Gilbert and Sullivan for All productions of the operas, throughout Britain and made several world tours to North America, Australasia, and the Far East. By 1963, Round had left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and, together with Adams and Meadmore (a former director of D'Oyly Carte), formed the group. Gilbert and Sullivan for All, usually composed of five or six singers and a pianist, would perform on nights when D'Oyly Carte was playing "The Gondoliers", since Adams was not engaged by D'Oyly Carte to play in that opera. In the early years, the pianist was often the former D'Oyly Carte assistant musical director, William Cox-Ife.
Gilbert and Sullivan a composer of comic opera—that a musical knight should not stoop below oratorio or grand opera. Sullivan, despite the financial security of writing for the Savoy, increasingly viewed his work with Gilbert as unimportant, beneath his skills, and repetitious. Furthermore, he was unhappy that he had to simplify his music to ensure that Gilbert's words could be heard. But paradoxically, in February 1883, just after "Iolanthe" opened, Sullivan had signed a five-year agreement with Gilbert and Carte requiring him to produce a new comic opera on six months' notice. "Princess Ida" (1884) spoofed women's education and male chauvinism and continued