Editing Gilbert and Sullivan (section)

====''The Gondoliers''====
{{main|The Gondoliers}}
[[Image:Marco and Giuseppe.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Rutland Barrington]] and [[Courtice Pounds]] as Giuseppe and Marco in ''The Gondoliers'']]
''The Gondoliers'' (1889) takes place partly in Venice and partly in a fictional kingdom ruled by a pair of gondoliers who attempt to remodel the monarchy in a spirit of "republican equality."<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/gondoliers/html/index.html ''The Gondoliers'' at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive], accessed 21 July 2007</ref> Gilbert recapitulates a number of his earlier themes, including the satire of class distinctions figuring in many of his earlier librettos. The libretto also reflects Gilbert's fascination with the "Stock Company Act", highlighting the absurd convergence of natural persons and legal entities, which plays an even larger part in the next opera, ''Utopia, Limited''. Press accounts were almost entirely favourable. The ''Illustrated London News'' reported:

{{quote|...Gilbert has returned to the Gilbert of the past, and everyone is delighted. He is himself again. The Gilbert of the ''[[Bab Ballads]]'', the Gilbert of whimsical conceit, inoffensive cynicism, subtle satire, and playful paradox; the Gilbert who invented a school of his own, who in it was schoolmaster and pupil, who has never taught anybody but himself, and is never likely to have any imitator – this is the Gilbert the public want to see, and this is the Gilbert who on Saturday night was cheered till the audience was weary of cheering any more.<ref name="fvpqpk"/>}}

Sullivan's old collaborator on ''[[Cox and Box]]'' (later the editor of ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' magazine), [[Francis Burnand|F. C. Burnand]], wrote to the composer: "Magnificento!...I envy you and W.S.G. being able to place a piece like this on the stage in so complete a fashion."<ref name="fvpqpk">Baily, p. 344</ref> The opera enjoyed a run longer than any of their other joint works except for ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''Patience'' and ''The Mikado''. There was a command performance of ''The Gondoliers'' for [[Queen Victoria]] and the royal family at [[Windsor Castle]] in 1891, the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera to be so honoured. ''The Gondoliers'' was Gilbert and Sullivan's last great success.<ref>Ainger, p. 303</ref>