Composer Spotlight: Gilbert and Sullivan

Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan are famous for their comic operas. A comic opera is a drama that is sung and is funny and light-hearted, and usually has a happy ending. It is a type of operetta. 

Gilbert and Sullivan lived in England. They worked together from 1871-1896 and wrote fourteen comic operas together. Sir Gilbert wrote the words, or libretto, for the operas. Sir Sullivan composed the music. Three of their most famous operas are H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. 

The characters in the comic operas are exaggerated and their actions can be very silly, which is one thing that makes the shows fun to watch. In H.M.S. Pinafore, Gilbert and Sullivan made fun of the English Navy. Here is the song about the captain (who thinks a lot of himself). He sings about how great he is, but the sailors question him on some things, like whether he ever gets seasick. 

In The Pirates of Penzance, one character is a "Major-General". A Major-General is supposed to know about the military, but they made this character funny by making him know a lot about many things in general and not the military! In college you can "major" in a subject which you study. The Major-General has "majored" in lots of subjects, but not the one he should know about! 

Here is the song "I am the very Model of a Modern Major-General" from The Pirates of Penzance. This song is quite difficult to sing because there are so many words.