SULLIVAN ARTHUR: (1842-1900) English Composer.

Early A.L.S., Arthur S. Sullivan, two pages, 8vo, Claverton Terrace, St. George's Road, 19th September 1864, to William John Beale. Sullivan writes to accept, with pleasure, his correspondent's kind invitation to dinner on the 27th, 'especially as it will afford me an opportunity of again meeting some of my kind Birmingham friends'. About EXWilliam John Beale (1807-1883) British Solicitor, the founder of the legal firm Beale & Co. of Birmingham and London. At the head of a highly successful company, whose clients included the Midland Bank, Beale's philanthropic efforts included supporting Birmingham's Triennial Music Festival. Sullivan's association with works for voice and orchestra began with The Masque at Kenilworth, a cantata that premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Festival on 8th September 1864, a little over a week before the present letter was written. It was also in 1864 that Sullivan composed his first ballet, L'Ile Enchantee, one of his best received early pieces of work.Arthur Sullivan is most remembered for his series of fourteen operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. At the time of his death Sullivan was regarded as Britain's foremost composer and his comic opera style served as a model for the generations of musical theatre composers that followed, and his music is still frequently performed, recorded and pastiched.