Appeal Launched for Lost Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Score

An appeal has been launched for people to check their homes for a missing opera score by Gilbert and Sullivan. 

The original score of Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia Limited was sold in 1915, but its whereabouts are unknown. The pair created 13 operettas that are still performed today, including Iolanthe (pictured above at the London Coliseum) but the manuscript for Utopia Limited has been lost.

According to the BBC, musical researcher Colin Jagger has been tracking down their original scores, saying current copies often have mistakes and omissions.

"The (current) score (of Utopia Limited) is completely unreliable. The only way (to be sure) is to go to Sullivan's autograph manuscript," he said. 

"It seemed to me that the time is long overdue to give these materials proper editions which are free."

When the operas were first created, copyright law, as understood today, barely existed, and so the company that performed the works, D'Oyly Carte, kept tight control of the scores and any copies. 

The versions used today often reflect how D'Oyly Carte performed the works, rather than Gilbert and Sullivan's original intentions. Some songs have disappeared altogether and, Jagger says, the scores have a multitude of omissions, changes and mistakes.

The objective now is to return to the originals, and create complete and corrected scores, but the project cannot be finished until the lost opera is found.

"All of these manuscripts…you can access mostly in the UK or one or two in the US. So I can go into the British Library and I can look at the Grand Duke in Sullivan's own hand, and I can take photographs of it.

"I can study it away from the library as well. And I can go (online) to the Morgan Library in New York… and I can see a beautifully done copy of the manuscript of Trial by Jury. They're all there except for one."

The score was sold at auction in 1915 for 50 guineas to Sir Robert Hudson of Hill Hall in Essex. However, what happened to it subsequently is a mystery.

Mr Jagger has asked that anyone with any information about the missing score to contact him at cjagger99@gmail.com.

Photo Credit: Iolanthe at London Coliseum, Craig Fuller