Utopia, Ltd.: English Language Edition, Vocal Score

by W.S. Gilbert (Composer)

Utopia Limited is the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations. Gilbert's libretto satirises limited liability companies, and particularly the idea that a bankrupt company could leave creditors unpaid without any liability to its owners. It performed much less frequently than most other G&S operas, mainly because the subject-matter and plot are too obscure for modern audiences.

Genres: Humor

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

British playwright and lyricist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert wrote a series of comic operas, including Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. This English dramatist, librettist, poet, and illustrator in collaboration with this composer produced fourteen comic operas, which include The Mikado , one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre. Opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups throughout and beyond the English-speaking world continue to perform regularly these operas as well as most of their other Savoy operas. From these works, lines, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!", and "Let the punishment fit the crime," form common phrases of the English language.

Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads , an extensive collection of light verse, which his own comical drawings accompany.

His creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , the "lyrical facility" of Gilbert "and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since."

Reviews

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The downward slide of Gilbert and Sullivan continues with an unnecessary and forced semi-sequel to HMS Pinafore. Here, there is too much going on at once to truly pin down what is and isn't relevant- characters with subplots that never resolve, plots that are plotted and then never carried out or mentioned again, recurring characters that simply don't fit into the show they're in, and a strange fascination with dynamite that carries over into their next and final show. Though intended to be an up-to-date satire, and bringing in elements of modern musical theatre and minstrel shows that were then more relevant than straight operetta, "Utopia Limited" only finds Gilbert and Sullivan showing themselves threadbare towards the end of their partnership.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the most least produced of the G & S operettas and did not do as well as the others. In many ways I feel that it has not aged well and would have to be cleverly produced to work in today's post-colonial world as it could feel like it celebrates British imperialism. Set in the South Pacific kingdom of Utopia, the king's daughter, Zara, returns from England where she has been to school. It is their desire for Utopia to become British and for Utopians to take on British customs and the English language, resulting in the kingdom becoming a limited company. Of course the opera pokes fun at all of this. I watched a version from 2011 and really enjoyed the music as well.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read on my Kindle as part of The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan and watched video from YouTube (although not quite simultaneously as the production had significant deviations from the original text).

I felt that although the concept was funny, the execution was only so-so. The details of this operetta are more dated than in many of the others. I read a lot of Victorian British authors so I could follow many of the references but I think this could be successfully modernized (something similar to the Steve Martin movie "Roxanne" update of the Rostand play).