Gilbert and Sullivan place a piece like this on the stage in so complete a fashion." The opera enjoyed a run longer than any of their other joint works except for "H.M.S. Pinafore", "Patience" and "The Mikado". There was a command performance of "The Gondoliers" for Queen Victoria and the royal family at Windsor Castle in 1891, the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera to be so honoured. "The Gondoliers" was Gilbert and Sullivan's last great success. Gilbert and Sullivan sometimes had a strained working relationship, partly caused by the fact that each man saw himself as allowing his work to be subjugated to
Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens is a 1910 fresco by Henry Payne. It was commissioned in 1908 to decorate the Palace of Westminster. It depicts the fictional scene by Shakespeare, of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset being challenged by Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York to choose between the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. A gouache painting by Payne, "Choosing The Red and White Roses in the Temple Garden" is in the collection of the Birmingham