Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack, is one of the earliest plays written by W.S. Gilbert, his first solo stage success. The work is a musical burlesque of Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore", and the music was arranged by Mr. Van Hamme. It opened at the St James's Theatre on 29 December 1866, the last item in a long evening, following a farce and Dion Boucicault's new play "Hunted Down". "Dulcamara" ran for a successful 120 nights. The popularity of the piece encouraged further commissions for opera burlesques from Gilbert,
Pygmalion and Galatea (play) have earned him £40,000 during his lifetime. "Pygmalion and Galatea" was so popular that other Pygmalions were rushed to the stage. In January 1872, "Ganymede and Galatea" opened at the Gaiety Theatre. This was a comic version of Franz von Suppé's "Die schöne Galathee", coincidentally with Arthur Sullivan's brother, Fred Sullivan, in the cast. In March 1872, William Brough's "Pygmalion; or, The Statue Fair" was revived, and in May of that year, a visiting French company produced Victor Massé's "Galathée". Gilbert created several blank verse "fairy comedies" at the Haymarket Theatre for John Baldwin Buckstone and starring William Hunter Kendal