Gilbert and Sullivan or "entertainments", for Thomas German Reed. At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, "Ages Ago", in 1870, the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, the young composer Arthur Sullivan. Over the next year, before the two first collaborated, Gilbert continued to write humorous verse, stories and plays, including the comic operas "Our Island Home" (1870) and "A Sensation Novel" (1871), and the blank verse comedies "The Princess" (1870), "The Palace of Truth" (1870) and "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871). Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842. His father was a military bandmaster, and by the time
Fred Sullivan Fred Sullivan Frederic Sullivan ( – ) was an English actor and singer. He is best remembered as the creator of the role of the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury", providing a model for the comic roles in the later Savoy Operas composed by his brother Arthur Sullivan. By 1870, Sullivan had abandoned architecture for a career on stage. In 1871, he first performed the role of Mr. Cox in a revival of his brother's first comic opera, "Cox and Box", and later that year created the role of Apollo in the first Gilbert and Sullivan