1842-05-13

SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN, British composer, born (d: 1900); Like the later partnership of Rodgers and Hart, the musical marriage of Gilbert and Sullivan was one of temperamental unequals – Gilbert straight and Sullivan Gay – perfectly matched in the art they jointly created. Sullivan’s sexuality, though widely known to his contemporaries, was practiced discreetly. He played by the rules that permitted the upper classes their “vices” so long as there was no threat of public scandal. That Sullivan, unlike his straight partner, was knighted, shows how well, and how prudently, he played the game. Hypocritical? Perhaps. But the Irish Oscar Wilde might not have died quite so young had he understood the English character as well as Sullivan.