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
Arthur Sullivan Sullivan. "The Martyr of Antioch" was first performed in October 1880. A grateful Sullivan presented his collaborator with an engraved silver cup inscribed "W.S. Gilbert from his friend Arthur Sullivan." Sullivan was not a showy conductor, and some thought him dull and old-fashioned on the podium, but his composition had an enthusiastic reception and was frequently revived. Besides his festival and other conducting appointments, Sullivan invariably conducted the opening nights of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Carte opened the next Gilbert and Sullivan piece, "Patience", in April 1881 at London's Opera Comique, where their past three operas had played. In