4 - The incorporation of business

Summary

On the evening of Saturday 7 October 1893 a distinguished and expectant audience gathered in the Savoy Theatre for the premiere of a new light opera penned by the redoubtable team of W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. This creative duo were at the height of their fame: their immediately previous collaboration, The Gondoliers, had run to universal acclaim for 554 consecutive performances, and Queen Victoria had requested a special performance for herself and her court at Windsor Castle. Yet despite this appreciation from the heart of the British establishment, there was always a satirical edge to Gilbert and Sullivan productions. Gilbert, the librettist, had already directed his rapacious wit at a range of British institutions including the legal system (Trial by Jury, 1875), the aristocracy (Iolanthe, 1882) and the snobbery of the class system (The Gondoliers, 1889). In this new production, Utopia (Limited), or the Flowers of Progress, his target was the limited liability joint stock company. The plot, absurd as always, centred on the imaginary Pacific island of Utopia where the King, in pursuit of all things modish and English, decides to follow contemporary business fashion and convert every one of his citizens into a limited liability company. The audience loved it. The Times judged this new production a great success; George Bernard Shaw, then music critic of The World, thought it the most enjoyable of all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.