Editing Gilbert and Sullivan (section)

===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}}