Editing Gilbert and Sullivan (section)

====''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>