The Observer newspaper in 1870 sent him to France as a war correspondent reporting on the Franco-Prussian War. 7.

The most famous of these include H.M.S.

Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado.

The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard DOyly Carte founded, the DOyly Carte Opera Company.

These Savoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.

After brief careers as a government clerk and a lawyer, Gilbert began to focus, in the 1860s, on writing light verse, including his Bab Ballads, short stories, theatre reviews and illustrations, often for Fun magazine.

He also began to write burlesques and his first comic plays, developing a unique absurdist, inverted style that would later be known as his topsy-turvy style.

He also developed a realistic method of stage direction and a reputation as a strict theatre director.

In the 1870s, Gilbert wrote 40 plays and libretti, including his German Reed Entertainments, several blank-verse fairy comedies, some serious plays, and his first five collaborations with Sullivan: Thespis, Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, H.M.S.

Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance.

In the 1880s, Gilbert focused on the Savoy operas, including Patience, Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Gondoliers.

Gilbert won the ensuing lawsuit, but the argument caused hurt feelings among the partnership.

In later years, Gilbert wrote several plays, and a few operas with other collaborators.

He retired, with his wife Lucy, and their ward, Nancy McIntosh, to a country estate, Grims Dyke.

Gilbert died of a heart attack while attempting to rescue a young woman to whom he was giving a swimming lesson in the lake at his home.

According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilberts lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since.

His father, also named William, was briefly a naval surgeon, who later became a writer of novels and short stories, some of which his son illustrated.

Gilberts mother was the former Anne Mary Bye Morris (18121888), the daughter of Thomas Morris, an apothecary.

Gilberts parents were distant and stern, and he did not have a particularly close relationship with either of them.

They quarrelled increasingly, and following the break-up of their marriage in 1876, his relationships with them, especially his mother, became even more strained.

Gilbert had three younger sisters, two of whom were born outside England because of the familys travels during these years: Jane Morris (b.

Milan, Italy 1906), who married Alfred Weigall, a miniatures painter; Mary Florence (b.

Boulogne, France 1911); and Anne Maude (18451932).

The younger two never married.

Gilbert was nicknamed Bab as a baby, and then Schwenck, after the surname of his great aunt and great uncle, who were also his fathers godparents.

He intended to take the examinations for a commission in the Royal Artillery, but with the end of the Crimean War, fewer recruits were needed, and the only commission available to Gilbert would have been in a line regiment.

Instead he joined the Civil Service: he was an assistant clerk in the Privy Council Office for four years and hated it.

In 1859, he joined the Militia, a part-time volunteer force formed for the defence of Britain, which he served in until 1878 (in between writing and other work), reaching the rank of captain.

In 1863, he received a bequest of 300 that he used to leave the civil service and take up a brief career as a barrister (he had already entered the Inner Temple as a student).

His legal practice was not successful, averaging just five clients a year.

In the 1860s he also contributed to Tom Hood s Christmas annuals, to Saturday Night, the Comic News and the Savage Club Papers.

The Observer newspaper in 1870 sent him to France as a war correspondent reporting on the Franco-Prussian War.

The Pirates Of Penzance 1994 Torrent