Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas are some of the world’s best-loved musical works,
delighting audiences with their joyous wit, topsy-turvy logic and extravagant wordplay. This
glorious treasury is the definitive annotated edition of all fourteen of their
operas.
From the partially lost work Thespis, the first collaboration between W. S.
Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, through the triumphant comic romps The Pirates of Penzance
and The Mikado, to lesser-performed gems such as the fanciful The Sorcerer and the
acerbic lampoon Patience, Gilbert’s libretti are collected here in their most accurate
and faithful form. There is a fascinating commentary on each work, telling the extraordinary
stories behind the inspiration for the opera and its performance history, and giving plot
summaries and original cast lists.
