Willian Schwenk Gilbert and
Sir Arthur Sullivan, favoured composer and librettist of
Bart Simpson, as far as I can tell. Their earliest
collaboration of note is
Trial by Jury, which is significant as Gilbert was a
lawyer by training. Another early work was the
Sorcerer, about a second-rate
wizard in suburban
London. The
Mikado is one of their most famous works, inspired by a notable
Japanese exhibition, although Gilbert subsequently claimed that he had had the idea when a
samurai sword spontaneously dropped off his wall. Sullivan was always wanting to write a
Grand Opera, but when he did, it was a flop, and
Queen Victoria much preferred his more humorous works anyway. The operas are known as the
Savoy operas, due to their production at the
Savoy Theatre, in the
Strand, or the
D'Oyly Carte operas, after the producer. The last collaboration was the unsuccessful
the Grand Duke, about a man who is declared legally dead.