"The Gondoliers" was preceded by the most serious of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations, "The Yeomen of the Guard". On 9 January 1889, three months into that opera's fourteen-month run, Sullivan informed the librettist that he "wanted to do some dramatic work on a larger musical scale", that he "wished to get rid of the "strongly marked rhythm", and "rhymed" couplets, and have words that would have a chance of developing "musical effects"." Gilbert counselled strongly that the partnership should continue on its former course: