Rating: 
Summary: Best guide available to Gilbert & Sullivan
Review: Occupying that middle area between musicals and grand opera, the works of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan are showing their age to the point where this invaluable guide can become an invaluable, addictive pleasure. While their stories and music are lighthearted and accessible, the Victorian events and personalities that infuse the lyrics do need some explanation, and Ian Bradley s guide is the place to look. The book itself offers additional pleasure, since Oxford University Press decided to print the complete libretto of all 13 operas on the right-hand page, leaving the left-hand pages free for Bradley's footnotes. This saves an enormous amount of page-flipping. Bradley' footnotes cover a wide range of knowledge. They clear up obscure references, offer alternative line readings, give advice from actors, comment on stage business, describe who the major characters were modeled on and even add songs that were dropped from the production. Bradley also uses this opportunity to discuss Gilbert and Sullivan s solo works, and how they were sometimes cannibalized for use in their collaborations. Each work is prefaced with a short introduction describing the conditions under which they were created. While Gilbert and Sullivan were known to be at loggerheads through most of their collaboration, it is amazing to realize that the popularity of their operas did not reflect their distate for the work. This is particularly true in Sullivan s case; he always thought of himself as a musician first, and resented having to bend his music to fit Gilbert s words. "The Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" is a must for any fan of the Savoy Operas, and recommended for those just starting to discover the delights of comic opera's pirates, policemen and peers.
Rating:
Summary: Best guide available to Gilbert & Sullivan
Review: Occupying that middle area between musicals and grand opera, the works of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan are showing their age to the point where this invaluable guide can become an invaluable, addictive pleasure. While their stories and music are lighthearted and accessible, the Victorian events and personalities that infuse the lyrics do need some explanation, and Ian Bradley s guide is the place to look. The book itself offers additional pleasure, since Oxford University Press decided to print the complete libretto of all 13 operas on the right-hand page, leaving the left-hand pages free for Bradley's footnotes. This saves an enormous amount of page-flipping. Bradley' footnotes cover a wide range of knowledge. They clear up obscure references, offer alternative line readings, give advice from actors, comment on stage business, describe who the major characters were modeled on and even add songs that were dropped from the production. Bradley also uses this opportunity to discuss Gilbert and Sullivan s solo works, and how they were sometimes cannibalized for use in their collaborations. Each work is prefaced with a short introduction describing the conditions under which they were created. While Gilbert and Sullivan were known to be at loggerheads through most of their collaboration, it is amazing to realize that the popularity of their operas did not reflect their distate for the work. This is particularly true in Sullivan s case; he always thought of himself as a musician first, and resented having to bend his music to fit Gilbert s words. "The Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" is a must for any fan of the Savoy Operas, and recommended for those just starting to discover the delights of comic opera's pirates, policemen and peers.
Rating:
Summary: The "only G&S text you will ever need"
Review: Although I hate that expression (see above), I must admit it applies totally to this marvelous edition. Granted that if you listen to Gilbert & Sullivan, you will want to follow the words--which are not always provided with many recordings nowadays. Then given the words, you will also want to know the meanings of most of Gilbert's more esoteric words ("Daphnephoric"), or simple words that have lost or changed their meanings since Gilbert's day ("Be firm, my pecker"!), or references to people (Captain Shaw), places (Basingstoke), or even objects (Parliamentary trains). Then too, the complete G&S nut will want to see the original versions of some of the songs and certainly the texts to songs that were cut just after opening night or even during rehearsals. In fact, I still have a lot of fun just looking at the left-hand pages to brush up on my G&S trivia. So while this book sells at twice the price of other collections of the "Savoy" plays, it gives twice as much and should be as welcome as the flowers that bloom in the Spring.
Rating: 
Summary: This book has no index!
Review: I bought this book and then returned it because,
astonishingly, it has no index.
And only a perfunctory table of contents (as you can see above).
Fine if you want to read it like a novel,
but for a reference these are serious shortcomings.
Rating: 
Summary: The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan
Review: The book nicely provides the (almost) complete librettos with detailed notes on, among other things, the various versions from preproduction onward to twentieth century changes, the origins, the inspirations, and the meaning of words Bradley thinks are obscure. He is much more likely to explain reasonably familiar words than to assume too much. The introductions nicely trace the history down to the most recent productions. Those who have seen the current movie Topsy-Turvy will find the notes helpful in seeing some of the actual events depicted in the movie. The one omission is Thespis, the first collaboration. The libretto, but not the score, survived. Two areas of omission are exhaustive treatment of either the major performers or recordings. However, this is an excellent source for lovers of G&S.
Rating:
Summary: The Gilbert And Sullivan Bible
Review: This book is the ultimate source for information on all things Gilbert and Sullivan. Written for a contemporary audience, it has a plethora of background info on the productions of the Savoy operas, the singers who originated the roles, the translations to some of the meaning of the words in the lyrics (which were inside jokes back in the time of Gilbert and Sullivan:1870-1900 and a history of performances throughout the 20th century. There are profiles and biographies of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as well as Richard D'Oyly Carte. William Gilbert was a playwright, poet and writer for the satirical magazine Fun. His comic style of writing came to its full powers when he wrote the lyrics and libretti for all the light operas he conceived. Arthur Sullivan was a serious English composer, who at the time was probably competing against the bigger names of Elgar, Ralph Vaughn Williams or Benjamin Britten. Arthur Sullivan wrote English equivalent for German Lieder as Victorian drawing room songs, as well as symphonies and concerti. The Irish Symphony and the Program Music- The Tempest are his most acclaimed. Gilbert and Sullivan were not always a perfect match. Their personalities were distinctly different. Gilbert was humorous, witty, playful and always catering to popular tastes. Arthur Sullivan was intellectual, artistic, serious and introverted. All his life he was unable to step out of the fame he got for the light operas he wrote with Gilbert. He wanted the fame of the serious music composer and not just the silly light operas he made so popular in what was at the time the ancestor of today's Armerican Broadway- the Savoy. Richard D'Oyly Carte was the manager and impresario for Gilbert and Sullivan. He first collaborated with them in Trial By Jury in 1875. He would manage finances for the Savoy, a theatre built especially for Gilbert and Sullivan light operas. D'Oyly Carte's children and grandchildren, among them Bridget D'Oyly Carte, would continue to produce Gilbert and Sullivan operas after his death. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued successfully launching all the great titles- The H.M. S. Pinafore (first premiered 1878) Pirates Of Penzance (1879-1880) The Mikado (1885)
as well as other great but less popular Princess Ida, Iolanthe, Patience, The Gondoliers, The Yeoman Of The Guard, The Grand Duke and Utopia Limited. The D'Oyly Carte Opera has had a rich history of performers- baritone John Reed, soprano Valerie Masterson, tenor Phillip Potter and mezzo soprano Christene Palmer as well as bass Donald Adams. There is a sensational film made in 1967 of The Mikado starring these legendary singers. I hope this great book gets you into Gilbert and Sullivan. It's enough info for you to acquire a Ph.D. in light opera
Rating:
Summary: A must for any G&S Fan
Review: This contains all the Gilbert & Sullivan librettos (excepting Thespis, the only opera whose music has not survived), complete with exhaustive notes, anecdotes and text varients by enthusiastic fan and scholar Ian Bradley. I found Bradley's introductory essays on each of the operas especially informative and rewarding, and the convenient layout of the libretto-on-the-right,-notes-on-the-left is a perfect format for this project as it saves the reader the trouble of constant page-turning. Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke are given somewhat briefer treatment, but these operas have been performed far less than the others (though nowadays it seems inexplicable, and Utopia Limited is my second-favorite of the Canon). I only wish Thespis had been included, as well as some more information about the original casts. For example, I would like to know why George Grossmith did not appear in the Gondoliers. Anyway, this is probably the most complete treatment Gilbert and Sullivan are likely to receive for some time, and it is certainly one of the most enthralling.
Rating:
Summary: May be the only G&S reference you'll ever need.
Review: This contains all the Gilbert & Sullivan librettos (excepting Thespis, the only opera whose music has not survived), complete with exhaustive notes, anecdotes and text varients by enthusiastic fan and scholar Ian Bradley. I found Bradley's introductory essays on each of the operas especially informative and rewarding, and the convenient layout of the libretto-on-the-right,-notes-on-the-left is a perfect format for this project as it saves the reader the trouble of constant page-turning. Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke are given somewhat briefer treatment, but these operas have been performed far less than the others (though nowadays it seems inexplicable, and Utopia Limited is my second-favorite of the Canon). I only wish Thespis had been included, as well as some more information about the original casts. For example, I would like to know why George Grossmith did not appear in the Gondoliers. Anyway, this is probably the most complete treatment Gilbert and Sullivan are likely to receive for some time, and it is certainly one of the most enthralling.
Rating:
Summary: This book has no index!
Review: This is just the best of several annotated G & S libretto collections that have been published over the years. It is actually a republication (with revisions) of two paperbacks by Bradley published some years earlier. They are listed as out of print, which they are, but that doesn't matter with this excellently produced single volume now available. Bradley doesn't have space to give us the last word on all aspects of the operas, but he is exhaustive on the texts, and no real G & S fan can afford not to have this on the shelf. The only other one to look for (it is out of print) is the volume by Martyn Green because his notes include a lot of valuable information about staging.
Rating:
Summary: Just the best
Review: This is just the best of several annotated G & S libretto collections that have been published over the years. It is actually a republication (with revisions) of two paperbacks by Bradley published some years earlier. They are listed as out of print, which they are, but that doesn't matter with this excellently produced single volume now available. Bradley doesn't have space to give us the last word on all aspects of the operas, but he is exhaustive on the texts, and no real G & S fan can afford not to have this on the shelf. The only other one to look for (it is out of print) is the volume by Martyn Green because his notes include a lot of valuable information about staging.
| 
