The
Savoy Operas denote a style of
comic opera that developed in
Victorian England in the late 19th century, with
W. S. Gilbert and
Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the
Savoy Theatre, which impresario
Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house the
Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later, those by other composer–librettist teams. The great bulk of the non-G&S Savoy Operas either failed to achieve a foothold in the standard repertory, or have faded over the years, leaving the term "Savoy Opera" as practically synonymous with Gilbert and Sullivan. The Savoy operas (in both senses) were one of the seminal influences on the creation of the modern
musical.
Gilbert, Sullivan, Carte, and other Victorian era British composers, librettists and producers,[1] as well as the contemporary British press and literature, called works of this kind 'comic operas' to distinguish their content and style from that of the continental European operettas that they wished to displace. Most of the published literature on Gilbert and Sullivan since that time refers to these works as 'Savoy Operas,' 'comic operas', or both.[2] However, the Penguin Opera Guides and many other general music dictionaries and encyclopedias classify the Gilbert and Sullivan works as operettas.[3]
During the years when the Gilbert and Sullivan (“G&S”) operas were being written, Richard D'Oyly Carte produced operas by other composer–librettist teams, either as curtain raisers to the G&S pieces, or to fill the theatre when no G&S piece was available. To their contemporaries, the term "Savoy Opera" referred to any opera that appeared at that theatre, regardless of who wrote it.
Aside from curtain raisers (which are listed in the second table below), the G&S operas were the only works produced at the Savoy Theatre from the date it opened (10 October 1881) until The Gondoliers closed on 20 June 1891. Over the next decade, there were only two new G&S pieces (Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke), both of which had comparatively brief runs. To fill the gap, Carte mounted G&S revivals, Sullivan operas with different librettists, and works by other composer–librettist teams. Richard D'Oyly Carte died on April 3, 1901. If the nexus of Carte and the Savoy Theatre is used to define "Savoy Opera," then the last new Savoy Opera was The Rose of Persia (music by Sullivan, libretto by Basil Hood), which ran from 28 November 1899–28 June 1900.
