Lyricist and playwright William Schwenk Gilbert and composer Arthur Seymore Sullivan formed one of the greatest theatrical teams in history. Beginning with Trial by Jury, their first collaboration in 1875, the stage was set for some of the most hilarious, melodious and enduring operettas in the English language.
Almost nothing in Victorian society was spared the wit of these satirists extraordinaire: the rigid class system, government, monarchy, new ideas of equality, lawyers, the Royal Navy, grand opera, and the reigning Aesthetic movement to name but a few of the subjects of fun.
Actor and director Nick Olcott, tenor Doug Bowles, pianist Alex Hassan, and soprano Karin Paludan share musical highlights, hilarious anecdotes, and insight into why Gilbert and Sullivan are beloved by performers and audiences throughout the world. You’ll want strike up a chorus of “Oh, rapture, rapture!”.
Other Connections
Updating Gilbert’s lyrics to “I’ve got at little list” is a time-honored tradition in productions of The Mikado. Eric Idle delivers his version in an English National Opera staging, in which director Jonathan Miller transformed Titipu from a Japanese town to a very British 1920s seaside resort.
