William Schwenck Gilbert was born in London on November 18, 1836, to William Gilbert, a retired naval surgeon, and his wife Anne. The Gilberts would add three younger girls to the brood: Jane, Maud and Florence. His parents were cold and distant, with prickly characters. Stern and unyielding, they did not show affection for their son, who absorbed their inflexibility and emotional frigidity. His parents' relationship was strained, and they separated in 1876. Gilbert cared more for his father than his mother, but his biographers are mute on his feelings towards his father's death, or indeed, about his relations with his parents at all . Gilbert remained detached from life, regarding its triumphs and defeats with a reserve, a sense of atomization likely inherited from his parents. Young William spent his formative years touring Europe with his parents before they returned to London in 1847. He was sent to the Great Ealing School and completed his education at King's College, London. He did not go on to Oxford as he was determined to join the Army to fight in Crimea. He failed to obtain a commission, and turned his attention towards making a career as a government clerk and barrister in the years 1857-66. His interest in the theater seems to have come to him at an early age. Circa 1861, he began making submissions of prose, verse and drawings to the comic magazine "Fun," writing "The Bab Ballads" for the wag rag. He turned to playwriting, and his first legitimate production, "Uncle Baby," debuted at London's Royal Lyceum Theatre ion the October 31, 1863. The play ran seven weeks, but he was not produced again until 1866, when his pantomime "Hush-a-Bye Baby" and his besque that dominated the theater. He became a theatrical director in this period, and began directing his own plays so as to exert artistic control over them and fully realize their potential. In 1867, he directed the Liverpool production of "La Vivandiere" and the London production of "Thespis" in 1871, a year that saw six other Gilbert productions on the boards. As a director, he aimed to introduce subtlety into the English theater. "Thespis," though not a hit, is significant in that it is his first collaboration with 'Arthur Sullivan , which hit the boards four months before his death. "The Hooligan" represented a departure for Gilbert into serious drama, and might have been the direction his career would have taken had he lived. Sir William S. Gilbert died on of May 29, 1911, while teaching two young women how to swim in his lake at Grim's Dyke. One the women, out of her depth, called out for help and Gilbert tried to rescue her. Accounts are conflicting, and he died of heart failure either in the middle of the lake during the attempted rescue or shortly thereafter. One of his epigrams could serve as his epitaph, tongue-in-cheek: "Did nothing in particular, and did it very well."
Contemporary reports state he drowned as a result of heart failure.
Long time collaborator with Arthur Sullivan.
Died attemting to save a drowning woman
Further investigation in the exact cause of WSGs death leads to confusion, not clarity. Andrew Crowther wrote in "The Life of W. S. Gilbert" that Gilbert "was giving swimming lessons to two young women in his lake at Grims Dyke, when one of the women, getting out of her depth, as she thought, called out for help. Gilbert dived in to help her, but died of heart failure in the middle of the lake." The Kings College London Gilbert & Sullivan Society says otherwise: "Aged 75, he rescued a young girl from drowning on his estate. He died hours later of heart failure." X. J. Kennedys review of Jane W. Stedmans monograph, "W. S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and His Theatre", mentions only in passing (well, it IS only a book review) "Gilberts untimely death by drowning while trying to rescue a screaming but not really endangered teenage girl." The Potted History website plays its cards close to its chest, saying, rather coyly, "Sir William Gilbert dies on May 29th while trying to save to a young girl from drowning." Perhaps the most convincing account is the undramatic report to be found in a "Newspaper News Item: London May 30th", also found at Potted History. The journalist wrote: "Death occurred from heart failure while bathing. Sir W.S. Gilbert, who had spent the day in London, returned to Harrowweald in the afternoon. A few minutes later friends found him lying dead in an open-air swimming bath in the grounds of his house, Grimsdyke, where he was teaching two children to swim." Two women, or two children, or teenagers? It sounds rather a boisterous afternoon. Gilbert would have appreciated our Heisenbergian uncertainty about where he was, and when, and in what condition, these puzzles having left him rather in the same state of uncertainty as Schroedingers Cat!
H.M.S. Pinafore performed at the Savoy Theatre was nominated for Outstanding Musical Production in 2001 (2000 season) at the Laurence Oliiver Theatre Awards.
H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado both performed at the Savoy Theatre was nominated for Outstanding Musical Production in 2001 (2000 season) at the Laurence Oliiver Theatre Awards.
In 2000, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado were performed at the Savoy in original format. In 2000,The Pirates of Penzeance had a new version by Joseph Papp which was presented on Broadway by the New York Shakespeare Festival and in London.
H.M.S. Pinafore was nominated for Outstanding Musical Production in 2001 (2000 season) at the Laurence Oliiver Theatre Awards.
In 2000, three Gilbert & Sullivan musical productions, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Pirates of Penzeance were all nominated for Outstanding Musical Production in 2001 at the Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards.
Was trained in the law; this training flavored many Gilbert & Sullivan works.
Arthur Sullivan and his musical, "The Pirates of Penzance," was nominated for the 2011 Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Musical.
Arthur Sullivan and his musical, "The Pirates of Penzance," at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2012 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Large Musical Production.
His musical, "The Mikado" at The Hypocrites Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for the 2013 Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production.
Arthur Sullivan and his musical, "Hot Mikado" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 1993 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Musical Production.
I am an acquired taste.
Oh, dry the glistening tear that dues that marshal cheekThy loving childern here in them thy comfort seek With sympathetic care their arms around the creep, For oh they can not bear to see their father weep,And the next day the gondolier came with a train of other gondoliers, all decked in their holiday garb, and on his gondola sat Angela, happy, and blushing at her happiness. Then he and she entered the house in which I dwelt, and came into my room (and it was strange indeed, after so many years of inversion, to see her with her head above her feet!), and then she wished me happiness and a speedy restoration to good health (which could never be); and I in broken words and with tears in my eyes, gave her the little silver crucifix that had stood by my bed or my table for so many years. And Angela took it reverently, and crossed herself, and kissed it, and so departed with her delighted husband. And as I heard the song of the gondoliers as they went their way--the song dying away in the distance as the shadows of the sundown closed around me--I felt that they were singing the requiem of the only love that had ever entered my heart.
Crushed again!.
