Editing Arthur Sullivan (section)

===1890s===
[[File:Ivanhoe-programme-1891.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'', 1891|alt=Colourful programme cover for ''Ivanhoe'', showing one of the characters in a white wedding dress, under the words "The Royal English Opera"]]
The relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan suffered its most serious breach in April 1890, during the run of ''The Gondoliers'', when Gilbert objected to Carte's financial accounts for the production, including a charge to the partnership for the cost of new carpeting for the Savoy Theatre lobby. Gilbert believed that this was a maintenance expense that should be charged to Carte alone.<ref>Stedman, p. 270</ref> Carte was building a new theatre to present Sullivan's forthcoming grand opera, and Sullivan sided with Carte, going so far as to sign an affidavit that contained erroneous information about old debts of the partnership.<ref>Ainger, pp. 315–316</ref> Gilbert took legal action against Carte and Sullivan, vowing to write no more for the Savoy, and so the partnership came to an acrimonious end.<ref>Ainger, p. 312</ref> Sullivan wrote to Gilbert in September 1890 that he was "physically and mentally ill over this wretched business. I have not yet got over the shock of seeing our names coupled&nbsp;... in hostile antagonism over a few miserable pounds".<ref>Lamb, Andrew. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/957307 "Ivanhoe and the Royal English Opera"], ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 114, No. 1563, May 1973, pp.&nbsp;475–478 {{subscription}}</ref>

Sullivan's only grand opera, ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'', based on [[Walter Scott]]'s [[Ivanhoe|novel]], opened at Carte's new [[Royal English Opera House]] on 31 January 1891. Sullivan completed the score too late to meet Carte's planned production date, and costs mounted; Sullivan was required to pay Carte a contractual penalty of £3,000 ({{Inflation|UK|3000|1899|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) for his delay.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 328–329</ref><ref>Ainger, p. 322</ref> The production lasted for 155 consecutive performances, an unprecedented run for a grand opera, and earned good notices for its music.<ref name=GP>Gordon-Powell, Robin. ''Ivanhoe'', full score, Introduction, vol. I, pp. XII–XIV, 2008, The Amber Ring</ref> Afterwards, Carte was unable to fill the new opera house with other opera productions and sold the theatre. Despite the initial success of ''Ivanhoe'', some writers blamed it for the failure of the opera house, and it soon passed into obscurity.<ref name=GP/> [[Herman Klein]] called the episode "the strangest comingling of success and failure ever chronicled in the history of British lyric enterprise!"<ref>Klein, Herman. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/ivanhoe/klein.html "An Account of the Composition and Production of Ivanhoe"], ''Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870–1900'' (1903), ''reprinted'' at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 3 October 2003, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> Later in 1891 Sullivan composed music for [[Alfred Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s ''[[The Foresters]]'', which ran well at Daly's Theatre in New York in 1892, but failed in London the following year.{{refn| Sullivan's biographers and scholars of his work have censured Tennyson's text.<ref name=j335>Jacobs, pp. 335–336</ref> Gervase Hughes called it "puerile rubbish".<ref name="Hughes, p. 24"/> Percy Young found it "Devoid of any kind of merit whatsoever."<ref name=y194>Young, p. 194</ref> Sullivan's music was initially well-received,<ref name=Notes>Eden, David and William Parry. Notes to Hyperion CD set CDA67486, ''The Contrabandista'' and ''The Foresters'' (2004)</ref> but Sullivan's biographers were not impressed: "One of Sullivan's lamest&nbsp;... resourceless in magic" (Young);<ref name=y194/> "[not] even one memorable number" (Jacobs).<ref name=j335/> More recent critics have praised Sullivan's contribution.<ref name=Notes/><ref>Lamb, Andrew. "Sullivan, ''The Contrabandista''", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', December 2004, p. 121</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Chieftain poster 1894.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Poster for ''[[The Chieftain]]'' (1894)|alt=Colourful poster for ''The Chieftain'', showing the figure of a man dressed as a flamboyant bandit with a large, peaked black hat]]
Sullivan returned to comic opera, but because of the fracture with Gilbert, he and Carte sought other collaborators. Sullivan's next piece was ''[[Haddon Hall (opera)|Haddon Hall]]'' (1892), with a libretto by [[Sydney Grundy]] based loosely on the legend of the elopement of [[Dorothy Vernon]] with John Manners.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 336–342</ref> Although still comic, the tone and style of the work was considerably more serious and romantic than most of the operas with Gilbert. It ran for 204 performances, and was praised by critics.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 341–342</ref> In 1895 Sullivan once more provided incidental music for the Lyceum, this time for [[J. Comyns Carr]]'s ''[[Media:Arthur Sullivan - Incidental music to King Arthur.pdf|King Arthur]]''.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 436–437</ref>

With the aid of an intermediary, Sullivan's music publisher [[Chappell & Co.|Tom Chappell]], the three partners were reunited in 1892.<ref>Ainger, p. 328</ref> Their next opera, ''[[Utopia, Limited]]'' (1893), ran for 245 performances, barely covering the expenses of the lavish production,<ref>Ainger, p. 346</ref> although it was the longest run at the Savoy in the 1890s.<ref>Coles, Clifton. [https://gsarchive.net/savoy/mirette/intro.html "''Mirette'': Introduction"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 28 May 1998, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> Sullivan came to disapprove of the leading lady, [[Nancy McIntosh]], and refused to write another piece featuring her; Gilbert insisted that she must appear in his next opera.<ref>Ainger, p. 352</ref> Instead, Sullivan teamed up again with his old partner, F. C. Burnand. ''[[The Chieftain]]'' (1894), a heavily revised version of their earlier two-act opera, ''The Contrabandista'', flopped.<ref>Ainger, p. 357</ref> Gilbert and Sullivan reunited one more time, after McIntosh announced her retirement from the stage, for ''[[The Grand Duke]]'' (1896). It failed, and Sullivan never worked with Gilbert again, although their operas continued to be revived with success at the Savoy.<ref>Young, p. 201</ref>

In May 1897 Sullivan's full-length ballet, ''[[Victoria and Merrie England]]'', opened at the [[Alhambra Theatre]] to celebrate the Queen's [[Diamond Jubilee]]. The work celebrates English history and culture, with the Victorian period as the grand finale. Its six-month run was considered a great achievement.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 372–376</ref> ''[[The Beauty Stone]]'' (1898), with a libretto by [[Arthur Wing Pinero]] and J. Comyns Carr, was based on mediaeval [[morality play]]s. The collaboration did not go well: Sullivan wrote that Pinero and Comyns Carr were "gifted and brilliant men, with ''no'' experience in writing for music",<ref>Entry from Sullivan's diary, quoted in Jacobs p. 379</ref> and, when he asked for alterations to improve the structure, they refused.<ref>Jacobs, p. 379</ref> The opera, moreover, was too serious for the Savoy audiences' tastes.<ref>Coles, Clifton. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/beauty_stone/beauty_notes.html "''The Beauty Stone'': Notes on the Text"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 2004, accessed 18 July 2018</ref> It was a critical failure and ran for only seven weeks.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 379–380</ref>

In 1899, to benefit "the wives and children of soldiers and sailors" on active service in the [[South African War|Boer War]], Sullivan composed the music of a song, "[[The Absent-Minded Beggar]]", to a text by [[Rudyard Kipling]], which became an instant sensation and raised an unprecedented £300,000 ({{Inflation|UK|300000|1899|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}) for the fund from performances and the sale of sheet music and related merchandise.<ref>Lycett, p. 432</ref> In ''[[The Rose of Persia]]'' (1899), Sullivan returned to his comic roots, writing to a libretto by [[Basil Hood]] that combined an exotic ''[[Arabian Nights]]'' setting with plot elements of ''The Mikado''. Sullivan's tuneful score was well received, and the opera proved to be his most successful full-length collaboration apart from those with Gilbert.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 387, 391–392</ref> Another opera with Hood, ''[[The Emerald Isle]]'', quickly went into preparation, but Sullivan died before it was completed. The score was finished by [[Edward German]], and produced in 1901.<ref>Jacobs, p. 400</ref>