Isaac Asimov has such a delightful wit that even his explanations of archaic terms are fun to read. When combined with W.S. Gilbert's hilarious librettos, it makes one entertaining read. Actually, it makes more than one entertaining read. i have read it several times and still enjoy it.

Writer Martin Gardner once told Isaac Asimov that if he really wanted to have fun, he should find a book he liked very much and annotate it. "Asimov's Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" is one of the results of that suggestion. This enormous volume contains the words to all the G&S operas, plus extensive notes explaining allusions and words that might be unfamiliar to today's listener. Asimov assumes minimal knowledge on the part of the reader, so this book is useful and entertaining not only for the veteran G&S aficionado but also for the neophyte.

The Benford Lexicon, now in a new edition, is simply put, an absolutely essential work for anyone who wishes to understand Gilbert and Sullivan. By using this book, the shellac of years of tradition can be stripped off of performances, and the true wit and beauty of Gilbert, as reflected in the Music of Sulivan, can shine through. It also is quite helpful to the audience member in understanding some of the clever, although now not fully topical, references in these works. (Capt. Shaw, Army-Navy Stores, Knightsbridge, Camberwell a Bower, Peckham an Arcadian Vale... and so forth..)

This book is the first place I turn to with any language question in the wonderful world of Gilbert & Sullivan. Mr. Benford writes clearly and consisely, with a delightful (and occasionally wince-inducing) wit. Highly recommended.

This is the most widley used book and not that expensive so Isuggest if you are in the show and don't have a huge part, (ie theChorus) to use this book. It is easy to read and has all of the samethings as most of the others, I just got done using it and was verypleased.

Probably the most popular printed score of The Mikado, this G. Schirmer edition has been used for years and years by hundreds of amateur and professional groups in presenting the opera. All the music is contained here for piano and voice. The piano part is NOT EASY; it very closely follows Sullivan's originals. I particulary enjoy reading along with it when I listen to a recording.

As a performer, the most important asset of a score is legibility and freedom from errors. This PV is superb in that it is very legible and corrects errors from prior PV's. It is also inexpensive enough that a performer need not fear guilty about writing in the margins or breaking the binding. While not a critical edition, it has everything that a performer would want in a PV, and I would unhesitatingly recommend it over ANY other PV presently on the market, even those which have been "authenticated".

The best friend you could have when performing this show. Newly revised and perfectly engraved, a must.

There is no critical showboating in "A Most Ingenious Paradox", just dead on, revelatory insights presented in a modest, straightforward voice. He really appears to have lived with each of the G & S operas, and got it in his bones. Very little overlap here with other G & S books, so even the most jaded Savoyard will find something fresh in this book.

In the past, when asked to name the minimal list of books essential to a full understanding and thereby appreciation of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, I would have cut it down to three. For a study of the social conditions behind Gilbert's satire, there is the long out of print "The World of Gilbert and Sullivan" by W.A. Darlington. For a fairly well balanced discussion of both the scripts and the music, there is "Gilbert & Sullivan Opera: a New Assessment" by Audrey Williamson, which passed into a second edition when I saw it last. Then there is the indispensable single volume edition of "The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" by Ian Bradley under the aegis of Oxford University Press.

Now from that same august publisher comes a volume I might seriously consider as a fourth: "A Most Ingenious Paradox" by Gayden Wren. Having worked most of his life in the theatre and specializing in Gilbert & Sullivan, Wren has come up with the thesis that "Beneath the surface charm of the Savoy operas...lies a powerful thematic core that makes their works effective to this day" (p. 4). Well, so it is with Shakespeare, Shaw, and even Rodgers & Hart. It is the examples offered up by Wren that affords so much surprise and delight.

The book is organized into fairly self-contained chapters.The first deals with "Gilbert before Sullivan," the second with "Sullivan before Gilbert." Then we have a chapter for each of the 14 works, followed by a chapter about their careers after "The Grand Duke" and a final one about their "Legacy." There follows an appendix with plot outlines, details about the original "Ruddygore" script and score, notes, an excellent critical bibliography, and index.

I think that directors will appreciate the emphasis Wren puts upon the seriousness that underlies some of the works, and not only "Yeomen of the Guard." For example, consider the scene just before the finale between Iolanthe and the Lord Chancellor in which things do become "life or death" and which could easily lead to an unhappy ending with no violence to what has gone before. Of course, the public expected a happy ending with G&S, but that was no reason they had to get one.

His remarks about "The Mikado," although confined to only 15 pages did make me suddenly aware of how Gilbert keeps tipping his hand all through by having the characters call attention to their being in a play: "Japanese don't use pocket-handkerchiefs," "the Japanese equivalent for Hear, hear, hear," "Virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances," and so on. I part company on him with him on some remarks about "Princess Ida," but his comparison between the opera and the Tennyson original is quite revealing. In general, I kept nodding and thinking about most of his conclusions with "Of course, I should have realized that years ago."

The style is friendly, the author taking it for granted, of course, that you know the plots of the operas fairly well to begin with. Yes, I think I might recommend this as the fourth essential book. But please give it a try and let me know what you think.

A little postscript would be in order here. Naxos is reissuing at budget prices the old "Martyn Green" G&S sets that used to be available on London and then Richmond mono LPs. Thus far they have added to their catalogue "The Mikado," "HMS Pinafore," "Pirates of Penzance/Trial by Jury," and just this month "The Gondoliers." Anyone intererested in the Wren book would certainly want to own these vintage recordings.

I have enjoyed Gilbert & Sullivan's plays since I was a little girl. I watched performances of their comic operas that my family taped off of public television, but I never knew much about the men who wrote these wonderfully entertaining operas. Just recently I had an opportunity to give a presentation on Gilbert and Sullivan's operas for a college course. This book was the first one I picked up and it turned out to be the only one I needed. This well-written book gives an entertaining account of the lives of these great men. The book also paints a vivid picture of what life and, more importantly, the theater were like when Gilbert & Sullivan began their collaboration. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Gilbert & Sullivan, Victorian life, or English theater.

this is a wonderful score, one ranking atop the mikado in my mind.(...)

This is just the best of several annotated G & S libretto collections that have been published over the years. It is actually a republication (with revisions) of two paperbacks by Bradley published some years earlier. They are listed as out of print, which they are, but that doesn't matter with this excellently produced single volume now available. Bradley doesn't have space to give us the last word on all aspects of the operas, but he is exhaustive on the texts, and no real G & S fan can afford not to have this on the shelf. The only other one to look for (it is out of print) is the volume by Martyn Green because his notes include a lot of valuable information about staging.

This is the only book for a true Gilbert and Sullivan fan, especially since it literally is the only complete collection of their works available today for purchase. Luckily, it's a good one: it includes all of their Savoy operettas as well as their lesser-known later works such as Utopia Ltd. The real jewels of the collection, however, remain their best operas: HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, The Sorcerer. This book is especially helpful because it contains all of the lyrics to all of the songs, and most CD recordings of the operas do not come with the lyrics (for many of the songs, it is impossible to catch all of the words simply by hearing them). Ian Bradley's notes, printed off to the side, are also interesting and help shed light on obscure words and phrases. Enjoy!

This contains all the Gilbert & Sullivan librettos (excepting Thespis, the only opera whose music has not survived), complete with exhaustive notes, anecdotes and text varients by enthusiastic fan and scholar Ian Bradley. I found Bradley's introductory essays on each of the operas especially informative and rewarding, and the convenient layout of the libretto-on-the-right,-notes-on-the-left is a perfect format for this project as it saves the reader the trouble of constant page-turning. Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke are given somewhat briefer treatment, but these operas have been performed far less than the others (though nowadays it seems inexplicable, and Utopia Limited is my second-favorite of the Canon). I only wish Thespis had been included, as well as some more information about the original casts. For example, I would like to know why George Grossmith did not appear in the Gondoliers. Anyway, this is probably the most complete treatment Gilbert and Sullivan are likely to receive for some time, and it is certainly one of the most enthralling.

I first read lives of the musicians when I was about 7 yearsold or so. Then, I thought it was terrific. I still do. However, I amnow 12 years old, and now that I have paid more attention to it, I see several faults, but overall it is still a very good book. First of all, their choice of musicians is not the best. I would have recommended Debussy and Schubert, like the Kirkus Reviewer. Some of the composers I have hardly ever heard of, like Igor Stravinsky or Nadia Boulanger. And while Clara Schumann was a great pianist, I think they should have focused more on her husband, Robert, a prolific composer, whose works are among the very best. Also, some of the parts of the biographies are questionable. Frederic Chopin may not have actually been romantically involved with Aurore Dudevant (George Sand), but in love with the Countess Delphine Potocka. The book states that the Waltz in D-Flat, or Minute Waltz, was written for George Sand's dog, when in fact it was probably written for Potocka. However, the book was still very well written, and I enjoyed it, despite the possible mistakes. I recommend this book to anyone who likes music, classical or not. So sit back and enjoy!

I loved this book because it made those musicians seem like real people instead of great-all-star-super-geniuses. It is full of strange little facts about all the famous musicians like Bach,Gershwin,Beethoven and Schmann.

---Megan W.

This book provides interesting insight into the lives of composers. I teach music to elementary and high school students and I read this book to all of my students. They all enjoy learning the details of the composers lives. The book presents the composers in such a way that the students remember the information about the composers. The book does not provide information about what the composers' music sounds like, and that is something I also like to teach. A great book to gain kids'interest in famous composers.