Today is the birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). Sullivan, of course, is best known as one half of the evergreen partnership, with Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, of Gilbert & Sullivan, creators of the successful series of still frequently performed, emulated, and parodied comic operas. Of course, Sullivan wrote much else besides, often chafing at being hitched to Gilbert and the obligations of Savoy opera (though admittedly lucrative), which he felt limited him as a serious composer.

I’ve long known about the cylinder of Sullivan speaking at a dinner party in 1888 (on which he makes some perspicacious remarks about the future of recorded music), but there is plenty else here that is new to me – 17 minutes of astonishing recordings and footage from Sullivan’s world. As someone points out in the comments section, the dinner party took place only five days after the double murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes by Jack the Ripper.

Documents like these really make history come alive. People born in this era still walked the earth when I was a boy.

Caricature of Sullivan, with impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte and William S. Gilbert