A Sensation Novel
Music by Thomas German Reed · libretto by W. S. Gilbert · premiered 1871
A Sensation Novel is a comic musical play in three acts (or volumes) written by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, with music composed by Thomas German Reed. It was first performed on 31 January 1871 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. Only four of German Reed's songs survive. Nearly 25 years later, the music was rewritten and published by Florian Pascal (Joseph Williams, Jr). The story concerns an author suffering from writer's block who finds that the characters in his novel are dissatisfied. The piece satirises the sensation novels popular as pulp detective fiction in the Victorian era. Later in his career, when Gilbert wrote the famous series of Savoy operas with Arthur Sullivan, he reused elements of A Sensation Novel in their opera Ruddigore.
Text from the Wikipedia article "A Sensation Novel", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Thomas German Reed is the composer of record for this opera.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Thomas German Reed", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Thomas German Reed
- Eyes and No Eyes (1875)