THEIR LIFE STORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

THEIR LIFE STORY

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN The story of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan is told by Mr. Hesketh Pearson in a manner which should ensure for the book a wide circle of readers. The author has not attempted anything in the way of an authoritative life—there are already official lives of both Gilbert and Sullivan —nor has he dealt with the operas as such. The story which he has to tell is well known; that of two men, completely different in temperament, who collaborated to produce a series of comic operas which are one of the glories of the Englisli theatre and which confer immortality upon their creators. "The two," says Mr. Pearson, "were radically dissimilar in upbringing, outlook and temperament; their characters wore antipathetic and complementary. Friendship between them was out of the question from the start, though if Sullivan had been a woman they would have made a most successful marriage. A union of hearts being impossible, the alternative was a union of arts, and the result was the most successful marriage in history." Yet each thought poorly of his work with the other. Gilbert wished to be remembered by his plays and Sullivan by his grand opera. To-day Gilbert's plays are unknown except to the few and it is the music of theSSavor3 r Operas which is played the world over and not that of "Ivanhoe."

The only new information which the book contains is a reference to a letter which Carte wrote to Gilbert at the time of the famous quarrel and which helps to explain Gilbert's subsequent conduct. Gilbert had written stating that he should have been consulted before the carpets were bought. "Carte's reply," says Mr. Pearson, " was so extraordinary that we can only assume that he meant to enrage Gilbert. lie said that both Sullivan and himself were tired of the perpetual interference of Gilbert in matters that did not concern him, and that if this kind of thing continued he and Sullivan would have to look for another librettist." The author gives as his authority for the letter "Mr. Jack Robertson, an Old Savoyard, to whom Gilbert showed it at Grim's Dvke." The details of the quarrel matter little to-day. There are, nevertheless, many lovers of the operas who are eager to learn something of the personalities and lives of the men who created them. Mr. Pearson's book is admirably suited to meet this demand. "Gilbert and Sullivan: A Biography," by FTeskelh Pearson. (Hamish Hamilton.)