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.

Author Biography

Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operetta or comic operas in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works known as the Savoy Operas. Ed Glinert was born in Dalston, London, and read Classical Hebrew at Manchester University. In 1983 he set up City Life, Manchester's listings magazine, and he has since worked for Radio Times, Private Eye and Mojo. He is the co-author of Fodor's Rock & Roll Traveler USA and Fodor's Rock & Roll Traveler Great Britain and Ireland, and recently edited The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, and annotated two volumes of Sherlock Holmes stories, all for Penguin Classics. Mike Leigh is a film-maker and dramatist. His 1999 film Topsy-Turvy examined Gilbert and Sullivan's world at the time of the original productions of Princess Ida and The Mikado. It won two Oscars. His other films include Nuts in May, Life is Sweet, Naked, Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake. Among his many plays are Babies Grow Old, Abigail's Party, Ecstasy, Goose-Pimples and Two Thousand Years. He is a Vice President of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society.