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
Gilbert and Sullivan never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in "The Pirates of Penzance", and the Act II ballet music. Over the next three years, Gilbert and Sullivan did not have occasion to work together again, but each man became more eminent in his field. Gilbert worked with Frederic Clay on "Happy Arcadia" (1872) and with Alfred Cellier on "Topsyturveydom" (1874), and wrote "The Wicked World" (1873) "Sweethearts" (1874) and several other libretti, farces, extravaganzas, fairy comedies, dramas and adaptations. Sullivan completed his "Festival Te Deum" (1872); another oratorio, "The