The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan (Paperback)

by W. S. Gilbert (Author), Arthur Seymour Sullivan (Author) "SCENE.-The ruins of The Temple of the Gods on summit of Mount Olympus..." (more)
Key Phrases: dear old thing, lobster salad, Grand Duke, Lord Chancellor, Captain Corcoran (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
From Thespis to The Grand Duke, here are all the words to all the operettas on which William Schenk Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan collaborated. A fixture in Anglo-American music theater and humor for well over a century, their wit retains its edge after all these years. Norton offers the libretti available in handy, totable book form and generously illustrates them with Gilbert's accomplished pen-and-ink drawings. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
In one concise volume, the complete texts of these perennially popular light operas. From Trial by Jury to The Pirates of Penzance: the complete librettos of all fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Gilbert's verses for Sullivan's music are the most fastidiously turned and inventively rhymed in all lyric comedy. As the Savoy Operas enter their second century on a swell of renewed popularity, Gilbert's reputation as the supreme wordsmith of light opera remains secure. Complete and authentic, these are the librettos on which modern performances and recordings are based. Scattered among the songs are over seventy of the amusing, quirky pictures Gilbert drew to illustrate them. A chronology prepared for this edition sketches the authors' lives and careers. This is a book that no lover of Gilbert and Sullivan, musical comedy, or indeed the English theater will want to be without.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393316882
• ISBN-13: 978-0393316889
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #370,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #29 in

  Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Opera > Songbooks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imperfect but a good investment , April 22, 2005

By	Pitti-Sing (Titipu, Japan) - See all my reviews

I invested in this book intending to listen to and memorize all fourteen of the Savoy operas...I now know ten of them practically from heart, which scares my friends terribly. The funny thing is that, although I intended to buy it solely so that I could sing the words to Sullivan's wonderful hummable tunes, I found myself reading the plays just for the pleasure of Gilbert's clever rymes and horribly improbable plotlines. His "Bab" illustrations are also included beside the text, which opens up another side of Gilbert's genius. But be forewarned: There are several mistakes in the text - mostly words such as "is" being replaced with "it," but also some words that are different. Perhaps the words have changed over time from the origonal texts, but once in a while you'll find a word sung differently than what's written. I treat the book like I'd treat an edition of Shakespeare - dramatic work is always bent and changed slightly. In spite of the minor textual mistakes, it is a very useful book and it's nice to have the libretto laid out without any commentary or annotations.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Still remember My Mother's Old 78's, June 15, 2000

By	Loren D. Morrison "amateur_reviewer" (Los Angeles County, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Back in prehistoric times when records were brittle things and only came in one speed, 78 RPM's, one of my mother's favorite albums was "H.M.S. Pinafore." She played it frequently. Too young to understand the satire, I was attracted by the catchy music. I loved to hear the captain sing "I am the Captain of the Pinafore," immediately followed by the response of the chorus. This plus "Poor Little Buttercup" and "The Ruler of the Queen's Navee" made a fan of me for life.

Several years later, and after having attended performances of several of these comic operas, I began to read Gilbert's lyrics. I must confess that I got much greater enjoyment out of reading lyrics that were from Gilbert and Sullivan performances that I had attended. I think that must be because neither the words nor the music are nearly as enjoyable in the absence of the other.

I have read that Gilbert and Sullivan had a very stormy relationship. I'm glad that they managed to work together as often as they did because they really complemented one another. What they accomplished as a team speaks for itself in the continued performance of so many of their works over a hundred years after they were first performed.

I have an older hardback of THE COMPLETE PLAYS and I found some humor in the following which may have been corrected in later copies. The book starts off with Chronological Biographies of each man. In Gilbert's it states< "first meeting with Arthur Sullivan autumn of 1870." In Sullivan's we find the following. "Met W. S. Gilbert 1871." Something metaphysical afoot perhaps.

In summary, in my opinion, the works in this book, while certainly enjoyable reading, were really meant to be performed in order to give maximum enjoyment. Others may very well disagree with this opinion and I see nothing wrong with that.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A most excellant book, December 15, 1998

By A Customer

This book is full of musical plays and the scripts are worded well for possible performance. The only problem is that the sheet music is missing and from experience it is a headache to find but other than that it is a good book that stimulates the imagination.