Classic Light Opera

THE GILBERT & SULLIVAN LIGHT OPERA COMPANY OF LONG ISLAND

Founded in 1954 and based in Merrick (as it is to this day), the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island is the Island’s premiere presenter of comic opera.

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A touring company since its founding, the Light Opera Company has presented more than 1,000 performances at churches, temples, schools, libraries and fraternal organizations throughout Nassau, Suffolk and Queens. Its repertoire includes all 14 Gilbert & Sullivan operas, as well as the Sullivan/Burnand opera The Zoo; it also has presented W.S. Gilbert’s plays The Palace of Truth, The Princess, Pygmalion and Galatea and Tom Cobb.  In 1994 it presented the world premiere of Gayden Wren’s A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol and in 1996 of Wren’s biographical play Very Truly Yours, Gilbert & Sullivan, both of which subsequently have been seen Off-Broadway and in productions by other companies in America, England and elsewhere; in 2012 it presented the world premiere of the full version of Thomas Z. Shepard’s Thespis, a realization of the lost Gilbert & Sullivan opera of 1871.

A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, the company earns virtually all of its money from performance fees and from ticket sales. It is administered by a board of its own performing members, many of whom have been with the company for decades.

The 2018 season will feature Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience and the company’s popular revue show, The World According to Gilbert & Sullivan.

To learn more about the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, visit the company’s website at www.gilbertandsullivanli.com.