By Hal Kanthor, M.D.
I first discovered the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas as a teenager, after seeing a high school production of The Pirates of Penzance. I was so impressed that I began reading the librettos and listening to recordings of their other operas. Recognizing an affinity for Gilbert’s wit, I quickly formed a small reference library of Gilbertiana. As my library grew, it dawned on me that I had stumbled into full collecting mode, and this has occupied me ever since. My focus has been primarily on nineteenth century material: librettos, programs, autograph letters and manuscripts, theatrical souvenirs, photographs, advertising material, and posters.
Posters printed for productions of the fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas are of interest not only for better understanding the theatrical history and evolution of these productions, but also for the diversity of their graphic designs. While nineteenth century posters have sparked the greatest interest among collectors, modern posters also show great appeal and perhaps even greater creativity of design. Recently I donated my collection of over 300 twentieth-century and later posters to the University of Rochester Library for their Special Collections. Here are a few of my favorites.
Fig. 1. Many Gilbert and Sullivan fans consider Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri, with its band of fairies sparring with the House of Peers, to be their favorite of the operas. Werner Klemke was commissioned by the Kormische Oper (Berlin) to design the poster and program for their 1984 production. Born in Berlin, Klemke was a self-taught artist. After being drafted into the Nazi army, he forged identity papers for Dutch Jews as part of the resistance movement. He was appointed Professor of Illustration at the University of Fine Arts in East Berlin in 1956 and is known for his illustrations for childrens’ books, novels and magazines. Like many of Klemke’s illustrations, those for the Berlin poster and program manage to be both innocent and titillating.
Fig. 2. Edward Gorey designed the poster for the 1983 production of The Mikado at Carnegie-Mellon University. How a student production obtained the services of a major artist to design the poster, costumes and scenery for this production intrigued me and I contacted the University to learn more. Although no records existed, conjecture was that a visiting professor at the University who had previously worked with Gorey managed to talk him into this project.
Fig. 3. Rex May designed the poster for the 1961 production of The Gondoliers by the San Francisco Lamplighters Company. May was a cartoonist and graphic designer who also designed dazzling color posters for the company’sproductions. This poster shows May’s brilliant incorporation of gondolas into the gondoliers’ mustaches.
Figs. 4-6. The lesser known Ruddigore, or The Witch’s Curse is Gilbert’s parody of melodrama and features ghostly events. The poster (Fig. 4) designed for the 2020 production by the Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company (Minneapolis) cleverly evokes advertisements for horror movies of the 1950’s. This company has produced several outstanding posters, especially the art deco-inspired design for the 1986 Pirates of Penzance (Fig. 5) and that of the 2015 H.M.S. Pinafore (Fig. 6) which is based on a painting by Rowland Hilder suggesting the wartime setting of the production.
Fig. 7. The striking poster for Chicago Lyric Opera’s 1983 The Mikado was designed early in the career of the prolific artist, David Csicsko. The production, under the direction of Peter Sellars, presented a modern corporate Japan, with the Mikado entering in a Japanese sports car.
Fig. 8. In 2019, the North Toronto Players presented their take on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, or The King of Baritaria, the last opera before the rupture of the G&S partnership. Their Elvis-inspired adaptation was titled “The Gondoliers or The King of Rock and Roll.” The poster shows Elvis launching a gondola.
Fig. 9. This expressionist poster for The Mikado was designed by Max Schwarzer for the 1913 production at the Munich Kunstler-Theater. Schwarzer was a German commercial artist and illustrator, known for his bold designs. He was one of six artists known as “Die Sechs,” who banded together to compete against a monopoly of European advertising.
As a collector, I am intrigued by the diversity of graphic designs for the same Gilbert and Sullivan opera as conceived by different artists, and it has been an interesting exercise to choose among the posters in my collection for this article. These modern posters show artistry, originality and wit, and are desirable additions for my collection. As ephemeral objects, many of these posters have been lost to our view, and, with the advent of digitization, the printing of hard copy posters may soon become a thing of the past.
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Modified versions of this article were published in the Spring 2024 issue of Gilbert and Sullivan News (London) and the March 2025 issue of Endpapers, the newsletter of the Delaware Bibliophiles
Hal Kanthor is a member of the Delaware Bibliophiles and resides in Rochester NY. He is a retired pediatrician and Emeritus Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He is in the process of transferring his collection to the University of Rochester Library for their Special Collections. An online exhibition of his collection can be found at https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/exhibits/show/gilbert-sullivan
