Gilbert
and Sullivan: A Dual Biography by Michael Ainger
Book Description: A Gilbert is of no use without a Sullivan. With these words, W.S. Gilbert
summed up his reasons for persisting in his collaboration with Arthur Sulllivan
despite the combative nature of their relationship. In fact, Michael Ainger
suggests in Gilbert and Sullivan the success of the pair's work is a direct
result of their personality clash, as each partner challenged the other
to produce his best work. After exhaustive research into the D'Oyly Carte
collection of documents, Ainger offers the most detailed account to date
of Gilbert and Sullivan's starkly different backgrounds and long working
partnership. Having survived an impoverished and insecure childhood, Gilbert
flourished as a financially successful theater professional, married happily
and established himself as a property owner. His sense of proprietorship
extended beyond real estate, and he fought tenaciously to protect the integrity
of his musical works. Sullivan, the product of a supportive family who
nourished his talent, was much less satisfied with stability than his collaborator.
His creative self-doubts and self-demands led to nervous and physical breakdowns,
but it also propelled the team to break the successful mode of their earliest
work to produce more ambitious pieces of theater, including The Mikado
and The Yeoman of the Guards. Offering previously-unpublished draft librettos
and personal letters, this thorough double-biography will be an essential
addition to the library of any Gilbert and Sullivan fan.
Hardcover: 528 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.51 x
9.02 x 6.96 Publisher: Oxford Press; (November ) ISBN: 0195147693
Pirates
of Penzance Vocal Score by W. S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Carl Simpson, Ephraim Hammett
Jones
Book Description: This exemplary new edition of the vocal score
of an enchanting operetta—which has delighted audiences for
over a century with its catchy melodies, its witty lyrics, and its madcap
taleof tender-hearted pirates, timid policemen, and the demands of duty—was
prepared by musicologists Carl Simpson and Ephraim Hammett Jones, who returned
to original manuscripts and early sources to produce handsome, newly engraved
plates closest to Gilbert and Sullivan’s original intentions.
All of the voice parts appear here, in addition to a piano reduction of
the full score and the complete libretto. Introduction by the editors.
Contents. Instrumentation.
Paperback from Dover Pubns
