Today 19th-century composers don't seem to be rather controversial, but during their day, this duo lambasted every authority structure in British Victorian society
The BBC recently aired an interesting program detailing how Gilbert and Sullivan innovated the stage conventions of their day, in order to make music theater more dramatic, engaging, and, of course, satirical. The pair lambasted every authority structure in British Victorian society: the police, lawyers, politicians, upper crust society, and even the Queen.
Despite being rather topical in criticizing the popular movements of the day (movements that have since passed out of vogue), Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas nevertheless appeal to modern day audiences because the characters depicted are realistic: though comic, the characters are for the most part good-natured human beings trying to negotiate their place in society. Such is a theme that can translate rather easily from century to century. And since England still carries a very strong class consciousness, the underlying critiques Gilbert and Sullivan offered are still relevant.
As an example of their continuing appeal even to American audiences, Gilbert and Sullivan still occupy a very familiar place in the popular consciousness, appearing everywhere from Star Trek episodes to the Simpsons's TV show.
Gilbert and Sullivan were innovative in their approach to theater, with precedence only in the 18th-century's Beggar's Opera (whose attack on prominent politicians of the day was so severe that the sequel was banned from production). The innovations of The Beggar's Opera were its subject matter (lower class characters instead of gods and goddesses) and its tighter integration of narrative within the musical material. Gilbert and Sullivan would return music theater to that integration and concern with "normal" or "natural" characters. They would also give the chorus a more dramatic role (instead of simply using the chorus as part of an immobile set). But even with their progressive treatment of music theater, Gilbert and Sullivan were still firmly entrenched within the plot conventions of bad villians, perfect heroines, and courageous heros so characteristic of Victorian melodrama, using the forms to poke further fun at establishment institutions.
A number of subsequent adaptations of Gilbert and Sullivan's works have attempted to modernize the duo's works while preserving the original social themes: there is The Black Mikado and The Gay Pinafore.
But perhaps the element that will keep Gilbert and Sullivan popular is simply the cleverness of their music. Gilbert, the lyricist, was skilled at manipulating the English language in sometimes preposterous ways. The patter song (fast songs with polysyllabic lyrics) was Gilbert's particular specialty.
