Savoy opera

Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later, those by other composer–librettist teams. The great bulk of the non-G&S; Savoy Operas either failed to achieve a foothold in the standard repertory, or have faded over the years, leaving the term "Savoy Opera" as practically synonymous with Gilbert and Sullivan. The Savoy operas (in both senses) were one of the seminal influences on the creation of the modern musical. Gilbert, Sullivan, Carte, and other Victorian era British composers, librettists and producers, as well as the contemporary British press and literature, called works of this kind 'comic operas' to distinguish their content and style from that of the continental European operetta that they... full article at wikipedia