise known as the women’s chorus). Incredibly fun. 

For a sample selection, I have chosen “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from the Pirates. As is sometimes done in G&S operas, a few lyrics might be changed to include satire of the day, hence the reference in this clip to Trivial Pursuit a hundred years before it was conceived. Enjoy!