A NEW DUO AMONG CLASSICS

Never well hardly ever have Gilbert, and Sullivan been more popular than today. "Iolanthe" has just ended a run of many months on, or at least very near, Broadway, and "The Pirates" is in rehearsal by the same excellent company. There are rumors of a formation of a Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire company. And then, as a climax, a movement has been started in England to "nationalize" the operettas of the witty pair--that is the governmental purchase of all existing copyrights; for, like A. B. C. shops and rainy weather, Gilbert and Sullivan have become an English institution.

The cause for this international renaissance is not far to seek. Any number of reasons are available: the stupidity of revues, the reaction against eternal jazz, or the desire for comedy that is really comic. One does not have to be an intellectual to appreciate "The Mikado" or "The Gondoliers"; and "Patience" in spite of its theme being quite dead, is as alive today as in the time of Oscar Wilde. it is a proof of the universality of enjoyment for clever dialogue and good music to see a modern audience reveling in Gilbert and Sullivan. Lasting geniuses were scarce in the latter part of the nineteenth century--but these two would appear to have withstood the test of time. Certainly modes and manners have changed since the "Pinafore" craze of the seventies. But sweet little Buttercup remains to charm her auditors, who may have learned to like many new and bizarre entertainments but who still retain a very great love of the old.