Tip: To sound ultra-smart and cultured at all the right parties, use the term "Savoy opera" when you mean "Gilbert & Sullivan." For instance, when arriving in an unfamiliar city while on vacation, ask locals "Do you have a company in town that specializes in Savoy opera?" Then if they stare at you blankly, say, "Oh, you know... Gilbert & Sullivan and the like." Then if they keep staring at you blankly, say, "Oh, never mind..."
The 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 seminal influences on the creation of the modern musical.
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