Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan
Subtitle: his life and character
By: Andrew Crowther
Publisher: History Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Gloucestershire
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780752455891
Subjects: Librettists; English drama (Comedy); Biography; Opera; History and criticism; Musical theater; History
Description: The author of The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore and the other great Savoy libretti, W.S. Gilbert was witty, caustic and disrespectful, one of the celebrities of the late Victorian era. He wrote the most brilliantly inventive plays of his time, and with Arthur Sullivan he wrote comic operas that defined the age. He became richer and more famous than he could have imagined, but at the price of his artistic freedom. In his time Gilbert had been many things: journalist, theatre critic, cartoonist, comic poet, stage director, writer of short stories, dramatist. Andrew Crowther examines W.S. Gilbert from all these angles, using a wealth of sources to tell the story of an angry and quarrelsome man, discontented with himself and the age he lived in, raging at life's absurdities and laughing at them. In this book Gilbert's glorious, contradictory character is explored and brought vividly to life.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.