SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR SEYMOUR English composer, was born in Lambeth on May 13, 1842, being the son of a cultivated Irish musician who was bandmaster at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1845 to 1856, and taught at the Military School of Music at Kneller Hall from 1857 till his death in 1866. His mother, nee Mary Coghlan (1811-1882), had Italian blood in her veins, Arthur Sullivan was brought up to music from boyhood, and he had learnt to play every wind instrument in his father's band by the age of eight. He also had a fine treble voice, and became a chorister of the Chapel Royal. In 1856 he won the Mendelssohn scholarship at the Royal Acad emy, where he studied under Sterndale Bennett, Arthur O'Leary and John Goss. In 1858 he was sent to study at Leipzig, where he had for teachers Moscheles and Plaidy for pianoforte, Haupt mann for counterpoint, Rietz and Reinecke for composition, and F. David for orchestral playing and conducting.
After two years' hard study he returned to London in April 1861 and at his instigation Schumann's first symphony was in troduced at one of the Crystal Palace winter concerts. The fol lowing year his own Tempest music was performed at the same concerts. Then followed his Kenilworth cantata (remembered chiefly for the charming duet, "How Sweet the Moonlight"), the Sapphire Necklace overture, and the five beautiful songs from Shakespeare, which include "Orpheus with his Lute," "Oh Mis tress Mine" and "The Willow Song." His attractive personality, combined with his undoubted genius and brilliant promise, brought him many friends. Costa, who was conductor at Covent Garden, gave him the post of organist, and in 1864 he produced there his L'Ile Enchantee ballet. Other works followed, and in 1867 he first showed his genius for light operatic music in his collaboration with F. C. Burnand in Cox and Box and in Contrabandista.
In 1871 Sullivan had become acquainted with W. S. Gilbert (q.v.), and in 1872 they collaborated in a piece for the Gaiety Theatre, called Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old, which was a great success in spite of the limited vocal resources of the per formers. In 1875 R. D'Oyly Carte, then acting as manager for Selina Dolaro at the Royalty, suggested to Gilbert collaboration with Sullivan in a piece for that theatre. Gilbert had already sug
gested to Sullivan an operetta with its scene in a law court, and within three weeks of his completing the libretto of Trial by Jury the music was written. The piece succeeded beyond all expecta tion; and on the strength of its promise of further successes D'Oyly Carte formed his Comedy Opera Company and took the Opera Comique Theatre. There in 1877 The Sorcerer was produced, George Grossmith and Rutland Barrington being in the cast. In 1878 H.M.S. Pinafore was brought out at the Opera Comique, and ran for 700 nights. In America it was enthusiastically re ceived and pirated right and left and the two authors, with D'Oyly Carte, went over to the States in 1879, with a company of their own, in order to produce it in New York. To secure the American rights for their next opera, they brought out The Pirates of Penzance first at New York in 1879. In 1880, in Lon don, it ran for nearly 400 nights. In 1881 Patience was produced at the Opera Comique, and was transferred later in the year to the Savoy Theatre. There all the following operas came out : lolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1884), The Mikado (1885), Rod digore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), The Gondoliers (1889). The vogue of the new type of light opera owed some thing to such admirable performers as George Grossmith, Rut land Barrington, Miss Jessie Bond, Miss Brandram, and later W. H. Denny and Walter Passmore; but these artistes only took advantage of the opportunities provided by the two authors. In place of the old adaptations of French opera bouffe they had sub stituted a genuinely English product, humorous and delightful, without a tinge of vulgarity or the commonplace. But disagree ments arose between them which caused a dissolution of partner ship. Sullivan's next Savoy opera, Haddon Hall (1892), had a libretto by Sydney Grundy; and the resumption of Gilbert's collaboration in 1893 in Utopia, Limited, and again in 1896 in The Grand Duke, was not as successful as before. Sullivan's music, however, still showed its characteristic qualities in The Chieftain (1894)—largely an adaptation of Contrabandista; The Beauty Stone (1898), with a libretto by A. W. Pinero and J. Comyns Carr; and particularly in The Rose of Persia (19oo), with Basil Hood.