Sullivan’s reputation grew steadily, helped by the grand Festival Te Deum, written to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid in 1872 and the following year’s massive oratorio The Light of the World. He first worked with W.S. Gilbert in 1871 on a Christmas pantomime, Thespis, which, although successful, did not lead anywhere. Sullivan and Gilbert were re-united in 1875 by Richard D’Oyly Carte for Trial by Jury, a one-act operetta which led to a more-or-less annual sequence of full-length pieces between 1877 and 1889. H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Iolanthe (1882), The Mikado (1885), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888) and The Gondoliers (1889) have proved to be the most enduringly popular.

In the meantime, Sullivan cemented his position as the country’s premier musician with the conductorship of the Leeds Musical Festival for whom he also wrote two major choral works,
The Martyr of Antioch (1880) and The Golden Legend (1886). He was knighted in 1883.

In 1891 his most ambitious work, the three-act romantic opera Ivanhoe, achieved the unprecedented success of a continuous run of 155 performances. A rift with Gilbert in 1890 led to collaborations with several other librettists during the ’90s.

Towards the end of his life Sullivan had success with Victoria and Merrie England, a ballet for the Queen’s diamond jubilee and The Absent-minded Beggar, a song for the Boer War wives and children’s fund. He wrote a successful operetta, The Rose of Persia, to a libretto by Basil Hood and was working on a second Hood collaboration when he died on November 22, 1900.

Gilbert’s early ambition was for a legal career, and a legacy in 1861 enabled him to leave the civil service to pursue it. He was called to the bar in November 1863. In 1861, however, he had begun to contribute comic verse to Fun, illustrated by himself and signed “Bab.” These pieces were later collected as The Bab Ballads (1869), followed by More Bab Ballads (1873); the two collections, containing the germ of many of the later operas, were united in a volume with Songs of a Savoyard(1898).
Gilbert’s dramatic career began when a playwright, Thomas William Robertson, recommended him as someone who could produce a bright Christmas piece in only two weeks. Gilbert promptly wrote Dulcamara; or, The Little Duck and the Great Quack, a commercial success, and other commissions followed.

In 1870 Gilbert met Sullivan, and they started working together the following year. Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old (first performance 1871) and Trial by Jury (1875), a brilliant one-act piece, were followed by four productions staged by Richard D’Oyly Carte: The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore(1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879, New York; 1880, London), and Patience; or, Bunthorne’s Bride(1881). Carte built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 for productions of the partners’ work, and their works collectively became known as the “Savoy Operas”; they included Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri(1882), Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant (1884), The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu (1885), Ruddigore; or, The Witch’s Curse (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), and The Gondoliers (1889). By this time, however, relations between the partners had become strained, partly because Sullivan aimed higher than comic opera and because Gilbert was plagued by a jealous and petty nature when it came to financial matters. A rupture occurred, and the two were estranged until 1893, when they again collaborated, producing Utopia Limited and later The Grand Duke (1896).

Gilbert wrote several popular burlesques for the dramatic stage: Sweethearts (1874), Engaged (1877), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (1891). He also created librettos for other composers; the music for his last opera, Fallen Fairies; or, The Wicked World (1909), was by Edward German. His last play, The Hooligan, was performed in 1911. Gilbert, who was knighted in 1907, died of a heart attack brought on by rescuing a woman from drowning in a lake on his country estate.

Notable commercial projects include productions of Salome for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera, and Opera Montreal; Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for The Shakespeare Theater; the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China, as well as Street Scene, Daughter of the Regiment, and The Pirates of Penzance at Opera Theater of Saint Louis. Choreography credits include New York City Opera productions of L’Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons’ production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It; and the Metropolitan Opera production of Romeo and Juliette. Curran’s work has also appeared on Broadway in James Joyce’s The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater.

Irish American Magazine selected Curran as one of its “Top 100.” He has been awarded several Choreographer’s Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Seán Curran Company is a proud grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts. Happiest when making new work, Seán Curran hopes to continue to be an ambassador for the art of dance by building and educating the dance audiences of tomorrow.