Talk:Arthur Sullivan
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| A note on terminology Gilbert, Sullivan, Carte and other Victorian era British composers and librettists, as well as the contemporary British press and literature, called works of the sort that Gilbert and Sullivan produced "comic operas" to distinguish them from the continental European operettas that they wished to displace. Most of the specialist literature on Gilbert and Sullivan since that time has referred to these works as "operas" (e.g., Jacobs, Preface), though some later general books on music prefer "operetta". For a discussion of this, see Kuykendall, James Brooks. "Recitative in the Savoy Operas", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 95, Issue 4, pp. 549–612. The Gilbert and Sullivan WikiProject has used the term "opera" consistently throughout the G&S-related articles within its scope. |
WP:DISINFOBOX
Per WP:INFOBOX, "The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article. Whether to include an infobox, which infobox to include, and which parts of the infobox to use, is determined through discussion and consensus among the editors at each individual article." While sports and politician bios can benefit from infoboxes, most articles in liberal arts fields do not: "Infoboxes may be particularly unsuited to liberal arts fields when they repeat information already available in the lead section of the article, are misleading or oversimplify the topic for the reader". I disagree with including an infobox in the articles that you templated because: (1) The box would emphasize unimportant factoids stripped of context and lacking nuance, in competition with the WP:LEAD section, which emphasizes and contextualizes the most important facts. (2) Since the most important points in the article are already discussed in the Lead, or adequately discussed in the body of the article, the box would be redundant. (3) It would take up valuable space at the top of the article and hamper the layout and impact of the Lead. (4) Frequent errors creep into infoboxes, as updates are made to the articles but not reflected in the redundant info in the box, and they tend to draw more vandalism and fancruft than other parts of articles. (5) The infobox template creates a block of code at the top of the edit screen that discourages new editors from editing the article. (6) It would discourage readers from reading the text of the article. (7) IBs distract editors from focusing on the content of the article. Instead of improving the article, they spend time working on this repetitive feature and its coding and formatting. See also WP:DISINFOBOX. In addition throughout the articles within the scope of WikiProject G&S, the consensus has been not to have infoboxes, so adding an infobox would degrade the consistency of design throughout these articles. -- Ssilvers (talk) 03:16, 25 May 2017 (UTC)
Lead picture
The lead picture has long been

This picture, seen later in the article

was briefly also added to the lead. I think it inappropriate for the lead, as it dates from 1870 – before Sullivan was well known and before the works for which he is well known were composed. In my view restoring the later image to the lead was the correct course. Tim riley talk 11:32, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
Featured picture scheduled for POTD
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:H.J. Whitlock - Photograph of Arthur Sullivan.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for December 28, 2024. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2024-12-28. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru (talk) 12:34, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
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Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) was an English composer best known for his operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert. Among his early works were a ballet, a symphony, a cello concerto and a one-act comic opera, Cox and Box, which is still widely performed. He wrote his first opera with Gilbert, Thespis, in 1871. The impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte engaged Gilbert and Sullivan to create a one-act piece, Trial by Jury, in 1875. Its box-office success led the partners to collaborate on twelve full-length comic operas, known as the Savoy operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Sullivan's only grand opera, Ivanhoe, though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. His works include twenty-four operas, eleven major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". This carte de visite of Sullivan was taken around 1870 by the English photographer H. J. Whitlock. Photograph credit: H. J. Whitlock; restored by Adam Cuerden
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Dates
@Ssilvers: Why? There doesn't seem to be any special contextual relevance. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:22, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
- Since we are currently having this discussion at the Talk: Jacques Offenbach page, can we concentrate on the discussion there, and whatever decision is reached, I think, should satisfactorily cover both subjects, OK? -- Ssilvers (talk) 04:04, 27 September 2025 (UTC)


