Ainger, Michael - Gilbert and Sullivan

After exhaustive research into the D'Oyly Carte collection of documents, Ainger offers the most detailed account to date of Gilbert and Sullivan's starkly different backgrounds and long working partnership. A Gilbert is of no use without a Sullivan, W. S. Gilbert once summed up his reasons for persisting in his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan despite the combative nature of their relationship. Indeed, Michael Ainger suggests, it is the clash between these two strong personalities that accounts for the success of their work together, as each partner challenged the other to produce his best work.

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CONTENTS

Curtain-raiser: The London grocer and the Irish soldier
Part I: 1836-1837 by different routes to the stage door
Chapter 1 : 1836-1852 Gilbert: a dramatic childhood. Sullivan: a musical background
Chapter 2 : 1853-1858 The Chapel Royal and King's College
Chapter 3 : 1859-1862 Sullivan at Leipzig
Gilbert at Law
Chapter 4 : 1863-1866 Gilbert and Sullivan: the ballad writers
Part II: 1867-1877 Establishing reputations: from Cox and Box to The Sorcerer
Chapter 5 : 1867-1868 Gilbert and Sullivan in the theatre
Chapter 6 : 1869-1871 The Meeting of Gilbert and Sullivan C Thespis
Chapter 7 : 1872-1873 Different Worlds: Gilbert's The Wicked World
Sullivan's The Light of the World
Chapter 8 : 1874-1875 Trial By Jury
Chapter 9 : 1875-1876 In search of a manager
Chapter 10 : 1876 Sullivan is honoured
Gilbert is ridiculed
Chapter 11 : 1877 The Comedy Opera Company and The Sorcerer
Part III: 1877-1884 The G&S phenomenon: from HMS Pinafore to Princess Ida
Chapter 12 : 1877-1878 HMS Pinafore
Chapter 13 : 1878-1879 Troubled Waters
Chapter 14 : 1879 America and The Pirates of Penzance
Chapter 15 : 1880-1881 Patience
Chapter 16 : 1881 The Savoy Theatre
Chapter 17 : 1881-1882 Iolanthe
Chapter 18 : 1883-1884 Princess Ida