This Society was founded forty-five years ago and from small beginnings has grown to become a major force in the current revival of interest in Sullivan and his music. With regular residential events, magazines and books and an extensive library of performing material, we aim to cover all aspects of the composer's work. Probably the most important area of our work is the promotion of high quality
complete recordings of Sullivan's major works. In recent years these have included The Golden Legend, The Prodigal Son and The Contrabandista on the Hyperion label and, in 2010, Sullivan's romantic opera Ivanhoe on Chandos, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. The recording was nominated in the Best Opera Recording category of the 53rd annual GRAMMY awards. Sullivan's 1898 opera The Beauty Stone was issued, again by Chandos, in November 2013. Since then we have issued his complete incidental music to The Tempest and Macbeth; and his 1892 light opera Haddon Hall (together with two Savoy curtain-raisers). But our biggest success has been a complete recording of the composer's 1873 oratorio The Light of the World with the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Concert Orchestra, which has significantly changed opinions on the merits of the work. All these have been issued on the Dutton Epoch label, while two double CD sets of Sullivan's songs has also been issued on Chandos. During 2022 our latest CD collaboration with Dutton Epoch will be issued: a complete recording of Sullivan's 1864 ballet I'Ile Enchantée, including two movements not available when the earlier recording was made thirty years ago.
