Book description
Gilbert and Sullivan s operas are some of the world s best-loved
musical works, delighting audiences with their joyous wit, topsy-turvy
logic and extravagant wordplay. This glorious treasury is the
definitive annotated edition of all fourteen of their operas.
From the partially lost work Thespis, the first collaboration
between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, through the triumphant
comic romps The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, to
lesser-performed gems such as the fanciful The Sorcerer and the
acerbic lampoon Patience, Gilbert s libretti are collected here
in their most accurate and faithful form. There is a fascinating
commentary on each work, telling the extraordinary stories behind the
inspiration for the opera and its performance history, and giving plot
summaries and original cast lists.
Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer
Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operetta or comic operas in
Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful
and timeless works known as the Savoy Operas.
Ed Glinert was born in Dalston, London, and read Classical
Hebrew at Manchester University. In 1983 he set up City Life,
Manchester's listings magazine, and he has since worked for Radio
Times, Private Eye and Mojo. He is the co-author of
Fodor's Rock & Roll Traveler USA and Fodor's Rock
& Roll Traveler Great Britain and Ireland, and recently
edited The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith,
and annotated two volumes of Sherlock Holmes stories, all for Penguin Classics.
Mike Leigh is a film-maker and dramatist. His 1999 film
Topsy-Turvy examined Gilbert and Sullivan s world at the time
of the original productions of Princess Ida and The
Mikado. It won two Oscars. His other films include Nuts in
May, Life is Sweet, Naked, Secrets and Lies
and Vera Drake. Among his many plays are Babies Grow
Old, Abigail s Party, Ecstasy, Goose-Pimples
and Two Thousand Years. He is a Vice President of the Sir
Arthur Sullivan Society.
