Editing Gilbert and Sullivan (section)

==Operas==

===First collaborations===

====''Thespis''====
{{main|Thespis (opera)}}
[[Image:Thespis - Illustrated London News Jan 6 1872.png|upright=1.25|thumb|A contemporary illustration of ''Thespis'' from ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' of 6 January 1872]]
In 1871, producer [[John Hollingshead]] brought Gilbert and Sullivan together to produce a Christmas entertainment, ''Thespis'', at his [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]], a large West End house. The piece was an [[extravaganza]] in which the classical Greek gods, grown elderly, are temporarily replaced by a troupe of 19th-century actors and actresses, one of whom is the eponymous [[Thespis]], the Greek father of the drama. Its mixture of political satire and [[grand opera]] parody mimicked [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach's]] ''[[Orpheus in the Underworld]]'' and ''[[La belle Hélène]]'', which (in translation) then dominated the English musical stage.<ref name=Tillett>Tillett, Selwyn and Spencer, Roderic. [https://www.gsarchive.net/thespis/Thespis40.pdf "Forty Years of Thespis Scholarship"], accessed 20 July 2021</ref>

''Thespis'' opened on [[Boxing Day]] and ran for 63 performances. It outran five of its nine competitors for the 1871 holiday season, and its run was extended beyond the length of a normal run at the Gaiety,<ref>Walters, Michael. "Thespis: a reply", ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'', Vol. 4, part 3, Issue 29. Summer 2011.</ref> but no one at the time foresaw that this was the beginning of a great collaboration. Unlike the later Gilbert and Sullivan works, it was hastily prepared, and its nature was more risqué, like Gilbert's earlier [[Victorian burlesque|burlesques]], with a broader style of comedy that allowed for improvisation by the actors. Two of the male characters were played by women, whose shapely legs were put on display in a fashion that Gilbert later condemned.<ref>Williams, p. 35</ref> The musical score to ''Thespis'' was never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', and the Act II ballet music.<ref name=Tillett/>

Over the next three years, Gilbert and Sullivan did not have occasion to work together again, but each man became more eminent in his field. Gilbert worked with Frederic Clay on ''[[Happy Arcadia]]'' (1872) and [[Alfred Cellier]] on ''[[Topsyturveydom]]'' (1874) and wrote ''[[The Wicked World]]'' (1873), ''[[Sweethearts (play)|Sweethearts]]'' (1874) and several other libretti, farces, extravaganzas, fairy comedies, dramas and adaptations. Sullivan completed his ''[[Festival Te Deum]]'' (1872); another oratorio, ''The Light of the World'' (1873); his only [[song cycle]], ''[[The Window; or, The Song of the Wrens]]'' (1871); [[incidental music]] to ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' (1874); and more songs, parlour ballads, and [[hymn]]s, including "[[Onward, Christian Soldiers]]" (1872). At the same time, the audience for theatre was growing because of the rapidly expanding British population; improvement in education and the standard of living, especially of the middle class; improving public transport; and installation of street lighting, which made travel home from the theatre safer.<ref>Richards, p. 9</ref> The number of pianos manufactured in England doubled between 1870 and 1890 as more people began to play [[parlour music]] at home and more theatres and concert halls opened.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 2–3</ref>{{refn|At the beginning of the century there were only two main theatres in London;<ref>Bratton, Jacky, "[https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/19th-century-theatre Theatre in the 19th century"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710130926/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/19th-century-theatre |date=10 July 2022 }}, British Library, 2014</ref> by the late 1860s there were 32.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/jstor-20647868/page/n1/mode/2up "The Theatres of London"], ''Watson's Art Journal'', 22 February 1868, p. 245</ref>|group=n}}

====''Trial by Jury''====
{{main|Trial by Jury}}
In 1874, Gilbert wrote a short [[libretto]] on commission from producer-conductor [[Carl Rosa]], whose wife would have played the leading role, but her death in childbirth cancelled the project. Not long afterwards, [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] was managing the [[Royalty Theatre]] and needed a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]]'s ''[[La Périchole]]''. Carte knew about Gilbert's libretto for Rosa and suggested that Sullivan write a score for it. Gilbert read the piece to Sullivan in February 1875, and the composer was delighted with it; ''[[Trial by Jury]]'' was composed and staged in a matter of weeks.{{refn|Sullivan recalled Gilbert reading the libretto of ''Trial by Jury'' to him: "As soon as he had come to the last word he closed up the manuscript violently, apparently unconscious of the fact that he had achieved his purpose so far as I was concerned, in as much as I was screaming with laughter the whole time."<ref>Lawrence, p. 105</ref>|group=n}}

[[Image:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png|thumb|upright=1.25|left|[[D. H. Friston]]'s engraving of the original production of ''[[Trial by Jury]]'']]
The piece is one of Gilbert's humorous spoofs of the law and the legal profession, based on his short experience as a [[barrister]]. It concerns a [[breach of promise]] of marriage suit. The defendant argues that damages should be slight, since "he is such a very bad lot," while the plaintiff argues that she loves the defendant fervently and seeks "substantial damages." After much argument, the judge resolves the case by marrying the lovely plaintiff himself. With Sullivan's brother, [[Fred Sullivan|Fred]], as the Learned Judge, the opera was a runaway hit, outlasting the run of ''La Périchole''. Provincial tours and productions at other theatres quickly followed.<ref>Walbrook, H. M. (1922), [http://gsarchive.net/books/walbrook/chap3.html ''Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, a History and Comment'' (Chapter 3)], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 21 May 2007</ref>

Fred Sullivan was the prototype for the "[[patter song|patter]]" (comic) [[baritone]] roles in the later operas. [[F. C. Burnand]] wrote that he "was one of the most naturally ''comic little men'' I ever came across. He, too, was a first-rate practical musician.... As he was the most absurd person, so was he the very kindliest...."<ref>Ayer p. 408</ref> Fred's creation would serve as a model for the rest of the collaborators' works, and each of them has a crucial ''comic little man'' role, as Burnand had put it. The "patter" baritone (or "principal comedian", as these roles later were called) would often assume the leading role in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, and was usually allotted the speedy [[patter song]]s.<ref>Bradley (1996), p. 14</ref>

After the success of ''Trial by Jury'', Gilbert and Sullivan were suddenly in demand to write more operas together. Over the next two years, Richard D'Oyly Carte and Carl Rosa were two of several theatrical managers who negotiated with the team but were unable to come to terms. Carte proposed a revival of ''Thespis'' for the 1875 Christmas season, which Gilbert and Sullivan would have revised, but he was unable to obtain financing for the project. In early 1876, Carte requested that Gilbert and Sullivan create another one-act opera on the theme of burglars, but this was never completed.{{refn|Wachs argues that much of the material from a draft of this opera later made its way into Act II of ''The Pirates of Penzance''.<ref>Wachs, Kevin. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111218180046/http://sitemaker.umich.edu/umgass/files/gasbag227.pdf "Let’s vary piracee / With a little burglaree!"], ''The Gasbag'', Issue 227, Winter 2005, accessed 8 May 2012.</ref>|group=n}}

===Early successes===

====''The Sorcerer''====
{{main|The Sorcerer}}
Carte's real ambition was to develop an English form of light opera that would displace the bawdy [[Victorian burlesque|burlesques]] and badly translated French [[operetta]]s then dominating the London stage. He assembled a syndicate and formed the Comedy Opera Company, with Gilbert and Sullivan commissioned to write a comic opera that would serve as the centrepiece for an evening's entertainment.<ref>Ainger, p. 130</ref>

[[Image:Sorc-Pin-Trial.jpg|thumb|An early poster showing scenes from ''The Sorcerer'', ''Pinafore'', and ''Trial by Jury'']]
Gilbert found a subject in one of his own short stories, "The Elixir of Love", which concerned the complications arising when a love potion is distributed to all the residents of a small village. The leading character was a [[Cockney]] businessman who happened to be a sorcerer, a purveyor of blessings (not much called for) and curses (very popular). Gilbert and Sullivan were tireless taskmasters, seeing to it that ''[[The Sorcerer]]'' (1877) opened as a fully polished production, in marked contrast to the under-rehearsed ''Thespis''.<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/sorcerer/html/index.html ''The Sorcerer''], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 21 May 2007</ref> While ''The Sorcerer'' won critical acclaim, it did not duplicate the success of ''Trial by Jury''. Nevertheless, it ran for more than six months, and Carte and his syndicate were sufficiently encouraged to commission another full-length opera from the team.<ref>Stedman, p. 155</ref>

====''H.M.S. Pinafore''====
{{main|H.M.S. Pinafore}}
Gilbert and Sullivan scored their first international hit with ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' (1878), satirising the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority and poking good-natured fun at the Royal Navy and the English obsession with social status (building on a theme introduced in ''The Sorcerer'', love between members of different social classes). As with many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise twist changes everything dramatically near the end of the story.<ref>Bradley (1996), p. 178; and [[Bertram Bowyer, 2nd Baron Denham|Bowyer, Bertram (Lord Denham)]]. [https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1998-04-01/debates/a0391994-4d85-4676-a5dc-f7b9fc366268/DOylyCarteOperaCompany "D'Oyly Carte Opera Company"], UK Parliament, 1 April 1998 (quote: "...the 'Gilbertian ending' ... after two acts in which the principal protagonists contrive to get themselves into a more and more convoluted state of utter hopelessness, a final twist – whimsical but wholly logical and even believable – makes everything come out all right again, and everyone lives happily ever after."</ref>

Gilbert oversaw the designs of sets and costumes, and he directed the performers on stage.{{refn|Gilbert was strongly influenced by the innovations in "stagecraft", now called stage direction, by the playwrights [[James Planché]] and especially [[Thomas William Robertson|Tom Robertson]].<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/short_stories/stage_play.html ''A Stage Play'']; and Bond, Jessie, [http://gsarchive.net/books/bond/intro.html Introduction].</ref> |group=n}} He sought realism in acting, shunned self-conscious interaction with the audience, and insisted on a standard of characterisation in which the characters were never aware of their own absurdity.<ref name=Cox>Cox-Ife, p. 27</ref> He insisted that his actors know their words perfectly and obey his stage directions, which was something new to many actors of the day.<ref name=Cox/> Sullivan personally oversaw the musical preparation. The result was a crispness and polish new to the English musical theatre.{{refn|The director [[Mike Leigh]] wrote in 2006, "That Gilbert was a good director is not in doubt. He was able to extract from his actors natural, clear performances, which served the Gilbertian requirements of outrageousness delivered straight."<ref>Leigh, Mike. "True anarchists", [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1938719,00.html], ''The Guardian'', 4 November 2006</ref>|group=n}} [[Jessie Bond]] wrote later:
{{blockindent|Our stage discipline was strict and unbending. Gilbert's word was law; he thoroughly worked out in his own mind every bit of action, by-play and grouping, and allowed no deviation from his plan. He...made drawings and took measurements with the minutest care.... He had unlimited fertility of invention in comic business and would allow no gag, no clowning, no departure from his own definite conception. Sullivan's musical conception was equally clear-cut and decided. Every part must be made subservient to the whole, and his sarcasms overwhelmed the transgressor with scorn. "And now, might I trouble you to try over my music," he would say to a singer too anxious to display his or her top notes. But there was nothing to hurt or offend us in this unswerving discipline, we took their good-humoured raillery as our due when we failed in our rendering or overstepped the bounds; and the patience and enthusiasm of that artistic pair so infected all of us that we worked willingly for hours and hours at rehearsals, trying with all our might to realize the conceptions of those two brilliant minds.<ref>Bond, Jessie. [http://gsarchive.net/books/bond/004.html ''The Reminiscences of Jessie Bond''], Chapter 4 (1930), reprinted at ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', 15 November 2008, accessed 21 August 2012</ref>}}

''H.M.S. Pinafore'' ran in London for 571 performances,<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 6</ref> an exceptional run for the period.{{refn|The run of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' was exceeded by that of the West End production of the operetta ''[[Les cloches de Corneville]]'', which opened earlier in the same year and was still running when ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' closed; ''Les cloches de Corneville'' held the record (705 performances) for London's longest musical theatre run until ''[[Dorothy (opera)|Dorothy]]'' (931 performances) surpassed it in 1886–1889.<ref>Traubner, p. 183; and Herbert, pp. 1598–1599, 1605 and 1907</ref>|group=n}} Hundreds of unauthorised, or "pirated", productions of ''Pinafore'' appeared in America.<ref name=Zvi>Rosen, Zvi S. [https://ssrn.com/abstract=963540 The Twilight of the Opera Pirates: A Prehistory of the Right of Public Performance for Musical Compositions.] ''Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal'', Vol. 24, 2007, accessed 21 May 2007. See also Prestige, Colin. "D'Oyly Carte and the Pirates", a paper presented at the [http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/5875 International Conference of G&S] held at the [[University of Kansas]], May 1970</ref> During the run of ''Pinafore'', Richard D'Oyly Carte split up with his former investors. The disgruntled former partners, who had invested in the production with no return, staged a public fracas, sending a group of thugs to seize the scenery during a performance. Stagehands managed to ward off their backstage attackers.<ref>Stedman, pp. 170–171</ref> This event cleared the way for Carte, in alliance with Gilbert and Sullivan, to form the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which then produced all their succeeding operas.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 7–15</ref>

The libretto of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' relied on [[stock character]] types, many of which were familiar from European opera (and some of which grew out of Gilbert's earlier association with the [[German Reed Entertainment|German Reeds]]): the heroic protagonist ([[tenor]]) and his love-interest ([[soprano]]); the older woman with a secret or a sharp tongue ([[contralto]]); the baffled lyric [[baritone]] – the girl's father; and a classic villain ([[bass-baritone]]). Gilbert and Sullivan added the element of the comic [[patter song|patter-singing character]]. With the success of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', the D'Oyly Carte repertory and production system was cemented, and each opera would make use of these stock character types. Before ''The Sorcerer'', Gilbert had constructed his plays around the established stars of whatever theatre he happened to be writing for, as had been the case with ''Thespis'' and ''Trial by Jury''. Building on the team he had assembled for ''The Sorcerer'', Gilbert no longer hired stars; he created them. He and Sullivan selected the performers, writing their operas for ensemble casts rather than individual stars.<ref name=t176>Traubner, p. 176</ref>

[[Image:Pirate King1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Pirate King]]
The repertory system ensured that the comic patter character who performed the role of the sorcerer, John Wellington Wells, would become the ruler of the Queen's navy as Sir Joseph Porter in ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', then join the army as Major-General Stanley in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', and so on. Similarly, Mrs. Partlet in ''The Sorcerer'' transformed into Little Buttercup in ''Pinafore'', then into Ruth, the piratical maid-of-all-work in ''Pirates''. Relatively unknown performers whom Gilbert and Sullivan engaged early in the collaboration would stay with the company for many years, becoming stars of the Victorian stage. These included [[George Grossmith]], the principal comic; [[Rutland Barrington]], the lyric baritone; [[Richard Temple (opera singer)|Richard Temple]], the bass-baritone; and [[Jessie Bond]], the [[mezzo-soprano]] [[soubrette]].<ref name=t176/>

====''The Pirates of Penzance''====
{{main|The Pirates of Penzance}}
''The Pirates of Penzance'' (New Year's Eve, 1879) also poked fun at [[grand opera]] conventions, sense of duty, family obligation, the "respectability" of civilisation and the peerage, and the relevance of a liberal education. The story also revisits ''Pinafore''{{'}}s theme of unqualified people in positions of authority, in the person of the [[Major General's Song|"modern Major-General"]] who has up-to-date knowledge about everything except the military. The Major-General and his many daughters escape from the tender-hearted Pirates of Penzance, who are all orphans, on the false plea that he is an orphan himself. The pirates learn of the deception and re-capture the Major-General, but when it is revealed that the pirates are all [[peerage|peers]], the Major-General bids them: "resume your ranks and legislative duties, and take my daughters, all of whom are beauties!"<ref>Bradley (1999), p. 261</ref>

The piece premiered in New York rather than London, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to secure the American copyright,<ref>Samuels, Edward. [http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc10.htm "International Copyright Relations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028222322/http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc10.htm |date=28 October 2008 }} in ''The Illustrated Story of Copyright'', Edwardsamuels.com, accessed 19 September 2011. Note the box "When Gilbert and Sullivan attacked the 'Pirates.{{'"}}</ref> and was another big success with both critics and audiences.<ref>Perry, Helga. [http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/pirates/pp2.html "Transcription of an opening night review in New York"], Savoyoperas.org.uk, 27 November 2000, accessed 27 May 2009</ref> Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte tried for many years to control the American performance copyrights over their operas, without success.<ref name=Zvi/><ref>In one unsuccessful attempt, the partners hired an American, George Lowell Tracy, to create the piano arrangement of the scores of ''[[Princess Ida]]'' and ''[[The Mikado]]'', hoping that he would obtain rights that he could assign to them. See, Murrell, Pam. [https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2020/08/gilbert-sullivans-american-ally "Gilbert & Sullivan’s American Ally"], In the Muse, US Library of Congress, 5 August 2020.</ref> Nevertheless, ''Pirates'' was a hit both in New York, again spawning numerous imitators, and then in London, and it became one of the most frequently performed, translated and parodied Gilbert and Sullivan works, also enjoying successful 1981 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]<ref>[[Frank Rich|Rich, Frank]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/09/theater/stage-pirates-of-penzance-on-broadway.html "Stage: ''Pirates of Penzance'' on Broadway"]. ''The New York Times'', 9 January 1981, accessed 2 July 2010</ref> and 1982 West End revivals by [[Joseph Papp]] that continue to influence productions of the opera.<ref>''[[Theatre Record]]'', 19 May 1982 to 2 June 1982, p. 278</ref>

In 1880, Sullivan's [[cantata]] ''[[The Martyr of Antioch]]'' premiered at the [[Leeds Festival (classical music)|Leeds Triennial Music Festival]], with a libretto adapted by Sullivan and Gilbert from an 1822 epic poem by [[Henry Hart Milman]] concerning the 3rd-century martyrdom of [[Margaret the Virgin|St. Margaret of Antioch]]. Sullivan became the conductor of the Leeds festival beginning in 1880 and conducted the performance. The [[Carl Rosa Opera Company]] staged the cantata as an opera in 1898.<ref>Stone, David. [http://www.gsarchive.net/whowaswho/C/CunninghamRobert.htm Robert Cunningham (1892–93)], Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 4 September 2009, accessed 25 May 2017</ref>

===Savoy Theatre opens===

====''Patience''====
{{main|Patience (opera)}}
[[File:George Grossmith as Bunthorne, 1881 (second version).jpg|upright|thumb|[[George Grossmith]] as Bunthorne in ''Patience'', 1881]]
''Patience'' (1881) satirised the [[aesthetic movement]] in general and its colourful poets in particular, combining aspects of [[Algernon Charles Swinburne|A. C. Swinburne]], [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], [[Oscar Wilde]], [[James McNeill Whistler]] and others in the rival poets Bunthorne and Grosvenor. Grossmith, who created the role of Bunthorne, based his makeup, wig and costume on Swinburne and especially Whistler, as seen in the adjacent photograph.<ref>Ellmann, pp. 135 and 151–152</ref> The work also lampoons male vanity and chauvinism in the military. The story concerns two rival [[Aestheticism|aesthetic]] poets, who attract the attention of the young ladies of the village, formerly engaged to the members of a cavalry regiment. But both poets are in love with Patience, the village milkmaid, who detests one of them and feels that it is her duty to avoid the other despite her love for him. Richard D'Oyly Carte was the booking manager for [[Oscar Wilde]], a then lesser-known proponent of aestheticism, and dispatched him on an American lecture tour in conjunction with the opera's U.S. run, so that American audiences might better understand what the satire was all about.<ref>Bradley (1996), p. 269</ref>

During the run of ''Patience'', Carte built the large, modern [[Savoy Theatre]], which became the partnership's permanent home. It was the first theatre (and the world's first public building) to be lit entirely by electric lighting.<ref>[http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/SavoyTheatre.htm "Savoy Theatre"], arthurlloyd.co.uk, accessed 20 July 2007; and Burgess, Michael. "Richard D'Oyly Carte", ''The Savoyard'', January 1975, pp. 7–11</ref> ''Patience'' moved into the Savoy after six months at the Opera Comique and ran for a total of 578 performances, surpassing the run of ''H.M.S. Pinafore''.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 8</ref>

====''Iolanthe''====
{{main|Iolanthe}}
''Iolanthe'' (1882) was the first of the operas to open at the Savoy. The fully electric Savoy made possible numerous special effects, such as sparkling magic wands for the female chorus of fairies. The opera poked fun at English law and the [[House of Lords]] and made much of the war between the sexes. The critics felt that Sullivan's work in ''Iolanthe'' had taken a step forward. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' commented, "The composer has risen to his opportunity, and we are disposed to account ''Iolanthe'' his best effort in all the Gilbertian series."<ref>Quoted in Allen 1975b, p. 176</ref> Similarly, ''The Theatre'' judged that "the music of ''Iolanthe'' is Dr Sullivan's ''chef d'oeuvre''. The quality throughout is more even, and maintained at a higher standard, than in any of his earlier works..."<ref>Beatty-Kingston, William, "Our Musical Box", ''The Theatre'', 1 January 1883, p. 27</ref>

[[Image:Barnett as Fairy Queen.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Alice Barnett|Barnett]] as The Fairy Queen]]
''Iolanthe'' is one of several of Gilbert's works, including ''[[The Wicked World]]'' (1873), ''[[Broken Hearts]]'' (1875), ''[[Princess Ida]]'' (1884) and ''[[Fallen Fairies]]'' (1909), where the introduction of men and "mortal love" into a tranquil world of women wreaks havoc with the status quo.<ref>Cole, Sarah. [http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/plays/broken_hearts/broken_hearts_synopsis.html ''Broken Hearts''], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', 23 December 2000, accessed 21 August 2012</ref> Gilbert had created several "fairy comedies" at the [[Haymarket Theatre]] in the early 1870s. These plays, influenced by the fairy work of [[James Planché]], are founded upon the idea of self-revelation by characters under the influence of some magic or some supernatural interference.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/223/0815.html "W. S. Gilbert"], ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes'' (1907–21), Volume XIII, "The Victorian Age", Part One. VIII. Nineteenth-Century Drama, § 15, Bartleby.com, accessed 27 May 2009</ref>

In 1882, Gilbert had a telephone installed in his home and at the prompt desk at the Savoy Theatre so that he could monitor performances and rehearsals from his home study. Gilbert had referred to the new technology in ''Pinafore'' in 1878, only two years after the device was invented and before London even had telephone service. Sullivan had one installed as well, and on 13 May 1883, at a party to celebrate the composer's 41st birthday, the guests, including the [[Prince of Wales]] (later [[Edward VII]]), heard a direct relay of parts of ''Iolanthe'' from the Savoy. This was probably the first live "broadcast" of an opera.<ref>Bradley (1996), p. 176</ref>

During the run of ''Iolanthe'', in 1883, Sullivan was [[British honours system|knighted]] by [[Queen Victoria]]. Although it was the operas with Gilbert that had earned him the broadest fame, the honour was conferred for his services to serious music. The musical establishment, and many critics, believed that this should put an end to his career as a composer of comic opera – that a musical [[knighthood|knight]] should not stoop below oratorio or [[grand opera]].<ref>Baily, p. 250</ref> Sullivan, despite the financial security of writing for the Savoy, increasingly viewed his work with Gilbert as unimportant, beneath his skills, and repetitious. Furthermore, he was unhappy that he had to simplify his music to ensure that Gilbert's words could be heard. But paradoxically, in February 1883, just after ''Iolanthe'' opened, Sullivan had signed a five-year agreement with Gilbert and Carte requiring him to produce a new comic opera on six months' notice.<ref name=Carpet>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gsarchive.net/articles/html/quarrel.html |title=The Carpet Quarrel Explained |access-date=10 October 2021 |last=Crowther |first=Andrew |date=13 August 2018 |publisher=The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive}}</ref>

====''Princess Ida''====
{{main|Princess Ida}}
[[File:William Russell Flint - W. S. Gilbert - Savoy Operas - Princess Ida 6.jpg|thumb|300px|''Princess Ida'', Act II Finale: Hildebrand and soldiers rush through the gate.]]
''Princess Ida'' (1884) spoofed [[women's education]] and [[male chauvinism]] and continued the theme from ''Iolanthe'' of the war between the sexes. The opera is based on [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s poem ''The Princess: A Medley''. Gilbert had written a [[blank verse]] farce based on the same material in 1870, called ''[[The Princess (play)|The Princess]]'', and he reused a good deal of the dialogue from his earlier play in the libretto of ''Princess Ida''. ''Ida'' is the only Gilbert and Sullivan work with dialogue entirely in blank verse and is also the only one of their works in three acts. [[Lillian Russell]] had been engaged to create the title role, but Gilbert did not believe that she was dedicated enough, and when she missed a rehearsal, he dismissed her.<ref>Stedman, pp. 200–201</ref>

''Princess Ida'' was the first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas that, by the partnership's previous standards, was not a success. A particularly hot summer in London did not help ticket sales. The piece ran for a comparatively short 246 performances and was not revived in London until 1919. Sullivan had been satisfied with the libretto, but two months after ''Ida'' opened, Sullivan told Carte that "it is impossible for me to do another piece of the character of those already written by Gilbert and myself."<ref name=Carpet/> As ''Princess Ida'' showed signs of flagging, Carte realised that, for the first time in the partnership's history, no new opera would be ready when the old one closed. On 22 March 1884, he gave Gilbert and Sullivan contractual notice that a new opera would be required in six months' time.<ref>Jacobs, p. 187</ref> In the meantime, when ''Ida'' closed, Carte produced a revival of ''The Sorcerer''.<ref>Ainger, p. 236</ref>

===Dodging the magic lozenge===

====''The Mikado''====
{{main|The Mikado}}
[[File:The Mikado.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Poster for ''The Mikado'']]
The most successful of the Savoy Operas was ''The Mikado'' (1885), which made fun of English bureaucracy, thinly disguised by a Japanese setting. Gilbert initially proposed a story for a new opera about a magic [[Throat lozenge|lozenge]] that would change the characters, which Sullivan found artificial and lacking in "human interest and probability", as well as being too similar to their earlier opera, ''The Sorcerer''.{{refn|Gilbert eventually found another opportunity to present his "lozenge plot" in ''[[The Mountebanks (opera)|The Mountebanks]]'', written with [[Alfred Cellier]] in 1892.<ref>Stedman, p. 284</ref>|group=n}} As dramatised in the film ''[[Topsy-Turvy]]'', the author and composer were at an impasse until 8 May 1884, when Gilbert dropped the lozenge idea and agreed to provide a libretto without any supernatural elements.{{refn|A story circulated that Gilbert's inspiration for an opera set in Japan came when a Japanese sword mounted on his study wall fell down. The incident is portrayed in the film, but it is apocryphal.<ref>Jones, Brian. "The sword that never fell", ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'' 1 (1), Spring 1985, pp. 22–25</ref>|group=n}}

The story focuses on a "cheap tailor", Ko-Ko, who is promoted to the position of Lord High Executioner of the town of Titipu. He loves his ward, Yum-Yum, but she loves a musician, who is really the son of the emperor of Japan (the Mikado) and who is in disguise to escape the attentions of the elderly and amorous Katisha. The Mikado has decreed that executions must resume without delay in Titipu. When news arrives that the Mikado will be visiting the town, Ko-Ko assumes that he is coming to ascertain whether Ko-Ko has carried out the executions. Too timid to execute anyone, Ko-Ko cooks up a conspiracy to misdirect the Mikado, which goes awry. Eventually, Ko-Ko must persuade Katisha to marry him to save his own life and the lives of the other conspirators.

With the opening of trade between England and Japan, Japanese imports, art and styles became fashionable, and a [[Japanese Village, Knightsbridge|Japanese village]] exhibition opened in Knightsbridge, London, making the time ripe for an opera set in Japan. Gilbert said, "I cannot give you a good reason for our... piece being laid in Japan. It... afforded scope for picturesque treatment, scenery and costume, and I think that the idea of a chief magistrate, who is... judge and actual executioner in one, and yet would not hurt a worm, may perhaps please the public."<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/interviews/dlynws850121.html "Workers and Their Work: Mr. W.S. Gilbert"], ''Daily News'', 21 January 1885, reprinted at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 21 August 2012</ref>

Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert and Sullivan to satirise British politics and institutions more freely by clothing them in superficial Japanese trappings. Gilbert wrote, "The Mikado of the opera was an imaginary monarch of a remote period and cannot by any exercise of ingenuity be taken to be a slap on an existing institution."<ref>[http://pamphletpress.org/index.cfm?sec=7&story_id=69 Review of ''The Mikado''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927045525/http://pamphletpress.org/index.cfm?sec=7&story_id=69 |date=27 September 2007}}, Pamphletpress.org, accessed 27 May 2009</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]] compared it to [[Jonathan Swift|Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'': "Gilbert pursued and persecuted the evils of modern England till they had literally not a leg to stand on, exactly as Swift did... I doubt if there is a single joke in the whole play that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes in the play fit the English. ... About England Pooh-bah is something more than a satire; he is the truth."<ref>Dark and Grey, p. 101</ref> Several of the later operas are similarly set in foreign or fictional locales, including ''[[The Gondoliers]]'', ''[[Utopia, Limited]]'' and ''[[The Grand Duke]]''.<ref>Bradley (1996), pp. 878, 975 and 1087</ref>

{| style="float:right;"
|{{Listen
|filename=1914 - Edison Light Opera Company - Favorite airs from The Mikado (restored).ogg
|title="Favorite airs from ''The Mikado''"<!--This is the name the recording was released under. Please do not correct it to British spelling-->
|description=A 1914 [[Edison Records]] recording of selections from ''[[The Mikado]]''. Includes parts of the overture, "A wand'ring minstrel", "Three little maids", "Tit-willow", and the Act II finale.
}}
|}
''The Mikado'' became the partnership's longest-running hit, enjoying 672 performances at the Savoy Theatre, and surpassing the runs of ''Pinafore'' and ''Patience''. It remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera.<ref>Wilson and Lloyd, p. 37</ref> It has been translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history.<ref>Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/gilbert3.htm "The Gilbert & Sullivan Story: Part III], Musicals 101, 2000, accessed 20 July 2021</ref>

====''Ruddigore''====
{{main|Ruddigore}}
''Ruddigore'' (1887), a topsy-turvy take on Victorian [[melodrama]], was less successful than most of the earlier collaborations with a run of 288 performances. The original title, ''Ruddygore'', together with some of the plot devices, including the revivification of ghosts, drew negative comments from critics.<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/ruddigore/html/appeal.html See the ''Pall Mall Gazette's'' satire of ''Ruddygore''].</ref>{{refn|Gilbert's response to being told that the two spellings meant the same thing was: "Then I suppose you'll take it that if I say 'I admire your ruddy countenance', I mean 'I like your bloody cheek'."<ref>Bradley (1996), p. 656</ref>|group= n}} Gilbert and Sullivan respelled the title and made a number of changes and cuts.<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/ruddigore/ruddygore.pdf "Ruddigore"], The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 20 July 2021</ref> Nevertheless, the piece was profitable,<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/ruddigore/html/intro.html Information from the book ''Tit-Willow or Notes and Jottings on Gilbert and Sullivan Operas''] by Guy H. and Claude A. Walmisley (Privately Printed, Undated, early 20th century)</ref> and the reviews were not all bad. For instance, ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' praised the work and both Gilbert and, especially, Sullivan: "Sir Arthur Sullivan has eminently succeeded alike in the expression of refined sentiment and comic humour. In the former respect, the charm of graceful melody prevails; while, in the latter, the music of the most grotesque situations is redolent of fun."<ref>Perry, Helga. [http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/ruddigore/rud5.html ''Ruddygore''], ''Illustrated London News'', 9&nbsp;January 1887, Savoyoperas.org.uk, accessed 27 May 2009</ref> Further changes were made, including a new overture, when [[Rupert D'Oyly Carte]] revived ''Ruddigore'' after the First World War, and the piece was regularly performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company thereafter.<ref>Critical apparatus in Hulme, David Russell, ed., ''Ruddigore''. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2000)</ref>

Some of the plot elements of ''Ruddigore'' were introduced by Gilbert in his earlier one-act opera, ''[[Ages Ago]]'' (1869), including the tale of the wicked ancestor and the device of the ghostly ancestors stepping out of their portraits.<ref>Williams, pp. 282–284</ref><ref>Crowther, Andrew. [http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/plays/ages_ago/crowther_analysis.html "''Ages Ago'' – Early Days"]; and [http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/plays/ages_ago/times1881.html "St George's Hall"], ''The Times'', 27 December 1881, via The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 3 April 2018</ref> When ''Ruddigore'' closed, no new opera was ready. Gilbert again proposed a version of the "lozenge" plot for their next opera, and Sullivan reiterated his reluctance to set it.<ref>Ainger, pp. 265 and 267</ref> While the two men worked out their artistic differences, and Sullivan finished other obligations, Carte produced revivals of such old favourites as ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', and ''[[The Mikado]]''.<ref>Ainger, pp. 265 – 276</ref>

====''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>

====''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>

===Carpet quarrel===
Though Gilbert and Sullivan's working relationship was mostly cordial and even friendly, it sometimes became strained, especially during their later operas, partly because each man saw himself as allowing his work to be subjugated to the other's, and partly caused by the opposing personalities of the two: Gilbert was often confrontational and notoriously thin-skinned (though prone to acts of extraordinary kindness), while Sullivan eschewed conflict.<ref>See, e.g., Stedman, pp. 254–56 and 323–24 and Ainger, pp. 193–94.</ref> Gilbert imbued his libretti with absurdist "topsy-turvy" situations in which the social order was turned upside down. After a time, these subjects were often at odds with Sullivan's desire for realism and emotional content.<ref>See, e.g. Ainger, p. 288, or Wolfson, p. 3</ref> Gilbert's political satire often poked fun at the wealthy and powerful whom Sullivan sought out for friendship and patronage.<ref>See, e.g. Jacobs, p. 73; Crowther, Andrew, [http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/life/long_bio.html ''The Life of W.S. Gilbert''], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 21 August 2012; and Bond, Jessie. [http://gsarchive.net/books/bond/016.html ''The Reminiscences of Jessie Bond'': Chapter 16], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 21 August 2012</ref>

[[Image:1881 Savoy Theatre.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Original facade of the [[Savoy Theatre]] c.1881]]
Gilbert and Sullivan disagreed several times over the choice of a subject. After each of ''Princess Ida'' and ''Ruddigore'', which were less successful than their seven other operas from ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' to ''The Gondoliers'', Sullivan asked to leave the partnership, saying that he found Gilbert's plots repetitive and that the operas were not artistically satisfying to him.<ref name=Carpet/> While the two artists worked out their differences in those cases, Carte kept the Savoy open with revivals of their earlier works. On each occasion, after a few months' pause, Gilbert responded with a libretto that met Sullivan's objections, and the partnership was able to continue.<ref name=Carpet/>

In April 1890, during the run of ''The Gondoliers'', Gilbert challenged Carte over the expenses of the production. Among other items to which Gilbert objected, Carte had charged the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre lobby to the partnership.<ref name=Ford>Ford, Tom. [http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/259962,gs-the-lennonmccartney-of-the-19th-century.aspx "G&S: the Lennon/McCartney of the 19th century"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215051057/http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/259962,gs-the-lennonmccartney-of-the-19th-century.aspx |date=15 February 2013}}. ''Limelight Magazine'', Haymarket Media Ltd., 8 June 2011</ref> Gilbert believed that this was a maintenance expense that should be charged to Carte alone. Gilbert confronted Carte, who refused to reconsider the accounts. Gilbert stormed out and wrote to Sullivan that "I left him with the remark that it was a mistake to kick down the ladder by which he had risen".<ref name=Carpet/> Helen Carte wrote that Gilbert had addressed Carte "in a way that I should not have thought you would have used to an offending menial".<ref>Stedman, p. 270</ref> On 5 May 1890, Gilbert wrote to Sullivan: "The time for putting an end to our collaboration has at last arrived. … I am writing a letter to Carte ... giving him notice that he is not to produce or perform any of my libretti after Christmas 1890."<ref name=Carpet/> As biographer Andrew Crowther has explained:

{{quote|After all, the carpet was only one of a number of disputed items, and the real issue lay not in the mere money value of these things, but in whether Carte could be trusted with the financial affairs of Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert contended that Carte had at best made a series of serious blunders in the accounts, and at worst deliberately attempted to swindle the others. It is not easy to settle the rights and wrongs of the issue at this distance, but it does seem fairly clear that there was something very wrong with the accounts at this time. Gilbert wrote to Sullivan on 28 May 1891, a year after the end of the "Quarrel", that Carte had admitted "an unintentional overcharge of nearly £1,000 in the electric lighting accounts alone.<ref name=Carpet/>}}

[[File:PeaceOfferingG&S.jpg|thumb|left|In the midst of the quarrel, Gilbert dedicated a collection of Savoy opera lyrics, ''Songs of a Savoyard'', to the composer]]
Things soon degraded, Gilbert lost his temper with his partners and brought a lawsuit against Carte.<ref name=BBCMag>[https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/why-did-gilbert-and-sullivan-quarrel-over-a-carpet "Why did Gilbert and Sullivan quarrel over a carpet?"], ''[[BBC Music Magazine|Classical Music]]'', 26 August 2020</ref> Sullivan supported Carte by making an affidavit erroneously stating that there were minor legal expenses outstanding from a battle Gilbert had in 1884 with [[Lillian Russell]] when, in fact, those expenses had already been paid.<ref>Ainger, pp. 312–316</ref> When Gilbert discovered this, he asked for a retraction of the affidavit; Sullivan refused.<ref name=BBCMag/> Gilbert felt it was a moral issue and could not look past it. Sullivan felt that Gilbert was questioning his good faith, and in any event Sullivan had other reasons to stay in Carte's good graces: Carte was building a new theatre, the [[Royal English Opera House]] (now the [[Palace Theatre, London|Palace Theatre]]), to produce Sullivan's only [[grand opera]], ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]''.<ref name=Carpet/> After ''The Gondoliers'' closed in 1891, Gilbert withdrew the performance rights to his libretti, vowing to write no more operas for the Savoy.<ref name=vowed>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gsarchive.net/grand_duke/html/index.html "Introduction: Historical Context"], ''The Grand Duke'', p. vii, New York: Oakapple Press, 2009. Linked at ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 7 July 2009.</ref>

Gilbert next wrote ''[[The Mountebanks (opera)|The Mountebanks]]'' with [[Alfred Cellier]] and the flop ''[[Haste to the Wedding]]'' with [[George Grossmith]], and Sullivan wrote ''[[Haddon Hall (opera)|Haddon Hall]]'' with [[Sydney Grundy]].<ref name=PlayList>[http://gsarchive.net/gilbert/plays/plays_home.html Gilbert's Plays], ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 21 August 2012</ref> Gilbert eventually won the lawsuit, but his actions and statements had been hurtful to his partners. Nevertheless, the partnership had been so profitable that, after the financial failure of the Royal English Opera House, Carte and his wife sought to reunite the author and composer.<ref name=vowed/> In late 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, [[Chappell & Co.|Tom Chappell]], stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded, eventually leading to two further collaborations between Gilbert and Sullivan.<ref>Wolfson, p. 7</ref>

===Last works===
[[Image:Utopia Limited Poster.jpg|thumb|400px|The drawing room scene from Act II of ''[[Utopia, Limited]]'']]
''[[Utopia, Limited]]'' (1893), their penultimate opera, was a very modest success, and their last, ''[[The Grand Duke]]'' (1896), was an outright failure.<ref>Wolfson, passim</ref> Neither work entered the canon of regularly performed Gilbert and Sullivan works until the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made the first complete professional recordings of the two operas in the 1970s. Gilbert had also offered Sullivan another libretto, ''[[His Excellency (opera)|His Excellency]]'' (1894), but Gilbert's insistence on casting [[Nancy McIntosh]], his protege from ''Utopia'', led to Sullivan's refusal, and ''His Excellency'' was instead composed by [[F. Osmond Carr]].<ref>Wolfson, pp. 61–65</ref> Meanwhile, the Savoy Theatre continued to revive the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in between new pieces, and D'Oyly Carte touring companies also played them in repertory.<ref>Ainger, pp. 355–358</ref>

[[Image:Glad to See You Together.png|thumb|left|upright|The ''Entr'acte'' expresses its pleasure that Gilbert and Sullivan are reunited]]
After ''The Grand Duke'', the partners saw no reason to work together again. A last unpleasant misunderstanding occurred in 1898. At the premiere of Sullivan's opera ''[[The Beauty Stone]]'' on 28 May, Gilbert arrived at the Savoy Theatre with friends, assuming that Sullivan had reserved some seats for him. Instead, he was informed that Sullivan objected to his presence. The composer later denied that this was true.<ref name=Ford/> The last time they met was at the Savoy Theatre on 17 November 1898 at the celebration of the 21st anniversary of the first performance of ''The Sorcerer''. They did not speak to each other.<ref>Howarth, Paul. [http://gsarchive.net/sorcerer/programmes/1898_souvenir/so_1898.html "''The Sorcerer'' 21st Anniversary Souvenir"], The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 8 October 2009, accessed 21 August 2012</ref> Sullivan, by this time in exceedingly poor health, died in 1900, although to the end he continued to write new comic operas for the Savoy with other librettists, most successfully with [[Basil Hood]] in ''[[The Rose of Persia]]'' (1899). Gilbert also wrote several works, some with other collaborators, in the 1890s. By the time of Sullivan's death in 1900, Gilbert wrote that any memory of their rift had been "completely bridged over," and "the most cordial relations existed between us."<ref name=Ford/><ref name=Walbrook18>Walbrook, H. M. [http://gsarchive.net/books/walbrook/chap18.html "The English Offenbach"], ''Gilbert & Sullivan Opera: A History and a Comment'', reprinted at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 28 September 2003, accessed 27 May 2009</ref> He stated that "Sullivan ... because he was a composer of the rarest genius, was as modest and as unassuming as a neophyte should be, but seldom is...I remember all that he has done for me in allowing his genius to shed some of its lustre upon my humble name."<ref name=Walbrook18/>

[[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] died in 1901, after which his widow, [[Helen Carte|Helen]], directed the activities of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy and on tour. Gilbert went into semi-retirement, although he continued to direct revivals of the Savoy Operas and wrote new plays occasionally. Between 1906 and 1909, he assisted Mrs. Carte in staging two repertory seasons at the Savoy Theatre. These were very popular and revived interest in the works.<ref>Joseph, p. 146</ref> Gilbert was knighted during the first repertory season.<ref>Wilson and Lloyd, p. 83</ref> After Sullivan's death, Gilbert wrote only one more comic opera, ''[[Fallen Fairies]]'' (1909; music by [[Edward German]]), which was not a success.<ref name=Ford/><ref>Baily, p. 425</ref>