ABSTRACT
The words and music of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas made reference to a huge variety of pre-existing sources. The practice almost certainly derives from their origins in a form of Victorian theatre known as burlesque, parodic re-workings of specific operas or plays that relied on a continuous stream of quotations and allusions. We are no longer able to identify many of these sources, owing in part to the ever-increasing temporal distance, but also due to the fact that the repertoires in question have often been considered unworthy of serious academic study.
With a connection to burlesque established, this chapter charts a small selection of Sullivan's musical references to domestic and religious repertoires alongside the more commonly cited references to operas. It also attempts to address the much more direct question of why Gilbert and Sullivan included quotations at all, suggesting that the listener recognition was both intentional and had important implications for the class identity of the Savoy audience. The chapter concludes with a call for serious and wide-ranging investigations into quotation practices more generally, treated as part of a composer's achievement rather than a shameful secret to be hidden.
