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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

The Rose of Persia, or The Storyteller and the Slave, was Arthur Sullivan's last completed operetta. It was a very successful first collaboration between Arthur and the dramatist Basil Hood. Arthur completed the score in Switzerland and it was premiered on 29 November 1899. Its initial run was 213 performances. It was revived in London in 1935, and was described as a marriage of The Mikado and Arabian Nights. 

The operetta, set in the milieu of the Arabian Nights, included the Sultana Zubeydeh and the Sultan Mahmoud of Persia. It was about a man of substance, Abu-el-Hassan (called Hassan), who had 25 wives (but admitted that this was one too many!).

His forays into more exciting living led him to impersonate the Sultan with very interesting consequences! Everything turns out all right though in the end, and we have been treated to a feast of drama, music, and colour. We have included three of the songs: Yussuf's Drinking Song, Dancing Sunbeam's O Golden Key, and Rose-in-Bloom's 'Neath My Lattice.

Some of the names give a flavour of the show: Sultan, Sultana, Hassan, Yussuf, Abdallah, Grand Vizier, Executioner, Rose-in-Bloom, Honey-of-Life, Heart's Desire, Song-of-Nightingales, Scent-of-Lilies, Dancing Sunbeam, and Blush-of-Morning. Imagine yourself amid Eastern sounds and spices, under a starlit sky and a sickle moon. You get the picture! Lovely isn't it . . .?

Like to hear Yussuf's  Drinking Song now . . .?

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