Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert was questioning his good faith, and in any event, Sullivan had other reasons to stay in Carte's good graces: Carte was building a new theatre, the Royal English Opera House, to produce Sullivan's only grand opera, "Ivanhoe". Gilbert brought suit, and after "The Gondoliers" closed in 1891, he withdrew the performance rights to his libretti, vowing to write no more operas for the Savoy. Gilbert next wrote "The Mountebanks" with Alfred Cellier and the flop "Haste to the Wedding" with George Grossmith, and Sullivan wrote "Haddon Hall" with Sydney Grundy. Gilbert eventually won the lawsuit, but his actions and
Gilbert and Sullivan the composer for his successful oratorio, "The Golden Legend", considered the score to "Yeomen" to be Sullivan's finest, including its overture, which was written in sonata form, rather than as a sequential pot-pourri of tunes from the opera, as in most of his other overtures. The "Daily Telegraph" wrote: "Yeomen" was a hit, running for over a year, with strong New York and touring productions. During the run, on 12 March 1889, Sullivan wrote to Gilbert, Sullivan insisted that the next opera must be a grand opera. Gilbert did not feel that he could write a grand opera libretto, but