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{{Short description|British composer (1842–1900)}}
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[[File:Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan.jpg|thumb|Arthur Sullivan in 1888|alt=Head and shoulders of Sullivan, dressed in a dark suit, facing slightly left of center, with moustache and long sideburns. Black and white.]]
'''Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MVO}} (13 May 1842&nbsp;– 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 [[Gilbert and Sullivan|comic opera collaborations]] with the dramatist [[W.&nbsp;S. Gilbert]], including ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' and ''[[The Mikado]]''. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and [[oratorio]]s, two ballets, [[incidental music]] to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "[[Onward, Christian Soldiers]]" and "[[The Lost Chord]]".

The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys' choir of the [[Chapel Royal]]. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first [[Mendelssohn Scholarship]] by the [[Royal Academy of Music]], which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the [[Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre|Leipzig Conservatoire]] in Germany. His graduation piece, incidental music to [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Tempest (Sullivan)|The Tempest]]'' (1861), was received with acclaim on its first performance in London. Among his early major works were a ballet, ''[[L'Île Enchantée]]'' (1864), a [[Symphony in E (Sullivan)|symphony]], a [[Cello Concerto (Sullivan)|cello concerto]] (both 1866), and his ''[[Overture di Ballo]]'' (1870). To supplement the income from his concert works he wrote hymns, [[Parlour music|parlour ballads]] and other light pieces, and worked as a church organist and music teacher.

In 1866 Sullivan composed a one-act [[comic opera]], ''[[Cox and Box]]'', which is still widely performed. He wrote his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]'', in 1871. Four years later, the [[impresario]] [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] engaged Gilbert and Sullivan to create a one-act piece, ''[[Trial by Jury]]'' (1875). Its box-office success led to a series of twelve full-length comic operas by the collaborators. After the extraordinary success of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' (1878) and ''The Pirates of Penzance'' (1879), Carte used his profits from the partnership to build the [[Savoy Theatre]] in 1881, and their joint works became known as the [[Savoy operas]]. Among the best known of the later operas are ''The Mikado'' (1885) and ''[[The Gondoliers]]'' (1889). Gilbert broke from Sullivan and Carte in 1890, after a quarrel over expenses at the Savoy. They reunited in the 1890s for two more operas, but these did not achieve the popularity of their earlier works.

Sullivan's infrequent serious pieces during the 1880s included two [[cantata]]s, ''[[The Martyr of Antioch]]'' (1880) and ''[[The Golden Legend (cantata)|The Golden Legend]]'' (1886), his most popular choral work. He also wrote incidental music for [[West End theatre|West End]] productions of several Shakespeare plays, and held conducting and academic appointments. Sullivan's only [[grand opera]], ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'', though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. In his last decade Sullivan continued to compose comic operas with various librettists and wrote other major and minor works. He died at the age of 58, regarded as Britain's foremost composer. His comic opera style served as a model for generations of musical theatre composers that followed, and his music is still frequently performed, recorded and [[pastiche]]d.

==Life and career==

===Early life===
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Sullivan was born on 13 May 1842 in [[Lambeth]], London, the younger of the two children, both boys, of Thomas Sullivan (1805–1866) and his wife, Mary Clementina ''née'' Coghlan (1811–1882). His father was a military bandmaster, clarinettist and music teacher, born in Ireland and raised in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London; his mother was English born, of Irish and Italian descent.<ref>Young, pp. 1–2</ref> Thomas Sullivan was based from 1845 to 1857 at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], where he was the bandmaster and taught music privately to supplement his income.<ref name=Ancestry>Ainger, pp. 6 and 22–23</ref><ref>Jacobs, pp. 6–7</ref> Young Arthur became proficient with many of the instruments in the band and composed an [[anthem]], "By the Waters of Babylon", when he was eight.<ref>Jacobs, p. 7</ref> He later recalled:
{{blockquote|I was intensely interested in all that the band did, and learned to play every wind instrument, with which I formed not merely a passing acquaintance, but a real, life-long, intimate friendship. I gradually learned the peculiarities of each&nbsp;... what it could do and what it was unable to do. I learned in the best possible way how to write for an orchestra.<ref name=young4>Sullivan, quoted in Young, pp. 4–5</ref>|}}

While recognising the boy's obvious talent, his father knew the insecurity of a musical career and discouraged him from pursuing it.<ref>Young, p. 5</ref> Sullivan studied at a private school in [[Bayswater]]. In 1854 he persuaded his parents and the headmaster to allow him to apply for membership in the choir of the [[Chapel Royal]].<ref>Jacobs, p. 7; and Ainger, p. 24</ref> Despite concerns that, at nearly 12 years of age, Sullivan was too old to give much service as a [[Boy soprano|treble]] before his voice broke, he was accepted and soon became a soloist. By 1856, he was promoted to "first boy".<ref>Jacobs, pp. 8 and 12</ref> Even at this age, his health was delicate, and he was easily fatigued.<ref name="Jacobs, pp. 12–13">Jacobs, pp. 12–13</ref>

Sullivan flourished under the training of the Reverend [[Thomas Helmore]], [[Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal]], and began to write anthems and songs.<ref name=Jacobs11>Jacobs, pp. 10–11</ref> Helmore encouraged his compositional talent and arranged for one of his pieces, "O Israel", to be published in 1855, his first published work.<ref>Young, p. 8</ref> Helmore enlisted Sullivan's assistance in creating harmonisations for a volume of ''The Hymnal Noted''<ref name=musicaltimes>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3368297 "Arthur Sullivan"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 December 1900, pp. 785–787 {{subscription}}</ref> and arranged for the boy's compositions to be performed; one anthem was performed at the Chapel Royal in [[St James's Palace]] under the direction of [[George Thomas Smart|Sir George Smart]].<ref name=Jacobs11/>

===Mendelssohn scholar===
[[File:Young Arthur Sullivan.jpg|thumb|upright|Sullivan aged 16, in his Royal Academy of Music uniform|alt=Sullivan seated with one leg crossed over another, age 16, in his Royal Academy of Music uniform, showing his thick, curly hair. Black and white.]]
In 1856 the [[Royal Academy of Music]] awarded the first [[Mendelssohn Scholarship]] to the 14-year-old Sullivan, granting him a year's training at the academy.<ref name="Jacobs, pp. 12–13"/>{{refn| In 1848, [[Jenny Lind]] performed the soprano part to [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s oratorio ''[[Elijah (oratorio)|Elijah]]'', which he had written for her. The concert raised £1,000 to fund a scholarship in his name. After Sullivan became the first recipient of the scholarship, Lind encouraged him in his career.<ref>Rosen, Carole. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16671 "Lind, Jenny (1820–1887)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 7 December 2008 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>|group= n}} His principal teacher there was [[John Goss (composer)|John Goss]], whose own teacher, [[Thomas Attwood (composer)|Thomas Attwood]], had been a pupil of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]].<ref name=mack>[[Alexander MacKenzie (composer)|MacKenzie, Alexander]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/929160 "The Life-Work of Arthur Sullivan"], ''Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft'', 3. Jahrg., H. 3, May 1902, pp. 539–564 {{subscription}}</ref> He studied piano with [[William Sterndale Bennett]] (the future head of the academy) and [[Arthur O'Leary (composer)|Arthur O'Leary]].<ref>Fitzsimons, pp. 98 and 142</ref> During this first year at the academy Sullivan continued to sing solos with the Chapel Royal, which provided a small amount of spending money.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 13–16</ref>

Sullivan's scholarship was extended to a second year, and in 1858, in what his biographer [[Arthur Jacobs]] calls an "extraordinary gesture of confidence",<ref name=Jacobs17>Jacobs, p. 17</ref> the scholarship committee extended his grant for a third year so that he could study in Germany, at the [[Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre|Leipzig Conservatoire]].<ref name=Jacobs17/> There, Sullivan studied composition with [[Julius Rietz]] and [[Carl Reinecke]], counterpoint with [[Moritz Hauptmann]] and [[Ernst Richter]], and the piano with [[Louis Plaidy]] and [[Ignaz Moscheles]].<ref>Ainger, p. 37</ref> He was trained in [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]'s ideas and techniques but was also exposed to a variety of styles, including those of [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]].<ref name=Jacobs24>Jacobs, p. 24</ref> Visiting a [[synagogue]], he was so struck by some of the [[cadence]]s and [[Chord progression|progressions]] of the music that thirty years later he could recall them for use in his [[grand opera]], ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]''.<ref name=Jacobs24/> He became friendly with the future impresario [[Carl Rosa]] and the violinist [[Joseph Joachim]], among others.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 22–24</ref>

The academy renewed Sullivan's scholarship to allow him a second year of study at Leipzig.<ref>Young, p. 21</ref> For his third and last year there, his father scraped together the money for living expenses, and the conservatoire assisted by waiving its fees.<ref name=Jacobs23>Jacobs, p. 23</ref> Sullivan's graduation piece, completed in 1861, was a suite of [[incidental music]] to [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Tempest (Sullivan)|The Tempest]]''.<ref name=Jacobs24/> Revised and expanded, it was performed at the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]] in 1862, a year after his return to London; ''[[The Musical Times]]'' described it as a sensation.<ref name=musicaltimes/><ref>Jacobs, pp. 27–28</ref> He began building a reputation as England's most promising young composer.<ref name=Lawrence2/>

===Rising composer===
[[File:Sullivan-colleagues-1870s.jpg|thumb|Colleagues and collaborators: clockwise from top left, [[George Grove]], [[F. C. Burnand]], [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]], [[W. S.&nbsp;Gilbert]]|alt=Head and shoulders photos of each of the four men. Black and white. Grove is bald and benign-looking; Burnand fully-thatched and moderately bearded, looking pleased with himself; Carte, serious, dark-haired and neatly bearded; and Gilbert light-coloured hair and moustache looking slightly to right.]]
Sullivan embarked on his composing career with a series of ambitious works, interspersed with hymns, [[parlour songs]] and other light pieces in a more commercial vein. His compositions were not enough to support him financially, and between 1861 and 1872 he worked as a church organist, which he enjoyed; as a music teacher, which he hated and gave up as soon as he could;<ref>Ainger, p. 56</ref> and as an arranger of vocal scores of popular operas.<ref name=grove/>{{refn|Between 1861 and 1872 Sullivan worked as an organist at two fashionable London churches: [[St Michael's Church, Chester Square]], [[Pimlico]], and [[Church of St Yeghiche, South Kensington|St Peter's, Cranley Gardens]], [[Kensington]].<ref name=grove/> He taught, among other places, at the [[Crystal Palace School]].<ref>Musgrave, pp. 171–172</ref> Between 1860 and 1870 he arranged seven vocal scores of operas for [[Boosey & Hawkes|Boosey and Co]]: [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven's]] ''[[Fidelio]]'', [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini's]] ''[[La sonnambula]]'', [[Friedrich von Flotow|Flotow's]] ''[[Martha (opera)|Martha]]'', [[Charles Gounod|Gounod's]] ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart's]] ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini's]] ''[[The Barber of Seville]]'' and [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi's]] ''[[Il trovatore]]'', and he collaborated with [[Josiah Pittman]] in arranging 25 other operas by some of the above and [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]], [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]], [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] and [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]].<ref name=grove/><ref>Jacobs, p. 61</ref>|group=n}} He took an early opportunity to compose several pieces for royalty in connection with the wedding of the [[Edward VII|Prince of Wales]] in 1863.<ref>Jacobs, p. 35</ref>

With ''[[The Masque at Kenilworth]]'' ([[Birmingham Triennial Music Festival|Birmingham Festival]], 1864), Sullivan began his association with works for voice and orchestra.<ref>Jacobs, p. 38</ref> While an organist at the [[Royal Opera House#Third theatre|Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden]], he composed his first ballet, ''[[L'Île Enchantée]]'' (1864).<ref>Jacobs, p. 37</ref> His ''[[Symphony in E (Sullivan)|''Irish'' Symphony]]'' and ''[[Cello Concerto (Sullivan)|Cello Concerto]]'' (both 1866) were his only works in their respective genres.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 36 and 42</ref> In the same year, his [[Overture in C, "In Memoriam"|Overture in C (''In Memoriam'')]], commemorating the recent death of his father, was a commission from the [[Norfolk and Norwich Festival|Norwich Festival]]. It achieved considerable popularity.<ref>Jacobs, p. 43</ref> In June 1867 the [[Royal Philharmonic Society|Philharmonic Society]] gave the first performance of his overture ''Marmion''.<ref name=grove>Jacobs, Arthur. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/27100  "Sullivan, Sir Arthur"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, accessed 19 August 2011 {{subscription}}</ref> The reviewer for ''[[The Times]]'' called it "another step in advance on the part of the only composer of any remarkable promise that just at present we can boast."<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 17 June 1867, p. 12</ref> In October, Sullivan travelled with [[George Grove]] to Vienna in search of neglected scores by Schubert.<ref>Jacobs, p. 45; and Young, p. 56</ref> They unearthed manuscript copies of symphonies and vocal music, and were particularly elated by their final discovery, the incidental music to ''[[Rosamunde]]''.{{refn|They were permitted to copy the ''[[Rosamunde]]'' score and two of the symphonies – the [[Symphony No. 4 (Schubert)|Fourth]] and [[Symphony No. 6 (Schubert)|Sixth]] – and inspected four others (the [[Symphony No. 1 (Schubert)|First]], [[Symphony No. 2 (Schubert)|Second]], [[Symphony No. 3 (Schubert)|Third]] and [[Symphony No. 5 (Schubert)|Fifth]]), to the existence of which they quickly drew the attention of the musical world. Grove described their final discovery: "I found, at the bottom of the cupboard and in its farthest corner, a bundle of music books two feet high, carefully tied round, and black with the undisturbed dust of nearly half-a-century.&nbsp;... There were the part books of the whole of the music in ''Rosamunde'', tied up after the second performance, in December 1823, and probably never disturbed since. Dr. Schneider [Schubert's nephew] must have been amused at our excitement&nbsp;... at any rate, he kindly overlooked it, and gave us permission to&nbsp;... copy what we wanted."<ref>Kreissle (1869), pp. 327–328 and, with respect to the whole journey, pp. 297–332</ref>|group=n}}

Sullivan's first attempt at opera, ''[[The Sapphire Necklace]]'' (1863–64) to a libretto by [[Henry Fothergill Chorley|Henry F. Chorley]], was not produced and is now lost, except for the overture and two songs that were separately published.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 42–43</ref> His first surviving opera, ''[[Cox and Box]]'' (1866), was written for a private performance.<ref>Ainger, p. 65</ref> It then received charity performances in London and Manchester, and was later produced at the [[Gallery of Illustration]], where it ran for an extraordinary 264 performances. [[W. S. Gilbert]], writing in ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]'' magazine, pronounced the score superior to [[F. C. Burnand]]'s libretto.<ref>Young, p. 63</ref> Sullivan and Burnand were soon commissioned by [[Thomas German Reed]] for a two-act opera, ''[[The Contrabandista]]'' (1867; revised and expanded as ''[[The Chieftain]]'' in 1894), but it did not do as well.<ref>Young, p. 63; and Rollins and Witts, p. 15</ref> Among Sullivan's early [[part song]]s is "[[The Long Day Closes (song)|The Long Day Closes]]" (1868).<ref name=hymnssongs>Sullivan, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullsongs-dtl.htm "Discography of Sir Arthur Sullivan: Recordings of Hymns and Songs"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 11 July 2010, accessed 9 September 2011</ref> Sullivan's last major work of the 1860s was a short [[oratorio]], ''[[The Prodigal Son (Sullivan)|The Prodigal Son]]'', first given in [[Worcester Cathedral]] as part of the 1869 [[Three Choirs Festival]] to much praise.<ref>"Worcester Music Festival", ''The Times'', 9 September 1869, p. 10</ref>

===1870s: first collaborations with Gilbert===
[[File:Sorc-Pin-Trial.jpg|thumb|left|Poster: scenes from ''[[The Sorcerer]]'', ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' and ''[[Trial by Jury]]''|alt=Poster showing scenes from all three operas featuring principal characters; the productions, by an American opera company around 1879, seem lavish. Black and white.]]
Sullivan's most enduring orchestral work,<ref name=Hughes14/> the ''[[Overture di Ballo]]'', was composed for the Birmingham Festival in 1870.{{refn|The work received an enthusiastic public reception, but ''[[The Musical Times]]'' printed an early example of critical censure of Sullivan for his accessibility: "The applause which it received was general and spontaneous [but] it may be a question whether, if Mr. Sullivan could not be requested to furnish a higher class of work, he should not have been passed over altogether until a more fitting opportunity presented itself."<ref>Lunn, Henry C. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3351568 "The Birmingham Musical Festival"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 October 1870, pp. 615–20 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The same year, Sullivan first met the poet and dramatist W. S. Gilbert.{{refn|They met at a rehearsal for a second run of Gilbert's ''[[Ages Ago]]'' at the [[Gallery of Illustration]], probably in July 1870.<ref>Crowther (2011), p. 84</ref> Gilbert was then known for his light verse, especially his ''[[Bab Ballads]]''; his theatre reviews; and his two dozen plays, including [[Victorian burlesques|operatic burlesques]] (such as ''[[Robert the Devil (Gilbert)|Robert the Devil]]'', 1868), his [[German Reed Entertainments]], and blank verse comedies such as ''[[The Palace of Truth]]'' (1870) and ''[[Pygmalion and Galatea (play)|Pygmalion and Galatea]]'' (1871).|group= n}} In 1871 Sullivan published his only [[song cycle]], ''[[The Window (song cycle)|The Window]]'', to words by [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]],<ref>Jacobs, pp. 57–58</ref> and he wrote the first of a series of incidental music scores for productions of Shakespeare plays.{{refn|This was for ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester.<ref>Jacobs, p. 68</ref> Sullivan's earlier ''Tempest'' music was composed for the concert hall, rather than theatrical performance, although it was later used for at least one stage production.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 27–28 and 38</ref>|group= n}} He also composed a dramatic [[cantata]], ''[[On Shore and Sea]]'', for the opening of the London International Exhibition,<ref>Jacobs, pp. 65–66</ref> and the [[hymn]] "[[Onward, Christian Soldiers]]", with words by [[Sabine Baring-Gould]].<ref name=hymnssongs/> [[The Salvation Army]] adopted the latter as its favoured [[Processional hymn|processional]],<ref>Branston, John. [http://www.memphisflyer.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A10563 "Christian Soldiers: The Salvation Army brings humility and $48 million to the fairgrounds discussion"], ''Memphis Flyer'', 18 November 2005</ref> and it became Sullivan's best-known hymn.<ref name=hymnssongs/><ref>Young, p. 99</ref>

At the end of 1871 [[John Hollingshead]], proprietor of London's [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]], commissioned Sullivan to work with Gilbert to create the [[Victorian burlesque|burlesque]]-style comic opera ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]''.<ref>Ainger, p. 93</ref>{{refn|With a classical story and a mixture of political satire and [[grand opera]] parody, ''Thespis'' was reminiscent of ''[[Orpheus in the Underworld]]'' and ''[[La belle Hélène]]'' by [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]], whose [[operetta]]s were extremely popular on the English stage in both French and English.<ref>Jacobs, p. 50</ref> ''La belle Hélène'' entered the Gaiety's repertory eight weeks before the premiere of ''Thespis''.<ref>Rees, p. 72</ref> Sullivan may have been encouraged to write the music for ''Thespis'' by Hollingshead's offer of the role of Apollo to the composer's elder brother, the comic actor and singer [[Fred Sullivan]].<ref>Rees, p. 15</ref> |group= n}} Played as a Christmas entertainment, it ran through to Easter 1872, a good run for such a piece.<ref>Rees, p. 78</ref>{{refn|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> The musical score of ''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.<ref>Rees, pp. 34, 49 and 89</ref>|group= n}} Gilbert and Sullivan then went their separate ways<ref>Stedman, p. 94</ref> until they collaborated on three parlour ballads in late 1874 and early 1875.<ref>Stedman, pp. 126–127</ref>

Sullivan's large-scale works of the early 1870s were the ''[[Festival Te Deum]]'' (Crystal Palace, 1872)<ref name=Jacobs75>Jacobs, pp. 75–76</ref> and the oratorio ''[[The Light of the World (Sullivan)|The Light of the World]]'' (Birmingham Festival, 1873).<ref name=Jacobs75/> He provided incidental music for productions of ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' at the Gaiety in 1874<ref>Jacobs, p. 76</ref> and ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' at the [[Theatre Royal, Manchester]], in 1877.<ref>Jacobs, p. 108</ref>  He continued to compose hymns throughout the decade.{{refn| Sullivan composed 72 hymns, including two settings of "[[Nearer, My God, to Thee]]", of which the "Propior Deo" is the better known.<ref>Young, pp. 278–280</ref>|group= n}} In 1873 Sullivan contributed songs to Burnand's Christmas "drawing room extravaganza", ''The Miller and His Man''.<ref>Howarth, Paul. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/miller/index.html ''The Miller and His Man''], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref>

In 1875 the manager of the [[Royalty Theatre]], [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]], needed a short piece to fill out a bill with Offenbach's ''[[La Périchole]]''. Carte had conducted Sullivan's ''Cox and Box''.<ref>Ainger, pp. 107–108</ref>{{refn|Carte conducted ''Cox and Box'' and some operettas on a tour, in 1871, managed by the composer's brother, Fred, who played Cox. ''Cox and Box'', again with Fred as Cox, had been revived in 1874, and Arthur Sullivan may have been considering a return to comic opera.<ref>McElroy, George. "Whose ''Zoo''; or, When Did the ''Trial'' Begin?", ''Nineteenth Century Theatre Research'', 12 December 1984, pp. 39–54</ref>|group= n}} Remembering that Gilbert had suggested a libretto to him, Carte engaged Sullivan to set it, and the result was the one-act [[comic opera]] ''[[Trial by Jury]]''.<ref>Ainger, p. 108</ref>{{refn|The title page of the libretto describes ''Trial'' as "A Dramatic Cantata";<ref>Jacobs, p. 90</ref> Gilbert and Sullivan insisted on calling the rest of their joint works "operas", often with a descriptive adjective, such as a "nautical comic opera" (Jacobs, p. 118), an "aesthetic opera" or a "Japanese opera" (Jacobs, Preface).|group= n}} ''Trial'', starring Sullivan's brother [[Fred Sullivan|Fred]] as the Learned Judge, became a surprise hit, earning glowing praise from the critics and playing for 300 performances over its first few seasons.<ref name=Allen30>Allen, p. 30</ref> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' commented that the piece illustrated the composer's "great capacity for dramatic writing of the lighter class",<ref name=Allen30/> and other reviews emphasised the felicitous combination of Gilbert's words and Sullivan's music.<ref>''The Daily News'', 27 March 1875, p. 3</ref> One wrote, "it seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain."<ref name=World226>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GZIPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254 "''Trial by Jury''"], ''The Musical World'', 3 April 1875, p. 226, accessed 17 June 2008</ref> A few months later, another Sullivan one-act comic opera opened: ''[[The Zoo]]'', with a libretto by [[B. C. Stephenson]].<ref>Jacobs, pp. 91–92</ref> It was less successful than ''Trial'', and for the next 15 years Sullivan's sole operatic collaborator was Gilbert; [[Gilbert and Sullivan|the partners]] created a further twelve operas together.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 5–12</ref>

{{Listen|type=music
|filename    = Arthur Sullivan, The Lost Chord, Reed Miller 1913 (restored 1).ogg
|title       = "The Lost Chord"
|description = 1913 recording of "[[The Lost Chord]]" (1877) by Arthur Sullivan and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]], sung by [[Reed Miller]]
}}
Sullivan also turned out more than 80 popular songs and [[parlour ballads]], most of them written before the end of the 1870s.<ref name=songs>Young, pp. 273–278, gives a complete list. For links and descriptions, see Howarth, Paul (ed.) [http://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/songs/index.html "Sir Arthur Sullivan's Songs and Parlour Ballads"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 18 July 2004, accessed 18 December 2017</ref> His first popular song was "Orpheus with his Lute" (1866), and a well-received [[part song]] was "Oh! Hush thee, my Babie" (1867).<ref name=musicaltimes/> The best known of his songs is "[[The Lost Chord]]" (1877, lyrics by [[Adelaide Anne Procter]]), written at the bedside of his brother during Fred's last illness.<ref>Ainger, p. 128</ref> The sheet music for his best-received songs sold in large numbers and was an important part of his income.<ref>Goodman, p. 19</ref>{{refn|Later, songs from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were adapted and sold as dance pieces.<ref name=DanceArr>Sands, John. [https://gsarchive.net/articles/arrangements/dance_music.html "Dance Arrangements from the Savoy Operas" (Introduction)], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 4 April 2010, accessed 28 August 2018</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Arthur Sullivan, conductor, by Lyall.jpg|thumb|left|Caricature of Sullivan as a conductor, c. 1879|alt=Newspaper cartoon of a monocled Sullivan lounging in a chair, his feet propped up on the podium, lazily conducting]]
In this decade, Sullivan's conducting appointments included the [[Glasgow]] Choral Union concerts (1875–77) and the [[Royal Aquarium|Royal Aquarium Theatre]], London (1876).<ref>Ainger, p. 121</ref> In addition to his appointment as Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was a Fellow, he was appointed as the first Principal of the [[National Training School of Music]] in 1876.<ref name=wright/> He accepted the latter post reluctantly, fearing that discharging the duties thoroughly would leave too little time for composing; in this he was correct.{{refn|His successor [[Hubert Parry]] also discovered this to be true.<ref>Legge, Robin H. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/908703 "Charles Hubert Hastings Parry"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 November 1918, pp. 489–491 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} He was not effective in the post, and resigned in 1881.{{refn|In a study of the School and its successor, the Royal College of Music, David Wright comments on Sullivan: "He lacked any fresh perspective on musical training and any vision of what the NTSM needed to achieve if it was to make a mark.&nbsp;... Neither did Sullivan have real sympathy with the Society of Arts' progressive social ideals of scholarship education regardless of social origin, despite having himself gained his education through scholarship support."<ref name=wright>Wright, David. "The South Kensington Music Schools and the Development of the British Conservatoire in the Late Nineteenth Century", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', Oxford University Press, Vol. 130 No. 2, pp. 236–282</ref>|group= n}}

Sullivan's next collaboration with Gilbert, ''[[The Sorcerer]]'' (1877), ran for 178 performances,<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 5</ref> a success by the standards of the day,<ref>Crowther (2000), p. 96</ref> but ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' (1878), which followed it, turned Gilbert and Sullivan into an international phenomenon.<ref>Crowther (2000), p. 96; and Stedman, p. 169</ref> Sullivan composed the bright and cheerful music of ''Pinafore'' while suffering from excruciating pain from a kidney stone.<ref>Ainger, p. 155</ref> ''Pinafore'' ran for 571 performances in London, then the second-longest theatrical run in history,<ref>Gaye, p. 1532; and Gillan, Don. [http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-longr.html "Longest Running Plays in London and New York"], StageBeauty.net (2007), accessed 10 March 2009</ref> and more than 150 unauthorised productions were quickly mounted in America alone.<ref>Prestige, Colin. "D'Oyly Carte and the Pirates: The Original New York Productions of Gilbert and Sullivan", pp. 113–148 at p. 118, ''Gilbert and Sullivan [http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/5875 Papers Presented at the International Conference] held at the [[University of Kansas]] in May 1970'', Edited by James Helyar. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Libraries, 1971.</ref>{{refn|Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte tried for many years to control the American performance copyrights over their operas, but they were unable to do so.<ref>Rosen, Z. 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'' {{subscription}}</ref> |group= n}} Among other favourable reviews, ''The Times'' noted that the opera was an early attempt at the establishment of a "national musical stage" free from risqué French "improprieties" and without the "aid" of Italian and German musical models.<ref>"Opera Comique", ''The Times'', 27 May 1878, p. 6</ref> ''The Times'' and several of the other papers agreed that although the piece was entertaining, Sullivan was capable of higher art, and frivolous light opera would hold him back.<ref>Allen, Introduction to chapter on ''H.M.S. Pinafore''</ref> This criticism would follow Sullivan throughout his career.<ref name=MW/>

In 1879 Sullivan suggested to a reporter from ''[[The New York Times]]'' the secret of his success with Gilbert: "His ideas are as suggestive for music as they are quaint and laughable. His numbers&nbsp;... always give me musical ideas."<ref name="MrSullivan">[https://www.nytimes.com/1879/08/01/archives/a-talk-with-mr-sullivan-the-composer-of-pinafore-at-his-home-his.html "A Talk With Mr. Sullivan"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1 August 1879, p. 3, {{ProQuest|93754709}}, accessed 22 May 2012</ref> ''Pinafore'' was followed by ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' in 1879, which opened in New York and then ran in London for 363 performances.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 7</ref>

===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}}

===Later 1880s===
[[File:Sullivan by Millais.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Portrait of Arthur Sullivan|Portrait]] by [[John Everett Millais|Millais]] (1888) in the [[National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom)|National Portrait Gallery]], London |alt=Painting of Sullivan, seated with one leg crossed over the other, looking intently at the artist]]
In 1886 Sullivan composed his second and last large-scale choral work of the decade. It was a cantata for the Leeds Festival, ''[[The Golden Legend (cantata)|The Golden Legend]]'', based on [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]]'s poem of the same name. Apart from the comic operas, this proved to be Sullivan's best received full-length work.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 242–243</ref> It was given hundreds of performances during his lifetime, and at one point he declared a moratorium on its presentation, fearing that it would become over-exposed.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/html/sull_biog.html "Sullivan Biography"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> Only [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]'s ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]'' was performed more often in Britain in the 1880s and 1890s.<ref name=hulme>Russell Hulme, David. Notes to Hyperion CD set CDA67280, ''The Golden Legend'' (2001)</ref> It remained in the repertory until about the 1920s, but since then it has seldom been performed;<ref>Jacobs, p. 243</ref> it received its first professional recording in 2001.<ref name=hulme/> The musical scholar and conductor [[David Russell Hulme]] writes that the work influenced [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] and [[William Walton|Walton]].{{refn|"''King Olaf'', ''Caractacus'' and ''[[The Dream of Gerontius|Gerontius]]'' owe much to ''The Golden Legend'' – as, via them, does Walton's ''[[Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)|Belshazzar's Feast]]''."<ref name=hulme/>|group= n}}

''[[Ruddigore]]'' followed ''The Mikado'' at the Savoy in 1887. It was profitable, but its nine-month run was disappointing compared with most of the earlier Savoy operas.<ref>Ainger, pp. 259–261</ref> For their next piece, Gilbert submitted another version of the magic lozenge plot, which Sullivan again rejected. Gilbert finally proposed a comparatively serious opera, to which Sullivan agreed.<ref>Ainger, pp. 265, 270</ref>  Although it was not a grand opera, ''[[The Yeomen of the Guard]]'' (1888) provided him with the opportunity to compose his most ambitious stage work to date.<ref>Ainger, pp. 281–282; and Jacobs, pp. 274–275</ref> As early as 1883 Sullivan had been under pressure from the musical establishment to write a grand opera. In 1885 he told an interviewer, "The opera of the future is a compromise [among the French, German and Italian schools] – a sort of eclectic school, a selection of the merits of each one. I myself will make an attempt to produce a grand opera of this new school.&nbsp;... Yes, it will be an historical work, and it is the dream of my life."<ref name=sfc>"Sir Arthur Sullivan: A Talk With the Composer of ''Pinafore''", ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', 22 July 1885, p. 9</ref> After ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' opened, Sullivan turned again to Shakespeare, composing incidental music for [[Henry Irving]]'s [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]] production of ''[[Macbeth]]'' (1888).<ref>Hughes, p.19</ref>

Sullivan wished to produce further serious works with Gilbert. He had collaborated with no other librettist since 1875. But Gilbert felt that the reaction to ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' had "not been so convincing as to warrant us in assuming that the public want something more earnest still".<ref name=WriteTwoOperas/> He proposed instead that Sullivan should go ahead with his plan to write a grand opera, but should continue also to compose comic works for the Savoy.{{refn|Gilbert wrote, "We have a name, jointly, for humorous work, tempered with occasional glimpses of earnest drama. I think we should do unwisely if we left, altogether, the path which we have trodden together so long and so successfully. I can quite understand your desire to write a big work, well, why not write one? But why abandon the Savoy business? Cannot the two things be done concurrently? If you can write an oratorio like ''[[The Martyr of Antioch]]'' while you are occupied by pieces like ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]'' and ''[[Iolanthe]]'', can't you write a grand opera without giving up pieces like ''The Yeomen of the Guard''?"<ref name=WriteTwoOperas>Letter from Gilbert to Sullivan, 20 February 1889, quoted in Jacobs, p. 282</ref>|group= n}} Sullivan was not immediately persuaded. He replied, "I have lost the liking for writing comic opera, and entertain very grave doubts as to my power of doing it."{{refn|Sullivan continued, "I have lost the necessary nerve for it, and it is not too much to say that it is distasteful to me. The types used over and over again (unavoidable in such a company as ours), the [[George Grossmith|Grossmith]] part, the middle-aged woman with fading charms, cannot again be clothed in music by me. Nor can I again write to any wildly improbable plot in which there is not some human interest.&nbsp;... You say that in 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. Business and syllabic setting assume an importance which, however much they fetter me, cannot be overlooked. I am bound, in the interests of the piece, to give way. Hence the reason of my wishing to do a work where the music is to be the first consideration – where words are to suggest music, not govern it, and where music will intensify and emphasize the emotional effects of the words.<ref>Letter from Sullivan to Gilbert, 12 March 1889, quoted in Jacobs, pp. 283–284</ref>|group= n}} Nevertheless, Sullivan soon commissioned a grand opera libretto from [[Julian Sturgis]] (who was recommended by Gilbert), and suggested to Gilbert that he revive an old idea for an opera set in colourful [[Venice]].<ref>Jacobs, pp. 282–283 and 288; and Ainger, p. 294</ref> The comic opera was completed first: ''[[The Gondoliers]]'' (1889) was a piece described by [[Gervase Hughes]] as a pinnacle of Sullivan's achievement.<ref name="Hughes, p. 24">Hughes, p. 24</ref> It was the last great Gilbert and Sullivan success.<ref>Ainger, p. 303</ref>

===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 November 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>

===Death, honours and legacy===
{{further|Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan}}
[[File:Memorial To Sir Arthur Sullivan.jpg|thumb|[[Arthur Sullivan Memorial, Victoria Embankment Gardens]]|alt=Colour photo of bronze statue of a partly-clothed muse, leaning on a stone pillar, looking up, longingly, at a bronze bust of Sullivan]]
Sullivan's health was never robust – from his thirties his kidney disease often obliged him to conduct sitting down. He died of heart failure, following an attack of bronchitis, at his flat in [[Westminster]] on 22 November 1900 at the age of 58.<ref name=odnb>Jacobs, Arthur. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26772 "Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour (1842–1900)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004 (online edition, May 2006), accessed 8 July 2008 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> His ''[[Te Deum Laudamus (Sullivan)|Te Deum Laudamus]]'', written in expectation of victory in the Boer War, was performed posthumously.<ref>Howarth, Paul. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/boer/tedeum.html "''Te Deum Laudamus'', A Thanksgiving for Victory"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 12 January 2010, accessed 28 July 2018</ref>

A [[Arthur Sullivan Memorial, Victoria Embankment Gardens|monument]] in the composer's memory featuring a weeping [[Muse]] was erected in the [[Victoria Embankment]] Gardens in London and is inscribed with Gilbert's words from ''The Yeomen of the Guard'': "Is life a boon? If so, it must befall that Death, whene'er he call, must call too soon". Sullivan wished to be buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]] with his parents and brother, but by order of the Queen he was buried in [[St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref>"Funeral of Sir Arthur Sullivan", ''The Times'', 28 November 1900, p. 12</ref> In addition to his knighthood, honours awarded to Sullivan in his lifetime included Doctor in Music, ''honoris causa'', by the Universities of [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] (1876) and [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] (1879); Chevalier, [[Légion d'honneur]], France (1878); [[Order of the Medjidie]] conferred by the [[Ottoman Empire|Sultan of Turkey]] (1888); and appointment as a [[Royal Victorian Order|Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order]] (MVO) in 1897.<ref name=musicaltimes/><ref>[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/26871/pages/3820 ''The London Gazette''], 9 July 1897, p. 54</ref>

Sullivan's operas have often been adapted, first in the 19th century as dance pieces<ref name=DanceArr/> and in foreign adaptations of the operas themselves. Since then, his music has been made into ballets (''[[Pineapple Poll]]'' (1951) and ''[[Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet!]]'' (1991)) and musicals (''[[The Swing Mikado]]'' (1938), ''[[The Hot Mikado (1939 production)|The Hot Mikado]]'' (1939) and ''[[Hot Mikado]]'' (1986), ''[[Hollywood Pinafore]]'' and ''[[Memphis Bound]]'' (both 1945), ''[[The Black Mikado]]'' (1975), etc.). His operas are frequently performed,<ref>Bradley (2005), pp. 30 and 68</ref> and also [[Parody|parodied]], [[pastiche]]d, quoted and imitated in [[Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan|comedy routines, advertising, law, film, television, and other popular media]].<ref name=PeterDowns>Downs, Peter. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001010741/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/1147907091.html?dids=1147907091:1147907091&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+18,+2006&author=PETER+DOWNS&pub=Hartford+Courant&edition=&startpage=B.3&desc=ACTORS+CAST+AWAY+CARES+ "Actors Cast Away Cares"], ''Hartford Courant'', 18 October 2006 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Bradley, Chapter 1</ref> He has been portrayed on screen in ''[[The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan]]'' (1953) and ''[[Topsy-Turvy]]'' (2000).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170616224435/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b6b3127 "''The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan'' (1953)"] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20160811134127/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b81789b24 "''Topsy-Turvy''"], British Film Institute, accessed 13 December 2017.</ref> He is celebrated not only for writing the Savoy operas and his other works, but also for his influence on the development of modern American and British musical theatre.<ref name=PeterDowns/><ref>Jones, J. Bush. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WqQH31qkYNoC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=Bordman+pinafore&source=bl&ots=-4A-Dm231B&sig=UwT_XytKbxkRXtLo_OV7-_VTlps&hl=en&ei=RPzlSezEBpeUMcSs4I4J&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#PPA4,M1 ''Our Musicals, Ourselves''], pp. 10–11, 2003, Brandeis University Press: Lebanon, N.H. (2003) 1584653116</ref>

==Personal life==

===Romantic life===
[[File:fanny ronalds 2.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Fanny Ronalds]]|alt=Photo of Ronalds from the waist up, facing the camera. She is handsome and well-dressed, with a fur collar and an "up" hairdo.]]
Sullivan never married, but he had serious love affairs with several women. The first was with Rachel Scott Russell (1845–1882), the daughter of the engineer [[John Scott Russell]]. Sullivan was a frequent visitor at the Scott Russell home in the mid-1860s, and by 1865 the affair was in full bloom. Rachel's parents did not approve of a possible union with a young composer of uncertain financial prospects, but the two continued to see each other covertly. At some point in 1868 Sullivan started a simultaneous (and secret) affair with Rachel's sister Louise (1841–1878). Both relationships ended by early 1869.<ref>Ainger, p. 87; and Jacobs, pp. 53–55.</ref>{{refn| Some two hundred love letters from the two Scott Russell women survive and are excerpted in detail in Wolfson.<ref>Wolfson, ''passim''</ref>|group= n}}

Sullivan's longest love affair was with the American socialite [[Fanny Ronalds]], a woman three years his senior, who had separated from her American husband and was raising her children in Europe.<ref name=ainger128>Ainger, pp. 128–129</ref> He met her in Paris around 1867, and the affair began in earnest soon after she moved to London in 1871.<ref name=ainger128/> According to a contemporary description of Ronalds, "Her face was perfectly divine in its loveliness, her features small and exquisitely regular. Her hair was a dark shade of brown – ''châtain foncé'' [deep chestnut] – and very abundant&nbsp;... a lovely woman, with the most generous smile one could possibly imagine, and the most beautiful teeth."<ref>Quoted in Jacobs, p. 88</ref> Sullivan called her "the best amateur singer in London".<ref>Ainger, p. 167</ref> She often performed Sullivan's songs at her famous Sunday soirées.<ref name=ainger128/> She became particularly associated with "The Lost Chord", singing it both in private and in public, often with Sullivan accompanying her.<ref>Ainger, p. 135</ref> When Sullivan died, he left her the autograph manuscript of that song, along with other bequests.<ref>Ainger, p. 390</ref>

Ronalds never divorced. Social conventions of the time compelled Sullivan and Ronalds to keep their relationship private.{{refn|In Sullivan's diary, she appears as "Mrs. Ronalds" when he refers to their meetings in public, and "L. W." (for "Little Woman") or "D. H." (possibly "Dear Heart") for when they were alone together. When noting their private meetings, Sullivan indicated with tick marks the number of sexual acts completed. After the relationship with Ronalds had ceased to be sexual the tick marks no longer appeared alongside mentions of her, but continued to be used for his relationships with other women who have not been identified, and who were always referred to by their initials.<ref>Jacobs, p. 161; and Ainger, p. 177</ref>|group= n}} She apparently became pregnant at least twice and procured abortions in 1882 and 1884.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 178, 203–204; and Ainger, pp. 210 and 237–238</ref> Sullivan had a roving eye, and his diary records the occasional quarrels when Ronalds discovered his other liaisons, but he always returned to her.{{refn|One such flirtation was with "Anna", whom he met in Paris in 1878.<ref>Jacobs, p. 20</ref>|group= n}} Around 1889 or 1890 the sexual relationship evidently ended – he started to refer to her in his diary as "Auntie"<ref>Jacobs, p. 295</ref> – but she remained a constant companion for the rest of his life.<ref>Ainger, pp. 306 and 342</ref>

In 1896 the 54-year-old Sullivan proposed marriage to the 22-year-old Violet Beddington (1874–1962), but she refused him.<ref>Ainger, pp. 364–365</ref>{{refn|Beddington later married [[Sydney Schiff]], who used elements of her relationship with Sullivan in his 1925 novel ''Myrtle''. She was the younger sister of [[Ada Leverson|Ada Beddington]].<ref>Whitworth, Michael H. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40728 "Schiff, Sydney Alfred (1868–1944)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, January 2008, accessed 26 October 2012 {{ODNBsub}}; and Usher, David A. "In Search of Miss Violet: The Personal Journey of a Gilbert & Sullivan Devotee", ''GASBAG'', Friends of the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Volume XLIV, No. 1, Issue 259, Summer 2013, pp. 24–29</ref><ref name="Jacobs">Jacobs, p. 371</ref>|group= n}}

===Leisure and family life===
[[File:Bertie and arthur sullivan.jpg|thumb|upright|Sullivan and his nephew [[Herbert Sullivan|Herbert ("Bertie")]]|alt=Sullivan, seated, with Herbert standing behind his left shoulder; both are very well-dressed and mustachioed]]
Sullivan loved to spend time in France (both in Paris and on the [[French Riviera|Riviera]]), where his acquaintances included European royalty and where the casinos enabled him to indulge his passion for gambling.<ref>Young, pp. 246–247 and 250</ref> He enjoyed hosting private dinners and entertainments at his home, often featuring famous singers and well-known actors.<ref name=GGReminiscence>Grossmith, George. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/html/grossmith.html "Sir Arthur Sullivan: A Personal Reminiscence"], ''The Pall Mall Magazine'', February 1901, reprinted at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> In 1865 he was initiated into [[Freemasonry]] and was Grand Organist of the [[United Grand Lodge of England]] in 1887 during Queen Victoria's [[Golden Jubilee#For Queen Victoria|Golden Jubilee]].<ref>Beresiner, Yasha. [http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/beresiner12.html "Gilbert and Sullivan: Musical Masons"], ''Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry'', 18 December 2007</ref> Sullivan's talent and native charm gained him the friendship of many, not only in the musical establishment, such as Grove, Chorley and Herman Klein, but also in society circles, such as [[Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh]].<ref>Jacobs, p. 73 and ''passim''</ref> Sullivan enjoyed playing tennis; according to [[George Grossmith]], "I have seen some bad lawn-tennis players in my time, but I never saw anyone so bad as Arthur Sullivan".<ref name=GGReminiscence/>

Sullivan was devoted to his parents, particularly his mother. He corresponded regularly with her when away from London, until her death in 1882. [[Henry Lytton]] wrote, "I believe there was never a more affectionate tie than that which existed between [Sullivan] and his mother, a very witty old lady, and one who took an exceptional pride in her son's accomplishments."<ref>Lytton, Henry (1922). [https://gsarchive.net/books/lytton_secrets/ch4.html "Leaders of the Savoy"], ''Secrets of a Savoyard'', the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> Sullivan was also very fond of his brother Fred, whose acting career he assisted whenever possible,{{refn|In 1871 Fred appeared as Cox in his brother's ''[[Cox and Box]]'' at the [[Alhambra Theatre]],<ref>Stone, David. [https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/S/SullivanFrederic.htm "Frederic Sullivan"], ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 27 January 2007, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> and he toured as Cox in his own production that summer.<ref>"Public Amusements", ''Liverpool Mercury'', 5 September 1871, p. 1</ref> Later that year, he played Apollo in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Thespis'' at the Gaiety Theatre, remaining at the Gaiety thereafter. He took his own company on tour in the summer of 1874, appearing in ''Cox and Box'' and ''[[The Contrabandista]]'', and later that year he again played Cox, this time at the Gaiety.<ref>Ainger, p. 107; and "The London Theatres", ''The Era'', 6 September 1874, p. 11</ref> The next year, he created the role of the Learned Judge in ''[[Trial by Jury]]'', a role that he would play in London and on tour for the rest of his career.<ref>Ainger, pp. 107, 113 and 120</ref>|group= n}} and of Fred's children.<ref>Hayes, ''passim''</ref> After Fred died at the age of 39, leaving his pregnant wife, Charlotte, with seven children under the age of 14, Sullivan visited the family often and became guardian to the children.<ref>Hayes, pp. 6–7</ref>

In 1883 Charlotte and six of her children emigrated to [[Los Angeles]], California, leaving the oldest boy, [[Herbert Sullivan|"Bertie"]], in Sullivan's sole care.<ref>Ainger, pp. 224–225</ref> Despite his reservations about the move to the United States, Sullivan paid all the costs and gave substantial financial support to the family.<ref>Hayes, p. 9</ref> A year later, Charlotte died, leaving the children to be raised mostly by her brother.{{refn|One of the children, [[Frederic Richard Sullivan]], went on to become a well-known film director.<ref>Hayes, pp. 10–12</ref>|group=n}} From June to August 1885, after ''The Mikado'' opened, Sullivan visited the family in Los Angeles and took them on a sightseeing trip of the American west.<ref>Hayes, pp. 14–22</ref> Throughout the rest of his life, and in his will, he contributed financially to Fred's children, continuing to correspond with them and to be concerned with their education, marriages and financial affairs. Bertie remained with his uncle Arthur for the rest of the composer's life.<ref>Hayes, pp. 23–32</ref>

Three of Sullivan's cousins, the daughters of his uncle John Thomas Sullivan, performed with the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]]: Rose, Jane ("Jennie") and Kate Sullivan, the first two of whom used the stage surname Hervey. Kate was a chorister who defected to the Comedy Opera Company's rival production of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', where she had the opportunity to play the leading soprano role, Josephine, in 1879.<ref>Stone, David. [https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/S/SullivanKate.htm Kate Sullivan], ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 27 January 2007, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> Jennie was a D'Oyly Carte chorister for fourteen years.<ref>Stone, David. [https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/H/HerveyJennie.htm Jennie Hervey], ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 8 August 2002, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> Rose took principal roles in many of the [[Savoy opera#Companion pieces|companion pieces]] that played with the Savoy operas.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 8, 10–12, 70, 71, 73–75 and 77; and Stone, David. [https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/H/HerveyRose.htm Rose Hervey], ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 7 August 2002, accessed 28 July 2018</ref><ref>See Sullivan family tree in appendix to Jacobs</ref>

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Arthur Sullivan}}
Sullivan's works comprise 24 operas, 11 full orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, one song cycle, incidental music to several plays, more than 70 hymns and anthems, over 80 songs and parlour ballads, and a body of part songs, carols, and piano and chamber pieces.<ref name=grove/><ref>Young, ''passim''</ref> The operatic output spanned his whole career, as did that of his songs and religious music. The solo piano and chamber pieces are mostly from his early years, and are generally in a Mendelssohnian style.<ref>Jacobs, p. 42</ref> With the exception of his ''Imperial March'', composed for a royal occasion in 1893, the large-scale orchestral concert works also date from early in the composer's career.<ref>Young, pp, 271–272</ref>

===Influences===
Reviewers and scholars often cite Mendelssohn as the most important influence on Sullivan.<ref name=y22/> The music for ''The Tempest'' and the ''Irish Symphony'', among other works, was seen by contemporary writers as strikingly Mendelssohnian.<ref>Taylor, Chapter 1, 3rd and 4th page</ref> Percy Young writes that Sullivan's early affection for Mendelssohn remained evident throughout his composing career.<ref name=y22>Young, p. 22</ref> Hughes remarks that although Sullivan emulated Mendelssohn in certain ways he seldom "lapsed into those harmonic clichés which mar some of Mendelssohn's more sentimental effusions".<ref>Hughes, p. 69</ref> When ''The Tempest'' music was first presented the ''[[Neue Zeitschrift für Musik]]'' identified [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]] as a stronger influence, and Benedict Taylor, writing in 2017, concurs.<ref>Taylor, p. 10</ref> In a 2009 study Taylor adds Schubert as another major influence on Sullivan in his orchestral works, although "from the beginning ... there is the peculiar, intangible stamp of Sullivan emerging confidently".<ref>Eden and Saremba, p. 38</ref> Meinhard Saremba notes that from Sullivan's first meeting with [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]] in Paris, in 1862, Rossini's output became a model for Sullivan's comic opera music, "as evidenced in several rhythmic patterns and constructions of long finales".<ref>Eden and Saremba, p. 57</ref>

[[File:arthur sullivan by ape.jpg|thumb|upright|Sullivan by the cartoonist [[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|"Ape"]], 1874|alt=Colour cartoon of Sullivan standing, in concert dress, wearing a monocle, ready to conduct]]
As a young man, Sullivan's conservative musical education led him to follow in the conventions of his predecessors. Later he became more adventurous; Richard Silverman, writing in 2009, points to the influence of Liszt in later works – a harmonic ambiguity and [[chromaticism]] – so that by the time of ''The Golden Legend'' Sullivan had abandoned a [[Tonic (music)|home]] key altogether for the prelude.<ref>Eden and Saremba, pp. 76–77</ref> Sullivan disliked much of Wagner's [[Musikdrama]], but he modelled the overture to ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' on the prelude of ''[[Die Meistersinger]]'', which he described as "the greatest comic opera ever written".<ref>Eden and Saremba, p. 57; and Klein, p. 196</ref> Saremba writes that in works from his middle and later years, Sullivan was inspired by Verdi's example both in details of orchestration, and in ''la tinta musical'' – the individual musical character of a piece – ranging from the "nautical air of ''H.M.S Pinafore''" to "the swift Mediterranean lightness of ''The Gondoliers''" and "the bleakness of Torquilstone in ''Ivanhoe''".<ref>Eden and Saremba, p. 60</ref>

===Method of composition and text setting===
Sullivan told an interviewer, Arthur Lawrence, "I don't use the piano in composition – that would limit me terribly". Sullivan explained that his process was not to wait for inspiration, but "to dig for it.&nbsp;... I decide on [the rhythm] before I come to the question of melody.&nbsp;... I mark out the metre in dots and dashes, and not until I have quite settled on the rhythm do I proceed to actual notation."<ref name=Lawrence2>Lawrence, Arthur H. [http://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/interviews/lawrence.html "An Illustrated interview with Sir Arthur Sullivan, Part I"], ''The Strand Magazine'', vol. xiv, No. 84, December 1897</ref> Sullivan's text setting, compared with that of his 19th century English predecessors or his European contemporaries, was "vastly more sensitive.&nbsp;... Sullivan's operatic style attempts to create for itself a uniquely English text-music synthesis", and, in addition, by adopting a conservative musical style, he was able to achieve "the clarity to match Gilbert's finely honed wit with musical wit of his own".<ref>Fink, Robert. [http://www.sullivan-forschung.de/html/f1-analysen.html "Rhythm and Text Setting in ''The Mikado''"], ''19th Century Music'', vol. XIV No. 1, Summer 1990</ref>

In composing the Savoy operas, Sullivan wrote the vocal lines of the musical numbers first, and these were given to the actors. He, or an assistant, improvised a piano accompaniment at the early rehearsals; he wrote the orchestrations later, after he had seen what Gilbert's stage business would be.<ref name=Lawrence2/><ref>Ainger, p. 138</ref> He left the overtures until last and sometimes delegated their composition, based on his outlines, to his assistants,<ref>[http://gsarchive.net/sullivan/interviews/gazette.html "Sir Arthur Sullivan"], interviewed by ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', 5 December 1889, reprinted at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 6 October 2011</ref> often adding his suggestions or corrections.<ref name=Hughes130>Hughes, p. 130</ref> Those Sullivan wrote himself include ''Thespis'',<ref>Rees, p. 79</ref> ''Iolanthe'', ''Princess Ida'', ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', ''The Gondoliers'', ''The Grand Duke'' and probably ''Utopia, Limited''.<ref>Hughes, pp. 130–141</ref> Most of the overtures are structured as a [[potpourri (music)|pot-pourri]] of tunes from the operas in three sections: fast, slow and fast.<ref name=Hughes130/> Those for ''Iolanthe'' and ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' are written in a modified [[sonata form]].<ref>Williams, p. 298</ref>

===Melody and rhythm===
''The Musical Times'' noted that Sullivan's tunes, at least in the comic operas, appeal to the professional as much as to the layman: his continental contemporaries such as [[Saint-Saëns]] and the Viennese critic [[Eduard Hanslick]] held the Savoy operas in high regard.<ref>Jacobs, p. 244; and Harding, p. 119</ref> Hughes writes, "When Sullivan wrote what we call 'a good tune' it was nearly always 'good music' as well. Outside the ranks of the giants there are few other composers of whom the same could be said."<ref name=Hughes129/> Although his melodies sprang from rhythm,<ref name=Lawrence2/> some of his themes may have been prompted by his chosen instrumentation or his harmonic techniques.<ref name=Hughes129>Hughes, p. 129</ref>

[[File:If-you-go-in-verse-refrain.tif|thumb|upright=2.75|Climaxes of verse and refrain of "If You Go In" (''[[Iolanthe]]'')|alt=Excerpt of music – part of Tolloller's line]]
In the comic operas, where many numbers are in verse-plus-refrain form, Sullivan shaped his melodies to provide a climax for the verse, capped by an overall climax in the refrain.<ref name=h128/> Hughes cites "If you go in" (''Iolanthe'') as an example. He adds that Sullivan rarely reached the same class of excellence in instrumental works, where he had no librettist to feed his imagination.<ref name=h128>Hughes, p. 128</ref> Even with Gilbert, on those occasions when the librettist wrote in unvaried metre, Sullivan often followed suit and produced phrases of simple repetition, such as in "Love Is a Plaintive Song" (''Patience'') and "A Man Who Would Woo a Fair Maid" (''The Yeomen of the Guard'').<ref>Hughes, p. 125</ref>

Sullivan preferred to write in [[major key]]s, overwhelmingly in the Savoy operas, and even in his serious works.<ref name=Hughes52>Hughes, p. 52</ref> Examples of his rare excursions into minor keys include the long E minor melody in the first movement of the ''Irish Symphony'', "Go Away, Madam" in the Act I finale of ''Iolanthe'' (echoing [[Verdi]] and [[Beethoven]]) and the execution march in the Act I finale of ''The Yeomen of the Guard''.<ref name=Hughes52/>

===Harmony and counterpoint===
Sullivan was trained in the classical style, and contemporary music did not greatly attract him.<ref name=Hughes44>Hughes, p. 44</ref> Harmonically his early works used the conventional formulae of early-nineteenth-century composers including Mendelssohn, [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]], [[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]] and Schubert.<ref>Hughes, pp. 44 and 49</ref> Hughes comments that harmonic contrast in the Savoy works is enhanced by Sullivan's characteristic modulation between keys, as in "Expressive Glances" (''Princess Ida''), where he negotiates smoothly E major, C sharp minor and C major, or "Then One of Us will Be a Queen" (''The Gondoliers''), where he writes in [[F major]], D flat major and D minor.<ref>Hughes, p. 59</ref>

When reproached for using [[consecutive fifths]] in ''Cox and Box'', Sullivan replied "if 5ths turn up it doesn't matter, so long as there is no offence to the ear."<ref name=musicaltimes/> Both Hughes<ref>Hughes, p. 48</ref> and Jacobs in ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]''<ref name=grove/> comment adversely on Sullivan's overuse of [[Pedal point|tonic pedals]], usually in the bass, which Hughes attributes to "lack of enterprise or even downright laziness". Another Sullivan trademark criticised by Hughes is the repeated use of the chord of the [[augmented fourth]] at moments of pathos.<ref>Hughes, pp. 47–48</ref> In his serious works, Sullivan attempted to avoid harmonic devices associated with the Savoy operas, with the result, according to Hughes, that ''The Golden Legend'' is a "hotch-potch of harmonic styles".<ref>Hughes, p. 66</ref>

[[file:Mikado-trio.tif|thumb|upright=2.75|Characteristic "counterpoint of characters" from ''The Mikado'', Act 1|alt=Excerpt of music – part of "I Am So Proud"]]
One of Sullivan's best-known devices is what Jacobs terms his "'counterpoint of characters': the presentation by different personages of two seemingly independent tunes which later come together" simultaneously. He was not the first composer to combine themes in this way,{{refn|An earlier exponent of the device was [[Hector Berlioz]], who called it the ''réunion de deux thèmes''. The article on Berlioz in ''Grove'' cites examples including the finale of the ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'', where the "witches' sabbath" theme is combined with the [[Dies irae]].<ref>[[Hugh Macdonald (musicologist)|Macdonald, Hugh]]. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.51424 "Berlioz, (Louis-)Hector"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 accessed 11 October 2018 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} but in Jacobs's phrase it became almost "the trademark of Sullivan's operetta style".<ref name=grove/><ref name=h78>Hughes, p. 78</ref> Sometimes the melodies were for solo voices, as in "I Am So Proud" (''The Mikado''), which combines three melodic lines.<ref>Hughes, pp. 79 and 81–82</ref> Other examples are in choruses, where typically a graceful tune for the women is combined with a robust one for the men. Examples include "When the Foeman Bares his Steel" (''The Pirates of Penzance''), "In a Doleful Train" (''Patience'') and "Welcome, Gentry" (''Ruddigore'').<ref>Hughes, pp. 79–80</ref> In "How Beautifully Blue the Sky" (''The Pirates of Penzance''), one theme is given to the chorus (in 2/4 time) and the other to solo voices (in 3/4).<ref>Rees, p. 80</ref>

Sullivan rarely composed [[fugue]]s. Examples are from the "Epilogue" to ''The Golden Legend'' and ''Victoria and Merrie England''.<ref>Hughes, pp. 73–74</ref> In the Savoy operas, fugal style is reserved for making fun of legal solemnity in ''Trial by Jury'' and ''Iolanthe'' (e.g., the Lord Chancellor's [[leitmotif]] in the latter).<ref name=h75/> Less formal counterpoint is employed in numbers such as "Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day" (''The Mikado'') and "When the Buds Are Blossoming" (''Ruddigore'').<ref name=h75>Hughes, p. 75</ref>

===Orchestration===
Hughes concludes his chapter on Sullivan's orchestration: "[I]n this vitally important sector of the composer's art he deserves to rank as a master."<ref>Hughes, p. 118</ref> Sullivan was a competent player of at least four orchestral instruments (flute, clarinet, trumpet and trombone) and technically a most skilful orchestrator.{{refn|Sullivan could also play the oboe and bassoon, but less proficiently.<ref name=young4/>|group= n}} Though sometimes inclined to indulge in grandiosity when writing for a full symphony orchestra, he was adept in using smaller forces to the maximum effect.<ref>Hughes, pp. 96–97</ref> Young writes that orchestral players generally like playing Sullivan's music: "Sullivan never asked his players to do what was either uncongenial or impracticable."<ref>Young, p. 178</ref><ref>Hughes, p. 96</ref>

{{listen|type=music
|filename=Overture di ballo.ogg
|title=''Overture di Ballo''
|description=The ''[[Overture di Ballo]]'' (1870) is regarded as Sullivan's most successful orchestral work.<ref name=Hughes14>Hughes, p. 14</ref> This [[military band]] arrangement is performed by the [[United States Marine Band|U.S. Marine Band]].
}}
Sullivan's orchestra for the Savoy operas was typical of the theatre orchestra of his era: 2 flutes (+ [[piccolo]]), oboe, 2 clarinets, [[bassoon]], 2 [[French horn|horns]], 2 [[cornet]]s, 2 trombones, [[timpani]], percussion and strings. According to [[Geoffrey Toye]], the number of players in Sullivan's Savoy Theatre orchestras was a "minimum" of 31.<ref>Seeley, Paul. "Authentic Sullivan", ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', November 2016, p. 1372; and "The Savoy Opera Revival", ''The Observer'', 28 September 1919</ref> Sullivan argued hard for an increase in the pit orchestra's size, and, starting with ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', the orchestra was augmented with a second bassoon and a second tenor trombone.<ref>Hughes, p. 108</ref> He generally orchestrated each score at almost the last moment, noting that the accompaniment for an opera had to wait until he saw the staging, so that he could judge how heavily or lightly to orchestrate each part of the music.<ref>Findon, p. 107</ref> For his large-scale orchestral pieces, which often employed very large forces, Sullivan added a second oboe part, sometimes [[double bassoon]] and [[bass clarinet]], more horns, trumpets, tuba, and occasionally an organ and/or a harp.<ref>Eden and Saremba, Appendix: The orchestration of Sullivan's major works</ref>

One of the most recognisable features in Sullivan's orchestration is his woodwind scoring. Hughes especially notes Sullivan's clarinet writing, exploiting all registers and colours of the instrument, and his particular fondness for oboe solos. For instance, the ''Irish Symphony'' contains two long solo oboe passages in succession, and in the Savoy operas there are many shorter examples.<ref>Hughes, p. 104</ref> In the operas, and also in concert works, another characteristic Sullivan touch is his fondness for [[pizzicato]] passages for the string sections. Hughes instances "Kind Sir, You Cannot Have the Heart" (''The Gondoliers''), "Free From his Fetters Grim" (''The Yeomen of the Guard'') and "In Vain to Us You Plead" (''Iolanthe'').<ref>Hughes, p. 117</ref>

===Musical quotations and parodies===
[[File:H.J. Whitlock - Photograph of Arthur Sullivan.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Sullivan in about 1870|alt=Head and shoulders of Sullivan as a young man, wearing a moustache, long sideburns and a serious expression]]
Throughout the Savoy operas, and occasionally in other works, Sullivan quotes or imitates well-known themes or parodies the styles of famous composers.<ref>Cooper, Martin. "Sullivan", ''Opera News'', April 1960, pp. 8–12</ref> On occasion he may have echoed his predecessors unconsciously: Hughes cites a [[George Frederick Handel|Handelian]] influence in "Hereupon We're Both Agreed" (''The Yeomen of the Guard''), and [[Rodney Milnes]] called "Sighing Softly" in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' "a song plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's hero, Schubert".<ref name="Hughes, p. 152">Hughes, p. 152</ref><ref>Milnes, Rodney. "Putting the Jolly in Roger", ''The Times'', 26 April 2001, Section 2, p. 20</ref> [[Edward Greenfield]] found a theme in the slow movement of the ''Irish Symphony'' "an outrageous crib" from Schubert's [[Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)|''Unfinished'' Symphony]].<ref>Greenfield, Edward. "Sullivan – Symphony in E major", ''The Gramophone'', February 1969, p. 61</ref> In early pieces, Sullivan drew on Mendelssohn's style in his music for ''The Tempest'', Auber's in his ''Henry VIII'' music and [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]'s in ''The Light of the World''.<ref>De Ternant, Andrew. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/911932 "Debussy and Others on Sullivan"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 December 1924, pp. 1089–1090 {{subscription}}</ref> The influence of Mendelssohn pervades the fairy music in ''Iolanthe''.<ref>Hughes, pp. 46–47 and 152</ref> ''The Golden Legend'' shows the influence of [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]] and Wagner.<ref>Young, p. 221; and Burton, Nigel. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/964387 "100 Years of a Legend"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 October 1986 pp. 554–557 {{subscription}}</ref>

Sullivan adopted traditional musical forms, such as [[Madrigal (music)|madrigals]] in ''The Mikado'', ''Ruddigore'' and ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' and [[glee (music)|glees]] in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' and ''The Mikado'', and the Venetian [[barcarolle]] in ''The Gondoliers''. He made use of dance styles to enhance the sense of time or place in various scenes: [[gavotte]]s in ''Ruddigore'' and ''The Gondoliers'';<ref name=h144>Hughes, pp. 144–145</ref> a country dance in ''The Sorcerer''; a nautical hornpipe in ''Ruddigore''; and the Spanish [[cachucha]] and Italian [[saltarello]] and [[tarantella]] in ''The Gondoliers''.<ref name=h144/> Occasionally he drew on influences from further afield. In ''The Mikado'', he used an old Japanese war song, and his 1882 trip to Egypt inspired musical styles in his later opera ''The Rose of Persia''.<ref>"The Rose of Persia; Or, the Story-teller and the Slave", ''The Era'', 2 December 1899, p. 14</ref>

Elsewhere, Sullivan wrote undisguised parody. Of the sextet "I Hear the Soft Note" in ''Patience'', he said to the singers, "I think you will like this. It is [[Thomas Arne|Dr Arne]] and [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]] at their best."<ref name=GGReminiscence/> In his comic operas, he followed [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]]'s lead in lampooning the idioms of French and Italian opera, such as those of [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]], [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]] and Verdi.<ref>Hughes, pp. 150–151; and Jacobs, p. 52</ref> Examples of his operatic parody include Mabel's aria "Poor Wand'ring One" in ''The Pirates of Penzance'', the duet "Who Are You, Sir?" from ''Cox and Box'',<ref>Hughes, pp. 151 and 80</ref> and the whispered plans for elopement in "This Very Night" in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', parodying the conspirators' choruses in Verdi's ''[[Il trovatore]]'' and ''[[Rigoletto]]''.<ref name=Scherer>Scherer, Barrymore Laurence. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304186404576390112252351044 "Gilbert & Sullivan, Parody's Patresfamilias"], ''The Wall Street Journal'', 23 June 2011, accessed 19 December 2017 {{subscription}}</ref> The mock-jingoistic "He Is an Englishman" in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' and choral passages in ''The Zoo'' satirise patriotic British tunes such as Arne's "[[Rule, Britannia!]]".<ref name=Scherer/> The chorus "With Catlike Tread" from ''The Pirates'' parodies Verdi's "[[Anvil Chorus]]" from ''Il trovatore''.<ref>Hughes, pp. 150–151</ref>

Hughes calls Bouncer's song in ''Cox and Box'' "a jolly Handelian parody" and notes a strong Handelian flavour to Arac's song in Act III of ''Princess Ida''.<ref name="Hughes, p. 152"/> In "A More Humane Mikado", at the words "Bach interwoven with [[Louis Spohr|Spohr]] and [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]", the clarinet and bassoon quote the fugue subject of Bach's [[Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542|Fantasia and Fugue in G minor]].<ref>Hughes, p. 109</ref> Sullivan sometimes used Wagnerian [[leitmotif]]s for both comic and dramatic effect. In ''Iolanthe'', a distinctive four-note theme is associated with the title character, the Lord Chancellor has a fugal motif, and the Fairy Queen's music parodies that of Wagner heroines such as [[Brünnhilde]].<ref>Williams, p. 217</ref> In ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' the [[Tower of London]] is evoked by its own motif.<ref name=h143>Hughes, p. 143</ref> This use of the leitmotif technique is repeated and developed further in ''Ivanhoe''.<ref>Young, p. 223</ref>

==Reputation and criticism==
{{Main|Critical reputation of Arthur Sullivan}}

===Early reception===
Sullivan's critical reputation has undergone extreme changes since the 1860s when critics, struck by his potential, hailed him as the long-awaited great English composer.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 28 and 42</ref> His incidental music to ''The Tempest'' was received with acclaim at the Crystal Palace, just before his 20th birthday, in April 1862. ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'' commented:
{{blockquote|It&nbsp;... may mark an epoch in English music, or we shall be greatly disappointed. Years on years have elapsed since we have heard a work by so young an artist so full of promise, so full of fancy, showing so much conscientiousness, so much skill, and so few references to any model elect.<ref>Quoted in Jacobs, p. 28</ref>|}}

[[File:Punch - Sullivan's knighthood.png|thumb|right|Cartoon from ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' (1880){{refn|The cartoon was accompanied by a parody of "When I, good friends" from ''[[Trial by Jury]]'' that summarised Sullivan's career to that date. It prematurely carried a caption stating "It is reported that after the Leeds Festival Dr. Sullivan will be knighted" and was accompanied by a punny parody version of "When I, good friends" from ''[[Trial by Jury]]'' that summarised Sullivan's career to that date.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9RtcAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA202 "A Humorous Knight"], ''Punch'', 30 October 1880, p. 202</ref>|group= n}}|alt=Mocking newspaper cartoon showing Sullivan wearing a "pinafore" apron, standing ''en pointe'' in a violin case while conducting, surrounded by corrupted paraphernalia relating to his early comic operas, over the sardonic song title "When Arthur First at Court Began"]]
His ''Irish Symphony'' of 1866 won similarly enthusiastic praise, but as Arthur Jacobs notes, "The first rapturous outburst of enthusiasm for Sullivan as an orchestral composer did not last."<ref>Jacobs, p. 48</ref> A comment typical of those that followed him throughout his career was that "Sullivan's unquestionable talent should make him doubly careful not to mistake popular applause for artistic appreciation."<ref>Jacobs, p. 49</ref>

When Sullivan turned to comic opera with Gilbert, the serious critics began to express disapproval. The music critic [[Peter Gammond]] writes of "misapprehensions and prejudices, delivered to our door by the Victorian firm Musical Snobs Ltd.&nbsp;... frivolity and high spirits were sincerely seen as elements that could not be exhibited by anyone who was to be admitted to the sanctified society of Art."<ref>Gammond, p. 137</ref> As early as 1877 ''[[London Figaro|The London Figaro]]'' commented that Sullivan "wilfully throws his opportunity away.&nbsp;... He possesses all the natural ability to have given us an English opera, and, instead, he affords us a little more-or-less excellent fooling."<ref>''The London Figaro'', quoted in Allen, pp. 49–50</ref> Few critics denied the excellence of Sullivan's theatre scores. ''[[The Theatre (magazine)|The Theatre]]'' commented, "''Iolanthe'' sustains Dr. Sullivan's reputation as the most spontaneous, fertile, and scholarly composer of comic opera this country has ever produced."<ref>Beatty-Kingston, William. ''The Theatre'', 1 January 1883, p. 28</ref>{{refn|Sullivan received honorary  doctorates of music from the [[University of Cambridge]] in 1876,<ref>"University Intelligence", ''The Times'', 18 May 1876, p. 6</ref> and Oxford in 1879.<ref>"University Intelligence", ''The Times'', 11 June 1879, p. 10</ref>|group= n}}  Comic opera, no matter how skilfully crafted, was viewed as an intrinsically lower form of art than oratorio. ''The Athenaeum's'' review of ''The Martyr of Antioch'' declared: "[I]t is an advantage to have the composer of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' occupying himself with a worthier form of art."<ref>25 October 1880, quoted in Jacobs, p. 149</ref>

===Knighthood and later years===
Sullivan's knighthood in 1883 gave the serious music critics further ammunition. ''The Musical Review'' of that year observed:
{{blockquote|[S]ome things that Mr. Arthur Sullivan may do, Sir Arthur ought not to do. In other words, it will look rather more than odd to see announced in the papers that a new comic opera is in preparation, the book by Mr. W. S. Gilbert and the music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. A musical knight can hardly write shop ballads either; he must not dare to soil his hands with anything less than an anthem or a madrigal; oratorio, in which he has so conspicuously shone, and symphony, must now be his line. Here is not only an opportunity, but a positive obligation for him to return to the sphere from which he has too long descended [and] do battle for the honour of English art&nbsp;... against all foreign rivals, and arouse us thoroughly from our present half-torpid condition.<ref name=MW/>|}}

Even Sullivan's friend George Grove wrote: "Surely the time has come when so able and experienced a master of voice, orchestra, and stage effect – master, too, of so much genuine sentiment – may apply his gifts to a serious opera on some subject of abiding human or natural interest."<ref>Grove, George. "Sullivan, Arthur Seymour" ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', London 1879–89, p. 762, quoted in Sarema, Meinhard. [http://www.sullivan-forschung.de/meinhard/berlinas "In the Purgatory of Tradition: Arthur Sullivan and the English Musical Renaissance"], Deutsche Sullivan Gesellschaft, 2000, accessed 10 December 2017</ref> Sullivan finally redeemed himself in critical eyes with ''The Golden Legend'' in 1886.<ref>Stanford, pp. 161–163</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'' hailed it as a "triumph of English art".<ref>"Leeds Music Festival", ''The Observer'', 17 October 1886, p. 6</ref> ''[[The World (journal)|The World]]'' called it "one of the greatest creations we have had for many years. Original, bold, inspired, grand in conception, in execution, in treatment, it is a composition which will make an 'epoch' and which will carry the name of its composer higher on the wings of fame and glory.&nbsp;... The effect of the public performance was unprecedented."<ref>Quoted in Harris, p. IV</ref>

Hopes for a new departure were expressed in ''The Daily Telegraph's'' review of ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' (1888), Sullivan's most serious opera to that point: "[T]he music follows the book to a higher plane, and we have a genuine English opera, forerunner of many others, let us hope, and possibly significant of an advance towards a national lyric stage."<ref>Quoted in Allen, p. 312</ref> Sullivan's only grand opera, ''Ivanhoe'' (1891), received generally favourable reviews,<ref>Dailey, pp. 129–133</ref> although [[John Alexander Fuller Maitland|J. A. Fuller Maitland]], in ''The Times'', expressed reservations, writing that the opera's "best portions rise so far above anything else that Sir Arthur Sullivan has given to the world, and have such force and dignity, that it is not difficult to forget the drawbacks which may be found in the want of interest in much of the choral writing, and the brevity of the concerted solo parts."<ref>Quoted in Jacobs, p. 331</ref> Sullivan's 1897 ballet ''[[Victoria and Merrie England]]'' was one of several late pieces that won praise from most critics:<ref>"Sir Arthur Sullivan's New Ballet", ''The Daily News'', 26 May 1897, p. 8; "Alhambra Theatre", ''The Morning Post'', 26 May 1897, p. 7; "Sir Arthur Sullivan's New Ballet 'Victoria'", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 26 May 1897, p. 7; "Music", ''The Illustrated London News'', 29 May 1897, p. 730; and "Victoria And Merrie England", ''The Era'', 29 May 1897, p. 8</ref>    
{{blockquote|Sir Arthur Sullivan's music is music for the people. There is no attempt made to force on the public the dullness of academic experience. The melodies are all as fresh as last year's wine, and as exhilarating as sparkling champagne. There is not one tune which tires the hearing, and in the matter of orchestration our only humorist has let himself run riot, not being handicapped with libretto, and the gain is enormous.&nbsp;... All through we have orchestration of infinite delicacy, tunes of alarming simplicity, but never a tinge of vulgarity.<ref>Quoted in Tillett, p. 26</ref>|}}

Although the more solemn members of the musical establishment could not forgive Sullivan for writing music that was both comic and accessible, he was, nevertheless, "the nation's ''de facto'' composer laureate".<ref>Maine, Basil. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-32988 "Elgar, Sir Edward William"], 1949, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' archive, accessed 20 April 2010 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>{{refn|Gian Andrea Mazzucato wrote this summary of Sullivan's career in ''The Musical Standard'' of 16 December 1899: "[T]he English history of the 19th century could not record the name of a man whose 'life work' is more worthy of honour, study and admiration than the name of Sir Arthur Sullivan&nbsp;... it is a debatable point whether the universal history of music can point to any musical personality since the days of [[Haydn]], Mozart and Beethoven, whose influence is likely to be more lasting than the influence the great Englishman is slowly, but surely, exerting.&nbsp;... I make no doubt that when&nbsp;... Sullivan's life and works have become known on the continent, he will, by unanimous consent, be classed among the epoch-making composers, the select few whose genius and strength of will empowered them to find and found a national school of music, that is, to endow their countrymen with the undefinable, yet positive means of evoking in a man's soul, by the magic of sound, those delicate nuances of feeling which are characteristic of the emotional power of each different race."<ref>Quoted in the ''Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Journal'', No. 34, Spring 1992, pp. 11–12</ref>|group= n}} His obituary in ''The Times'' called him England's "most conspicuous composer ... the musician who had such power to charm all classes. ... The critic and the student found new beauties at every fresh hearing. What ... set Sullivan in popular esteem far above all the other English composers of his day was the tunefulness of his music, that quality in it by which ... [it] was immediately recognized as a joyous contribution to the gaiety of life. ... Sullivan's name stood as a synonym for music in England.{{refn|The obituary also stated: "Many who are able to appreciate classical music regret that Sir Arthur Sullivan did not aim consistently at higher things, that he set himself to rival Offenbach and Lecocq instead of competing on a level of high seriousness with such musicians as Sir Hubert Parry and Professor Stanford. If he had followed this path, he might have enrolled his name among the great composers of all time. ... That Sir Arthur Sullivan could aim high and succeed he proved by ''The Golden Legend'' and by a good deal of ''Ivanhoe''".<ref>Sullivan's Obituary in ''The Times'', 23 November 1900, pp. 7 and 9, [http://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/html/obit.html reprinted] at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 12 December 2017</ref>|group= n}}

===Posthumous reputation===
{{Listen|type=music
|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.
}}
In the decade after his death, Sullivan's reputation sank considerably among music critics. In 1901 Fuller Maitland took issue with the generally laudatory tone of the obituaries: "Is there anywhere a case quite parallel to that of Sir Arthur Sullivan, who began his career with a work which at once stamped him as a genius, and to the height of which he only rarely attained throughout life?&nbsp;...  It is because such great natural gifts – gifts greater, perhaps, than fell to any English musician since&nbsp;... Purcell – were so very seldom employed in work worthy of them."<ref>Fuller Maitland, J. A. "Obituary", ''Cornhill Magazine'', March 1901, pp. 300–309</ref> Edward Elgar, to whom Sullivan had been particularly kind,<ref>Young, p. 264</ref> rose to Sullivan's defence, branding Fuller Maitland's obituary "the shady side of musical criticism&nbsp;... that foul unforgettable episode".<ref>Quoted in Young, p. 264</ref>{{refn|Fuller Maitland was later discredited when it was shown that he had invented a banal lyric, passing it off as genuine and condemning Sullivan for supposedly setting such inanity.<ref name=burton/> In 1929 Fuller Maitland admitted that he had been wrong in earlier years to dismiss Sullivan's comic operas as "ephemeral".<ref>"Light Opera", ''The Times'', 22 September 1934, p. 10</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:D'oyly-carte-the-joy-of-three-generations-1921.jpg|thumb|left|20th-century audiences|alt=Drawing of a grandfather, father and boy, all dressed for the theatre, sitting in happy anticipation, over the caption "The Joy of Three Generations (To be seen any night at the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas)"]]
Fuller Maitland's followers, including [[Ernest Walker (composer)|Ernest Walker]], also dismissed Sullivan as "merely the idle singer of an empty evening".<ref name="Hughes, p. 6">Hughes, p. 6</ref> As late as 1966 [[Frank Howes]], a music critic for ''[[The Times]]'', condemned Sullivan for a "lack of sustained effort&nbsp;... a fundamental lack of seriousness towards his art [and] inability to perceive the smugness, the sentimentality and banality of the Mendelssohnian detritus&nbsp;... to remain content with the flattest and most obvious rhythms, this yielding to a fatal facility, that excludes Sullivan from the ranks of the good composers."<ref>Howes, p. 54</ref> [[Thomas Dunhill]] wrote in 1928 that Sullivan's "music has suffered in an extraordinary degree from the vigorous attacks which have been made upon it in professional circles. These attacks have succeeded in surrounding the composer with a kind of barricade of prejudice which must be swept away before justice can be done to his genius."<ref>Dunhill 1928, p. 13</ref>

[[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood]] continued to perform Sullivan's serious music.<ref>"Sir Henry Wood Jubilee Concert at Albert Hall", ''The Times'', 6 October 1938, p. 10</ref> In 1942 Wood presented a Sullivan centenary concert at the [[Royal Albert Hall]],<ref name=grove/> but it was not until the 1960s that Sullivan's music other than the Savoy operas began to be widely revived. In 1960 Hughes published the first full-length book about Sullivan's music "which, while taking note of his weaknesses (which are many) and not hesitating to castigate his lapses from good taste (which were comparatively rare) [attempted] to view them in perspective against the wider background of his sound musicianship."<ref name="Hughes, p. 6"/> The work of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, founded in 1977, and books about Sullivan by musicians such as Young (1971) and Jacobs (1986) contributed to the re-evaluation of Sullivan's serious music.<ref name=burton/> The ''Irish Symphony'' had its first professional recording in 1968, and many of Sullivan's non-Gilbert works have since been recorded.<ref name=Sulldiscog>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullidx.htm "Discography of Sir Arthur Sullivan"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 10 July 2010, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> Scholarly critical editions of an increasing number of Sullivan's works have been published.<ref name=grove/>

In 1957 a review in ''The Times'' explained Sullivan's contributions to "the continued vitality of the Savoy operas": "Gilbert's lyrics ... take on extra point and sparkle when set to Sullivan's music.&nbsp;... [Sullivan, too, is] a delicate wit, whose airs have a precision, a neatness, a grace, and a flowing melody".<ref>"The Lasting Charm of Gilbert and Sullivan: Operas of an Artificial World", ''The Times'', 14 February 1957, p. 5</ref> A 2000 article in ''The Musical Times'' by Nigel Burton noted the resurgence of Sullivan's reputation beyond the comic operas:
{{blockquote|[Sullivan] spoke naturally to all people, for all time, of the passions, sorrows and joys which are forever rooted in the human consciousness.&nbsp;... It is his artistic consistency in this respect which obliges us to pronounce him our greatest Victorian composer. Time has now sufficiently dispersed the mists of criticism for us to be able to see the truth, to enjoy all his music, and to rejoice in the rich diversity of its panoply.&nbsp;... [L]et us resolve to set aside the "One-and-a-half-hurrahs" syndrome once and for all, and, in its place, raise THREE LOUD CHEERS.<ref name=burton>Burton, Nigel. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004730 "Sullivan Reassessed: See How the Fates"], ''The Musical Times'', Winter 2000, pp. 15–22 {{subscription}}</ref>|}}
[[File:Mikado-1917.jpg|thumb|upright|Advertisement for the first recording of ''The Mikado'', 1917|alt=Poster advertising, in plain type, a recording of ''The Mikado'']]

==Recordings==
{{Further|Gilbert and Sullivan#Recordings and broadcasts}}
On 14 August 1888 [[George Edward Gouraud|George Gouraud]] introduced [[Thomas Edison]]'s phonograph to London in a press conference, including the playing of a piano and cornet recording of Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made.<ref name=Edison>[https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/html/historic.html "Historic Sullivan Recordings"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref> At a party on 5 October 1888 given to demonstrate the technology, Sullivan recorded a speech to be sent to Edison, saying, in part: "I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the result of this evening's experiments: astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same I think it is the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced, and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery."<ref name=Edison/> These recordings were found in the Edison Library in New Jersey in the 1950s:<ref name=Edison/>
{{Listen|type=music
 | filename     = Edison cylinder Lost Chord.ogg
 | title        = "The Lost Chord"
 | description  = One of the recordings played at the press conference on 14 August 1888
 | filename2    = Arthur Sullivan - wax cylinder recording.ogg
 | title2       = After-dinner speech at the Little Menlo
 | description2 = Sullivan's phonographic letter to Thomas Edison, 5 October 1888
}}

The first commercial recordings of Sullivan's music, beginning in 1898, were of individual numbers from the Savoy operas.{{refn|The first was "Take a pair of sparkling eyes", from ''The Gondoliers''.<ref>Wolfson, John (1973). "A history of Savoyard recordings", Notes to Pearl LP set GEM 118/120</ref>|group= n}} In 1917 the [[Gramophone Company]] (HMV) produced the first album of a complete Gilbert and Sullivan opera, ''The Mikado'', followed by eight more.<ref>Rollins and Witts, Appendix pp. x–xi; and Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narracou-doc.htm "The First D'Oyly Carte Recordings"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 18 November 2001, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> [[Sound recording and reproduction#Electrical|Electrical recordings]] of most of the operas issued by HMV and [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor]] followed from the 1920s, supervised by [[Rupert D'Oyly Carte]].<ref>Rollins and Witts, Appendix, pp. xi–xiii; and Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrelec.htm "G&S Discography: The Electrical Era"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 18 November 2001, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to produce recordings until 1979.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrster-doc.htm "The D'Oyly Carte Stereo Recordings"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 24 December 2003, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> After the copyrights expired, recordings were made by opera companies such as [[Gilbert and Sullivan for All]]<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrster-gsfa.htm "The Gilbert and Sullivan for All recordings"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, accessed 8 September 2011, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> and [[Opera Australia|Australian Opera]], and [[Malcolm Sargent|Sir Malcolm Sargent]]<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrster.htm "G&S Discography: The Stereo Era"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, accessed 18 November 2001, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> and [[Charles Mackerras|Sir Charles Mackerras]] each conducted audio sets of several Savoy operas.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrdig-series.htm "G&S Discography: The Digital Era"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 27 August 2002, accessed 5 October 2014</ref><ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrvisual.htm "G&S on Film, TV and Video"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 18 November 2001, accessed 5 October 2014</ref> Since 1994, the [[International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival]] has released professional and amateur CDs and videos of its productions and other Sullivan recordings,<ref>[http://www.gsfestivals.org/product-category/dvds/ "DVDs"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205174946/https://www.gsfestivals.org/product-category/dvds/ |date=5 February 2020 }}, International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, accessed 10 December 2017</ref> and [[Ohio Light Opera]] has recorded several of the operas in the 21st century.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/narrdig-other.htm "The Ohio Light Opera Recordings"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 18 April 2010, accessed 2 December 2017</ref>

Sullivan's non-Savoy works were infrequently recorded until the 1960s. A few of his songs were put on disc in the early years of the 20th century, including versions of "The Lost Chord" by [[Enrico Caruso]] and [[Clara Butt]].<ref>HMV 78 discs 02397 and 03151: Rust, p. xxxiv</ref> The first of many recordings of the ''Overture di Ballo'' was made in 1932, conducted by Sargent.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullorch.htm#diballor "Overture di Ballo (1870)"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 12 July 2009, accessed 10 December 2017</ref> The ''Irish Symphony'' was first recorded in 1968 under [[Charles Groves|Sir Charles Groves]].<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/irish-symphony-overture-di-ballo/oclc/181669160&referer=brief_results "Irish Symphony; Overture di Ballo"], EMI LP ASD 2435, WorldCat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> Since then, much of Sullivan's serious music and his operas without Gilbert have been recorded, including the ''Cello Concerto'' by [[Julian Lloyd Webber]] (1986);<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/romance-op-62/oclc/17585783&referer=brief_results "Romance, op. 62"], EMI LP EL 27 0430 1, WorldCat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> and ''The Rose of Persia'' (1999);<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/rose-of-persia/oclc/61771005?referer=br&ht=edition "The Rose of Persia"], ''BBC Music Magazine'', V7/9, WorldCat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> ''The Golden Legend'' (2001);<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/golden-legend/oclc/163399838&referer=brief_results "The Golden Legend"], Hyperion CD set 67280, World Cat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> ''Ivanhoe'' (2009);<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/ivanhoe/oclc/557740339?referer=di&ht=edition "Ivanhoe"], Chandos CD set CHAN 10578, WorldCat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> and ''[[The Masque at Kenilworth]]'' and ''[[On Shore and Sea]]'' (2014),<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/early-works-of-arthur-sullivan-on-shore-and-sea-and-kenilworth/oclc/888516711&referer=brief_results "Early works of Arthur Sullivan: On Shore and Sea and Kenilworth"], Dutton CD set DLX 7310, WorldCat, accessed 11 December 2017</ref> conducted by, respectively, Tom Higgins, [[Ronald Corp]], [[David Lloyd-Jones (conductor)|David Lloyd-Jones]] and [[Richard Bonynge]]. In 2017 [[Chandos Records]] released an album, ''Songs'', which includes ''The Window'' and 35 individual Sullivan songs.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/songs/oclc/1000157118&referer=brief_results "Songs"], Chandos CD set CHAN 10935, WorldCat, accessed 10 December 2017</ref> Mackerras's Sullivan ballet, ''[[Pineapple Poll]]'', has received many recordings since its first performance in 1951.<ref>[http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/pinpoll-dtl.htm "Recordings of Pineapple Poll"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 1 November 2009, accessed 10 December 2017</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of compositions by Arthur Sullivan]]
* [[:Category:People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan|People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan]]

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=24em}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last = Ainger | first = Michael | year = 2002 | title = Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-514769-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Allen | first = Reginald | year = 1976 | title = The First Night Gilbert and Sullivan | location = London | publisher = Chappell | isbn = 978-0-903443-10-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bradley | first = Ian C | author-link = Ian Bradley | title = Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! The Enduring Phenomenon of Gilbert and Sullivan | location = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-19-516700-9 | url = https://archive.org/details/ohjoyohraptureen00brad |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Crowther | first = Andrew | year = 2000 | title = Contradiction Contradicted – The Plays of W. S. Gilbert | location = London and Madison, New Jersey | publisher = Associated University Presses and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | isbn = 978-0-8386-3839-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Crowther | first = Andrew | year = 2011 | title = Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan: his Life and Character | location = London | publisher = The History Press | isbn = 978-0-7524-5589-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Dailey | first = Jeff S. | year = 2008 | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan's Grand Opera Ivanhoe and its Theatrical and Musical Precursors | location = Lewiston, New York | publisher = Edwin Mellen Press | isbn = 978-0-7734-5068-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Dunhill | first = Thomas | author-link = Thomas Dunhill | title = Sullivan's Comic Operas – A Critical Appreciation | publisher = Edward Arnold | location = London | year = 1928 | oclc = 409499 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Eden | first = David | author2 = Meinhard Saremba | year = 2009 | title = The Cambridge Companion to Gilbert and Sullivan | series = [[Cambridge Companions to Music]] | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-88849-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Farrell | first = Scott | year = 2009 | title = The C. H. Workman Productions: A Centenary Review of the Final Savoy Operas | publisher = Scott Farrell | location = Loves Park | isbn = 978-1-257-34089-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Findon | first = Benjamin William | year = 1904 | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan – His Life and Music | location = London | publisher = James Nisbet | oclc = 499660152 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Fitz-Gerald | first = S. J. Adair | title = The Story of the Savoy Opera | publisher = Stanley Paul & Co | location = London | year = 1924 | oclc = 711957498 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Fitzsimons | first = Bob | year = 2008 | title = Arthur O'Leary & Arthur Sullivan: Musical Journeys from Kerry to the Heart of Victorian England | location = Tralee | publisher = Doghouse | isbn = 978-0-9558746-1-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Gammond | first = Peter | year = 1980 | title = Offenbach | author-link = Peter Gammond | location = London | publisher = Omnibus Press | isbn = 978-0-7119-0257-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Gaye | editor-first = Freda | year = 1967 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | edition = fourteenth | location = London | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc = 5997224 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Goodman | first = Andrew | title = Gilbert and Sullivan's London | year = 1988 | location = Tunbridge Wells | publisher = Spellmount | isbn = 978-0-946771-31-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Hanslick | first= Eduard |author-link=Eduard Hanslick |others=[[Henry Pleasants (music critic)|Henry Pleasants]] (ed and trans)| title= Hanslick's Music Criticisms| year=1988| orig-year=1950 | location=New York | publisher=Dover | isbn= 978-0-486-25739-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Harding | first = James | author-link = James Harding (music writer) | year = 1965 | title = Saint-Saëns and his Circle | location = London | publisher = Chapman and Hall | oclc = 60222627 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Harris | editor-first = Roger | year = 1986 | title = The Golden Legend | location = Chorleywood | publisher = R Clyde | oclc = 16794345 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Hayes | first = Scott | year = 2003 | title = Uncle Arthur: The California Connection | location = Saffron Walden | publisher = Sir Arthur Sullivan Society | oclc = 52232815 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Howes | first = Frank | year = 1966 | title = The English Musical Renaissance | author-link = Frank Howes | location = London | publisher = Secker and Warburg | oclc = 460655985 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Hughes | first = Gervase | author-link = Gervase Hughes | year = 1959 | title = The Music of Sir Arthur Sullivan | location = London | publisher = Macmillan | oclc = 500626743 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Jacobs | first = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Jacobs | year = 1984 | title = Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician | location = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-315443-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/arthursullivanvi00jaco |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Klein | first = Herman | author-link = Herman Klein | year = 1903 | title = Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870–1900 | location = London | publisher = Heinemann | oclc = 5346607 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Kreissle von Hellborn|first=Heinrich|translator=Arthur Duke Coleridge |others=Appendix by George Grove | title=The Life of Franz Schubert|volume=2| publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co| year=1869| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpcPAAAAYAAJ |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Lawrence | first = Arthur | year = 1899 | edition = 1907 | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan, Life Story, Letters and Reminiscences | location = London | url = https://archive.org/details/sirarthursulliva00lawruoft | publisher = Duffield | oclc = 1303888 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Lycett | first = Andrew | author-link = Andrew Lycett | title = Rudyard Kipling | year = 2000 | location = London | publisher = Phoenix | isbn = 978-0-7538-1085-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Musgrave | first = Michael | title = The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace | year = 1995 | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-37562-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author = Palmer, Fiona M. | title = Conductors in Britain 1870–1914: Wielding the Baton at the Height of Empire  | location = Woodbridge, Suffolk | publisher = Boydell and Brewer | year = 2017 | isbn = 978-1-783-27145-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Rees | first = Terence | author-link = Terence Rees | year = 1964 | title = Thespis – A Gilbert & Sullivan Enigma | location = London | publisher = Dillon's University Bookshop | oclc = 220047638 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Rodmell | first= Paul | title= Charles Villiers Stanford | year= 2017| location= London | publisher= Routledge | isbn= 978-1-138-26903-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Rollins | first = Cyril | author2 = R. John Witts | year = 1961 | title = The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas | location = London | publisher = Michael Joseph, Ltd | oclc = 1317843 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Rust | first = Brian | author-link = Brian Rust | title = Gramophone Records of the First World War: An HMV Catalogue 1914–18 | location = Newton Abbot | publisher = David and Charles | year = 1975 | isbn = 978-0-7153-6842-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Shaw | first = Bernard | editor = Dan Laurence | author-link = George Bernard Shaw | year = 1981 | title = Shaw's Music: The Complete Music Criticism of Bernard Shaw, Volume 1 (1876–1890) | url = https://archive.org/details/shawsmusiccomple0001shaw | url-access = registration | location = London | publisher = The Bodley Head | isbn = 978-0-370-30247-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Shaw | first = Bernard | editor = Dan Laurence | year = 1981 | title = Shaw's Music: The Complete Music Criticism of Bernard Shaw, Volume 2 (1890–1893) | location = London | publisher = The Bodley Head | isbn = 978-0-370-31271-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Stanford | first = Charles Villiers | author-link =Charles Villiers Stanford | year = 1908 | title = Studies and Memories  | url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924022242204 | location = London  | publisher = Constable  | oclc = 238881659 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Stedman | first = Jane W. | year = 1996 | title = W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre | location = Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-816174-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Benedict | title = Arthur Sullivan: A Musical Reappraisal | year = 2017 <!-- Some databases list wrongly as 2018 --> | location = Abingdon and New York | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 978-1-4094-6910-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Tillett | first = Selwyn | year = 1998 | title = The Ballets of Arthur Sullivan | location = Coventry | publisher = Sir Arthur Sullivan Society | oclc = 227181926 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Carolyn | title = Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody | year = 2010 | publisher = Columbia University Press | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-231-14804-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Wolfson | first = John | year = 1984 | title = Sullivan and the Scott Russells: A Victorian love affair told through the letters of Rachel and Louise Scott Russell to Arthur Sullivan, 1864–1870 | location = Chichester | publisher = Packard Publishing | isbn = 978-0-906527-14-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Young | first = Percy M. | author-link = Percy M. Young | year = 1971 | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan | location = London | publisher = J. M. Dent & Sons | isbn = 978-0-460-03934-5 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/sirarthursulliva0000unse |ref=none}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last = Allen | first = Reginald | author2 = Gale R. D'Luhy | year = 1975 | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan – Composer & Personage | url = https://archive.org/details/sirarthursulliva0000alle | url-access = registration | location = New York | publisher = The Pierpont Morgan Library | oclc = 642398593 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Bradley | first = Ian C | title = Abide with Me: The World of the Victorian Hymn | location = London | publisher = SCM-Canterbury Press | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-0-334-02703-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Cellier | first = François | author2 = Cunningham Bridgeman | author-link = François Cellier | url = https://archive.org/details/gilbertandsulli00bridgoog | title = Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas | location = New York | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | year = 1914 | oclc = 58942004 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Hulme| first = David Russell | author-link=David Russell Hulme| title = The operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan: A study of available autograph scores | url=https://pure.aber.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-operettas-of-sir-arthur-sullivan(60676c74-1687-41a1-8111-15c138574c1a).html| publisher = [[Aberystwyth University]] | year = 1986 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author = Dillard, Philip H. | title = Sir Arthur Sullivan: A Resource Book | location = Boston | publisher = Scarecrow Press | year = 1996 | isbn = 978-0-8108-3157-5 |ref=none}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|Arthur Sullivan}}
{{wikiquote}}

===General===
* [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/sullivan_home.html Extensive list of links to Sullivan works and materials], Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
* [http://www.sullivansociety.org.uk Sir Arthur Sullivan Society]
* [https://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&cite=&coll=&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fscmo%2Fscmo0018%2F&tif=00922.TIF&pagenum=904 Detailed 1879 article about Sullivan]
* [https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/other-side-of-sullivan "The Other Side of Sullivan"], lecture by [[Robin Wilson (mathematician)|Robin Wilson]], 2008.
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{librivox author | id=2952}}

===Music===
* {{ChoralWiki}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Sullivan, Arthur}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Arthur Sullivan}}
* [http://www.themorgan.org/music/composer/sullivan-arthur Sullivan manuscript scores] at The Morgan Library
* {{Gutenberg author |id=422 | name=Arthur Sullivan}}

{{Gilbert and Sullivan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Arthur}}
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