Why did Gilbert and Sullivan fall out? W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan fell out badly after Gilbert challenged a £500 carpet expense in 1890. The carpet is usually given as the cause of their breakup, but there were many other reasons, and the split had been building for a long time.
You may never have heard of Gilbert and Sullivan, but there is a good chance that you have heard the names of some of the musicals they created, and maybe even some of the songs they wrote. They even wrote lyrics that have become part of everyday English, such as “a short, sharp shock” and “a policeman’s lot is not a happy one.” Between them, they wrote fourteen works together, although “musical” is a more modern term. They wrote comic operas. The Savoy Theatre in Britain, still a very famous theater, was built primarily as a place to perform their works.
Gilbert was the lyricist, and he was six years older than Sullivan, having been born in 1836. He grew up in a literary family and started writing stories and poems from an early age. Sullivan was the musical composer, and he grew up in a musical family. His father was a bandmaster, and by the age of eight Sullivan was proficient in all of the band instruments. He composed his first musical piece at the age of twenty-one. They both became relatively successful in their own right, but it was only when they came together that they really excelled. They were brought together by a talent agent and theater manager called Richard D’Oyly Carte. He needed a short opera for his theater, and he knew that Gilbert had a libretto ready to go, so he suggested that Sullivan write the music. Richard Carte was the reason the two got together, and he would also be the reason they broke up.
They began working together and produced hit after hit. Gilbert’s way with words, his plots, and his satirical portrayal of the wealthy, alongside Sullivan’s music, was a recipe for success, and the public loved them. They sold out theaters, and their opera H.M.S. Pinafore ran for almost two years. They even managed to break into America. Their plots were often predictable, but that was one of the things people loved about the operas. They were fun and satirical, but they never took themselves too seriously.
The trouble between Gilbert and Sullivan had started long before the carpet incident. They produced amazing work together, but each felt that he was being overshadowed by the other. They also had personalities that rubbed against each other. Gilbert was very confrontational, but he could not take criticism well. Sullivan hated conflict. They both believed that their part of the opera was the most important and would not hear anything said against it. They worked well together much of the time, but not always. After they had made numerous operas, Sullivan was becoming tired of the style of music they were making and did not want to be typecast. In fact, Sullivan had written a piece on his own, and Carte was preparing to put it on in a new theater he was building.
Things came to a head in 1890. Gilbert was going over the receipts from one of their shows and noticed that they were lower than they should have been. He made inquiries and discovered that Richard D’Oyly Carte had charged them for, among other things, a new carpet for the Savoy theater. Gilbert was furious and confronted Carte. Carte said it was a fair expense. Gilbert claimed that Carte could not be trusted with their money and tried to get Sullivan to help. Sullivan did not like confrontation, wanted to stay on the good side of Carte because of his new musical work, and was also getting a bit sick of Gilbert, so he refused to help. Gilbert took Carte to court and told Sullivan that it was the end of their relationship. Sullivan even ended up helping to defend Carte by claiming that Gilbert had outstanding legal expenses, which was not true.
Despite losing the lawsuit and having to pay Gilbert some money, Carte spent quite a while trying to get the two artists to reunite. However, this may have had more to do with self-interest than with wanting to make amends. While the row was going on, Gilbert refused to let any of his operas be performed at the Savoy, and no more were being made. They did reunite a few years later and wrote two more operas, but they were not popular and both flopped. The pair’s inability to work well together was reflected in their art. During the last years of Sullivan’s life, for he died before Gilbert, there were times when they refused to speak to each other. They even appeared on stage without looking at each other once. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.classical-music.com/articles/gilbert-sullivan-carpet