One does not automatically think of Christmas when hearing the phrase “Gilbert & Sullivan” but in fact that celebrated English duo was active in writing words and music for Christmas entertainments in 19th-century London.
Sir W.S. Gilbert wrote pantomimes and short stories. One of the latter, “Maxwell and I” was about two men rushing to finish writing a panto which is to open on Christmas evening.
Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote music for Christmas carols such as “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “Upon the Snow-Clad Earth.
The first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration was Thespis: or The Gods Grown Old, a comic opera for the Christmas season commissioned by the Gaiety Theatre in 1871. The plot of this 2-act opera was the switching of roles of mortals and Roman gods on Olympus. The first performance was over-long, under-rehearsed and awkwardly performed; it ran an hour over time and was hissed by impatient viewers. The libretto has survived but not the score with which Sullivan was reportedly not happy anyway. One of the songs “Climbing over rocky mountain” was used again for The Pirates of Penzance”.
In 1879 a “Christmas version” of HMS Pinafore appeared at the Opera Comique in London with all parts played by children. G&S societies in the USA have staged “A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol” with Dickens story set to Sullivan’s music. Includes such songs as “Three little ghosts for Scrooge are we”.