Editing Arthur Sullivan (section)

===Early 1880s===
[[File:Leeds-1886-iln-23 October 1886.jpg|thumb|Scenes from ''[[The Golden Legend (cantata)|The Golden Legend]]'' at the [[Leeds Festival (classical music)|Leeds Music Festival]], 1886|alt=Drawing of scenes from the festival premiere of ''The Golden Legend'' showing the chorus, the faces of the principal singers and Sullivan's back, as he stands conducting. Black and white.]]
In 1880 Sullivan was appointed director of the triennial [[Leeds Festival (classical music)|Leeds Music Festival]].<ref>Jacobs, p. 139</ref> He had earlier been commissioned to write a sacred choral work for the festival and chose, as its subject, [[Henry Hart Milman]]'s 1822 dramatic poem based on the life and death of [[Saint Margaret the Virgin|St Margaret of Antioch]]. ''[[The Martyr of Antioch]]'' was first performed at the Leeds Festival in October 1880.<ref>Ainger, p. 163</ref> Gilbert adapted the libretto for Sullivan,<ref>McClure, Derrick. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/martyr/gilbert.html "The Martyr of Antioch: Gilbert's Contribution to the Libretto"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> who, in gratitude, presented his collaborator with an engraved silver cup inscribed "W.S. Gilbert from his friend Arthur Sullivan."{{refn|Gilbert replied, "it most certainly never occurred to me to look for any other reward than the honour of being associated, however remotely and unworthily, in a success which, I suppose, will endure until music itself shall die. Pray believe that of the many substantial advantages that have resulted to me from our association, this last is, and always will be, the most highly prized."<ref>Jacobs, p. 146</ref>|group= n}} Sullivan was not a showy conductor, and some thought him dull and old-fashioned on the podium,{{refn|The Viennese music critic [[Eduard Hanslick]] wrote of Sullivan's conducting of a Mozart symphony: "Sullivan presides on the podium from the comfortable recesses of a commodious armchair, his left arm lazily extended on the arm-rest, his right giving the beat in a mechanical way, his eyes fastened on the score.&nbsp;... Sullivan never looked up from the notes; it was as though he was reading at sight. The heavenly piece plodded along for better or for worse, listlessly, insensibly."<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3361679 "Dr. Hanslick on Music in England"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 September 1886, pp. 518–520 {{subscription}}; Hanslick, p. 263, ''quoted'' in Rodmell, p. 343; and Jacobs, p. 249</ref> [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]], who praised Sullivan as a composer ("They trained him to make Europe yawn, and he took advantage of their teaching to make London and New York laugh and whistle."<ref>Shaw, Vol. 2, p. 174</ref>), commented: "Under his ''bâton'' orchestras are never deficient in refinement. Coarseness, exaggeration, and carelessness are unacquainted with him. So, unfortunately, are vigor and earnestness."<ref>Shaw, Vol. 1, p. 237</ref> Vernon Blackburn of the ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'' thought that Sullivan conducted Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'' "quite extraordinarily well. This is a rather subtle conductor who makes his effects almost unexpectedly, so reticent is his manner and so quiet his method.  Yet effects are there, and … are marked by a great smoothness in the linking of phrase with phrase, and in consequence by a wonderful fluent continuousness of melody."<ref>Blackburn, Vernon. "Leeds Musical Festival", ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'', 7 October 1898, p. 3</ref>|group= n}} but ''Martyr'' had an enthusiastic reception and was frequently revived.<ref>Ainger, pp. 190, 195, 203, 215, 255–256 and 390</ref> Other critics and performers had favorable reactions to Sullivan's conducting, and he had a busy conducting career in parallel with his composing career, including seven Leeds Festivals among many other appointments.<ref>Palmer, chapter 3</ref> Sullivan invariably conducted the opening nights of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 3–18</ref>

Carte opened the next Gilbert and Sullivan piece, ''[[Patience (operetta)|Patience]]'', in April 1881 at London's [[Opera Comique]], where their past three operas had played. In October, ''Patience'' transferred to the new, larger, state-of-the-art [[Savoy Theatre]], built with the profits of the previous Gilbert and Sullivan works. The rest of the partnership's collaborations were produced at the Savoy, and are widely known as the "[[Savoy opera]]s".{{refn|The term came to be applied to all 13 surviving Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and extended, by some writers, to the other comic operas and companion pieces produced at the Savoy Theatre until 1909.<ref>See, e.g., ''The Manchester Guardian'', 17 September 1910, p. 1; Fitz-Gerald, ''The Story of the Savoy Opera'', ''passim''; Rollins and Witts, ''passim''; and Farrell, ''passim''</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines the phrase as: "Designating any of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas originally presented at the Savoy Theatre in London by the D'Oyly Carte company. Also used more generally to designate any of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including those first presented before the Savoy Theatre opened in 1881, or to designate any comic opera of a similar style which appeared at the theatre".<ref>[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/171499?redirectedFrom=Savoy+ "Savoy"], ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, June 2017, accessed 9 December 2017 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} ''[[Iolanthe]]'' (1882), the first new opera to open at the Savoy, was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth hit in a row.<ref>Jacobs, p. 178</ref> Sullivan, despite the financial security of writing for the Savoy, increasingly viewed the composition of comic operas as unimportant, beneath his skills, and also repetitious. After ''Iolanthe'', Sullivan had not intended to write a new work with Gilbert, but he suffered a serious financial loss when his broker went bankrupt in November 1882. Therefore, he concluded that his financial needs obliged him to continue writing Savoy operas.<ref>Ainger, pp. 217–219</ref> In February 1883, he and Gilbert signed a five-year agreement with Carte, requiring them to produce a new comic opera on six months' notice.<ref>Ainger, p. 219</ref>

On 22 May 1883 Sullivan was [[Knight bachelor|knighted]] by [[Queen Victoria]] for his "services&nbsp;... rendered to the promotion of the art of music" in Britain.<ref>Ainger, p. 220</ref> The musical establishment, and many critics, believed that this should end his career as a composer of comic opera – that a musical knight should not stoop below oratorio or [[grand opera]].<ref name=MW>Dailey, p. 28; and Lawrence, pp. 163–164</ref> Having just signed the five-year agreement, Sullivan suddenly felt trapped.<ref>Jacobs, p. 188</ref> The next opera, ''[[Princess Ida]]'' (1884, the duo's only three-act, [[blank verse]] work), had a shorter run than its four predecessors; Sullivan's score was praised. With box office receipts lagging in March 1884, Carte gave the six months' notice, under the partnership contract, requiring a new opera.<ref>Jacobs, p. 187</ref> Sullivan's close friend, the composer [[Frederic Clay]], had recently suffered a career-ending stroke at the age of 45. Sullivan, reflecting on this, on his own long-standing kidney problems, and on his desire to devote himself to more serious music, replied to Carte, "[I]t is impossible for me to do another piece of the character of those already written by Gilbert and myself."<ref>Crowther, Andrew. [https://gsarchive.net/articles/html/quarrel.html "The Carpet Quarrel Explained"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref>

[[File:Mikado-Savoy-1885.jpg|thumb|Programme for ''[[The Mikado]]'', 1885|alt=Colourful programme cover for ''The Mikado'' showing several of the principal characters under the words "Savoy Theatre"]]
Gilbert had already started work on a new opera in which the characters fell in love against their wills after taking a magic lozenge. Sullivan wrote on 1 April 1884 that he had "come to the end of my tether" with the operas: "I have been continually keeping down the music in order that not one [syllable] should be lost.&nbsp;...  I should like to set a story of human interest & probability where the humorous words would come in a humorous (not serious) situation, & where, if the situation were a tender or dramatic one the words would be of similar character."<ref>Ainger, p. 230</ref> In a lengthy exchange of correspondence, Sullivan pronounced Gilbert's plot sketch (particularly the "lozenge" element) unacceptably mechanical, and too similar in both its grotesque "elements of topsyturveydom" and in actual plot to their earlier work, especially ''The Sorcerer''.{{refn|Even after Gilbert made changes (but retained a magic lozenge that changed people into what they pretended to be), Sullivan did not accept it.<ref name=j190/>|group= n}} He repeatedly requested that Gilbert find a new subject.<ref name=j190>Jacobs, pp. 190–193</ref> The impasse was finally resolved on 8 May when Gilbert proposed a plot that did not depend on any supernatural device. The result was Gilbert and Sullivan's most successful work, ''[[The Mikado]]'' (1885).<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 10</ref> The piece ran for 672 performances, which was the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre, and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece, up to that time.{{refn| The longest-running piece of musical theatre was [[Robert Planquette]]'s 1877 [[opéra-comique]] ''[[Les cloches de Corneville]]'', which held the record until [[Alfred Cellier]]'s operetta ''[[Dorothy (opera)|Dorothy]]'' ran for 931 performances beginning in 1886.<ref>Mackerness, E.D. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/05262 "Cellier, Alfred"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, accessed 18 August 2011 {{subscription}}; and Gänzl, Kurt. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O901087 "Cloches de Corneville, Les"], ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 18 August 2011</ref>|group= n}}