Gilbert and Sullivan well, and on 13 May 1883, at a party to celebrate the composer's 41st birthday, the guests, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), heard a direct relay of parts of "Iolanthe" from the Savoy. This was probably the first live "broadcast" of an opera. During the run of "Iolanthe", in 1883, Sullivan was knighted by Queen Victoria. Although it was the operas with Gilbert that had earned him the broadest fame, the honour was conferred for his services to serious music. The musical establishment, and many critics, believed that this should put an end to his career as
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