SULLIVAN, (Sir) Arthur
b London, 13 May 1842
d London, 22 November 1900, aged fifty-eight

His father was a bandmaster at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and by the age of eight Arthur could play every instrument in the band. At twelve he was admitted to the Chapel Royal as a chorister. He went to Leipzig in 1858 under the Mendelssohn Scholarship he won at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1875 he was commissioned to set to music Trial By Jury, by W. S. Gilbert. The great success of this compelled the impresario Richard d'Oyly Carte to lease the Opera Comique Theatre in Paris expressly to perform the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, and in 1881 the company transferred to the new Savoy Theatre in London. In 1883 Sullivan was knighted. The relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan was professional rather than social, and it often became strained.

1862 (20)

The Tempest, incidental music

1864 (22)

L'Ile enchantee, ballet music

Kenilworth, cantata

1866 (23)

Cello Concerto

Irish Symphony

In Memoriam Overture

1867 (25)

Cox and Box, operetta (libretto, Burnand)

1869 (27)

The Prodigal Son, oratorio

1870 (28)

Overture di Ballo, concert overture

1873 (31)

The Light of the World, oratorio

1875 (33)

The Zoo, operetta (libretto, Stephenson)

Trial by Jury, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1877 (35)

The Sorcerer, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

'The Lost Chord', song

1878 (36)

HMS Pinafore, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

Henry VIII, incidental music

The Martyr of Antioch, oratorio

1880 (38)

The Pirates of Penzance, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1881 (39)

Patience, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1882 (40)

Iolanthe, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1884 (42)

Princess Ida, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1885 (43)

The Mikado, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1886 (44)

The Golden Legend, cantata

1887 (45)

Ruddigore, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1888 (46)

The Yeoman of the Guard, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1889 (47)

The Gondoliers, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1891 (49)

Ivanhoe, opera (libretto, Sturgis)

1892 (50)

Haddon Hall, opera (libretto, Grundy)

1893 (51)

Utopia, Ltd., operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1895 (53)

The Chieftain, operetta (libretto, Burnand)

1896 (54)

The Grand Duke, operetta (libretto, Gilbert)

1897 (55)

Te Deum

1898 (56)

The Beauty Stone, opera (libretto, Pinero and Conyers Carr)

1899 (57)

The Rose of Persia, operetta (libretto, Hood)

Performed posthumously:

1901 The Emerald Isle, operetta (libretto, Hood), completed by German