Editing Gilbert and Sullivan (section)

====''The Yeomen of the Guard''====
{{main|The Yeomen of the Guard}}
[[Image:Denny and Bond.jpg|thumb|[[W.H. Denny]] as Wilfred and [[Jessie Bond]] as Phoebe in ''Yeomen'']]''The Yeomen of the Guard'' (1888), their only joint work with a serious ending, concerns a pair of strolling players – a jester and a singing girl – who are caught up in a risky intrigue at the [[Tower of London]] during the 16th century. The dialogue, though in prose, is quasi-[[Early Modern English]] in style, and there is no satire of British institutions. For some of the plot elements, Gilbert had reached back to his 1875 tragedy, ''[[Broken Hearts]]''. ''The Times'' praised the libretto: "It should... be acknowledged that Mr. Gilbert has earnestly endeavoured to leave familiar grooves and rise to higher things".<ref>"Savoy Theatre", ''The Times'', 4 October 1888, p. 11</ref> Although not a grand opera, the new libretto provided Sullivan with the opportunity to write his most ambitious theatre score to date. The critics, who had recently lauded the composer for his successful oratorio, ''[[The Golden Legend (cantata)|The Golden Legend]]'', considered the score to ''Yeomen'' to be Sullivan's finest, including its overture, which was written in [[sonata form]], rather than as a sequential pot-pourri of tunes from the opera, as in most of his other overtures. The ''Daily Telegraph'' said:

{{quote|The accompaniments... are delightful to hear, and especially does the treatment of the woodwind compel admiring attention. Schubert himself could hardly have handled those instruments more deftly, written for them more lovingly.... We place the songs and choruses in ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' before all his previous efforts of this particular kind. Thus the music follows the book to a higher plane, and we have a genuine English opera....<ref>Quoted in Allen 1975, p. 312</ref>}}

''Yeomen'' was a hit, running for over a year, with strong New York and touring productions. During the run, on 12 March 1889, Sullivan wrote to Gilbert,

{{quote|I have lost the liking for writing comic opera, and entertain very grave doubts as to my power of doing it... You say that in a serious opera, ''you'' must more or less sacrifice yourself. I say that this is just what I have been doing in all our joint pieces, and, what is more, must continue to do in comic opera to make it successful.<ref>Jacobs, p. 283</ref>}}

Sullivan insisted that the next opera must be a [[grand opera]]. Gilbert did not feel that he could write a grand opera libretto, but he offered a compromise that Sullivan eventually accepted. The two would write a light opera for the Savoy, and at the same time, Sullivan a grand opera (''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'') for a new theatre that Carte was constructing to present British opera. After a brief impasse over the choice of subject, Sullivan accepted an idea connected with [[Venice]] and Venetian life, as "this seemed to me to hold out great chances of bright colour and taking music."<ref>Jacobs, p. 288</ref>