This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ...be secured. "The Sorcerer " was the first of the long series of comic operas in which the names of Gilbert and Sullivan were, in the public mind, to be as indissolublyconnected as the "Two Kings of Barataria." To them was now added an impresario of audacity and genius, Mr. D'Oyly Carte, and, it should also be mentioned, an artist who for very long filled the chief comic part in each opera with unrivalled cleverness, Mr. George Grossmith. "The Sorcerer" had a first run of one hundred and seventy-five nights, and has since been revived. But it was eclipsed by its successor, "H. M. S. Pinafore," produced in May, 1878, which ran for seven hundred nights with a success of enthusiasm rarely if ever equalled. Many causes contributed to this; its nautical theme was one eminently calculated to take every class of Briton by storm; its wit and fun were irresistible; its sayings, its turns of phrase, became proverbial in an almost maddening degree, and to each of them was attached a musical counterpart which seemed a very impression of itself. The music, full of spirit and sparkle, was not better than much which has succeeded it, but, like the humor of the piece, it had then the fascination of novelty. How anything could be expected to succeed after " Pinafore" is hard to understand, but "The Pirates of Penzance" (produced April, 188o) did succeed, and deserved to do so, for the music is certainly superior to that of " Pinafore." This was followed, in 1881, by "Patience," a happy and humorous skit on the prevailing affectations of the so-called aesthetic craze, which had a long and brilliant run. In 1882 came "Iolanthe, a fairy opera," in 1884, " Princess...