If I Could Choose Only One Work By...SULLIVAN

It Would Have To Be...The Mikado
First among equals for the title of the greatest comic opera ever.

1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South

[nathansmith]

The Golden Legend is Sullivan’s best composition…One day I’ll conduct it!!!

[rhonda]

I love musicals and never cared for Gilbert and Sullivan. I was afraid I would not have much to listen to this time but I found a lot in his major orchestral works and I listened to two complete ballets. I had high hopes for the ballets, and while I enjoyed them, they did not blow me away. However, I was blown away by the recording Arthur Sullivan: Irish Symphony (38 min.), Imperial March (7 min.), Victoria and Merrie England (Suite - 13 min) and In Memoriam (12 min.) - BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes (Rec & Released in 1994). I would save the Irish Symphony or the album I just mentioned.

[mickeytheviewmoo]

I grew up listening to HMS Pinafore and all its songs and ditties. Once in your head they never leave.
A good friend of mine, years ago, said Sullivan was England's greatest composer, before I ever knew Dave Hurwitz ever existed. Now listening to these operettas again I can appreciate everything my friend said.

[markwoods]

My introduction to the Mikado occurred when I was three or four or six years old watching The Three Stooges. There's a scene where a man in a tuxedo is introduced about five times and every time he starts by stating "A wandering minstrel I" and opens his mouth to sing, he gets hit in the face by a pie. I'm not sure if the The Three Stooges were adept at recognizing great music or not but I am sure they were pretty good at recognizing great comedy.

[richardfrankel]

Yes, today this masterpiece is taken for granted, its blazing genius underappreciated, while the listening public remains "callow and obdurate".

[EdwarddeVere]

Iolanthe is the caviar work for Savoyard aficionados. Utopia lLimited and The Grand Duke are uneven but still masterpieces.

[Mooseman]

ABSOLUTELY The Mikado! On a level with The Marriage of Figaro as far as the perfection of achievement. I've also said to people in my past that Sullivan was England's greatest composer. Same reaction from the "serious" people. But how many wonderful melodies does one man have to come up before he's considered a genius?

And, then, when we come to Bernstein, West Side Story is a third perfect musical work.

[Bdw]

Thanks Dave. I never would have listened to this without watching this video. Incredible the whole way through. I must admit I’ve replayed “our great mikado virtuous man” many times… despite being a comedy I find that the chorus parts have a flash of deep profundity: “aaaand aaalll is right!”

[bannan]

It's Pirates for me. Basically it was the first one I played in and it's stuck in my head ever since.

[fredcasden]

One of the things I am most pleased about was the opportunity I had to sing in the chorus of a handful of the G&S operettas (even Ruddigore!). Great stuff! My personal favorite is Gondoliers with Mikado a close second.

[coloraturaElise]

I'm with you, Dave! I'm a clarinetist, woodwind doubler, and opera singer, but my earliest musical obsession was G&S. It's what lead me to take voice lessons in my late 20s and find out what I had for a voice. Once I was singing Mozart, Rossini, and Verdi, people asked me why I still sang

[henrygingercat]

Agreed. I believe both Bernstein and Carlos Kleiber both wanted to record it with the former hoping to persuade Birgit Nilsson to sing Katisha.

[HassoBenSoba]

The Gondoliers. In addition to the usual wit, there is a profound, heartfelt beauty to much of the music that clearly demonstrates the depth of Sullivan's art eg: the opening 15-minute, continuous musical sequence of Act 1, the sublime duet "There Was a Time", the Act 1 finale with its bittersweet "parting" quartet and chorus...even the 11th-inning Gavotte, ostensibly a comic number for the Duke, ends in a soaring, glorious ensemble passage. And in terms of social commentary, who could possibly overlook Gilbert's brilliant warning (humorous) against socialism/collectivism: "When everyone is no-one's ANYbody." LR

[scp]

We need more live performances of G&S. They seem to have disappeared off the map.

[marilynharris]

🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵❤even Groucho couldn't hurt the Mikado!

[i.m.takkinen]

HMS Pinafore was my first love and sort of impossibly satisfying. That said, Mikado is not only incredibly tuneful but has a level of seamless craftsmanship throughout that ought to leave both Kankrasanz and the snobbier among us sated.

[markzacek]

So many masterpieces to choose from! I would pick Mikado too, while noting a special affection for Ruddigore … and Patience and Iolanthe and Princess Ida and and and …

[charlesedwards]

The Mikado is complete genius - though I adore Pirates perhaps a little it's hysterical and witty and touching.... so is Gianni Schicchi - Pure Joe Orton as opera!

[peterwooldridge]

Wow David, of all the terrific commentaries you given us I don't think you've been more forthright. Given that I'm off to give Mr Sullivan a trip around the turntable...actually, I'll probably stream him.
Thanks

[crzxr]

Vaughan Williams said that, had Sullivan lived in another era, 'he might have written a Figaro' - which showed he recognised Sullivan's innate genius, and that it was comparable to Mozart's; he was arguing that it was only the Victorian age that prevented him from equalling Mozart's achievement.