For true Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados, this award‐winning archive is a delight. This comprehensive Web site has just about everything relating to Gilbert and Sullivan, from librettos to clip art to music files. The authors have combined original material with links to external sources.
With one graphic on the main page, the site’s look is very neat. A table of contents is provided for easy navigation. By scrolling down the main page, users can see all of the items listed in the table of contents along with subdivisions. Those individuals just interested in the operas can locate them within a box containing links to information on all fourteen. Under each opera title link, readers can find a short synopsis, a libretto, music files, reviews, and, in some cases, clip art related to the opera.
There is a “What’s New” section as well as many subheadings for specific topics such as “The D’Oyly Carte Family and Opera Company” and “Books, Newsletters, and Articles.” A helpful feature of this latter section is that when new information is added, the date of entry is posted, so that users can tell how recent the addition is or whether they have already viewed the links. There is also a “What’s Hot” section, consisting of the most popular links all on one page.
Other sections include titles such as “Pictures,” “Events,” and “Performing Groups and Societies.” Under the “Miscellaneous” section, readers can find some fun things. For example, there is a link to an external site called “Lists of things and people in the works of Gilbert & Sullivan,” or “A Lotta Little Lists.” This contains lists of colours in the various operas, beverages, fathers and sons, and so on. These are great for trivia games. My favorite section is the Parodies archive, where people have contributed parodies of all the famous patter songs. Apart from all the Gilbert and Sullivan files, there are separate sections for each of the pair, with links to sites pertaining to the life of Gilbert without Sullivan and vice versa. Gilbert had created other stage works without Sullivan’s collaboration, and Sullivan wrote a lot of music without Gilbert, such as other operas, cantatas, and sacred oratorios.
The music files can be found in a mixture of MIDI, MPEG, and RealAudio formats. Some of the MPEG files are from actual historical recordings. There are also historic photographs of some of the early stars and other key people in Gilbert and Sullivan history. One article gives the history and background of the famous “carpet quarrel” which caused the breakup of the famous pair.
This Web site is very easy to navigate; it is easy to use the table of contents, do a simple browse, or search by section title. Many resources that would normally be hard to find are all here in one place. This site is highly recommended for both Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts and serious researchers.
