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02 July 2026Gilbert and Sullivan: Their Topsy-Turvy World
04 June 2026Defying the Odds – Nordic Women Artists and the Modern Breakthrough
07 May 2026Paul Klee: The German expressionist
02 April 2026Impressions in Paris in Art and Writing
05 March 2026Clarice Cliff (1899-1972): The Doyenne of Art Deco
05 February 2026The Art Of Trickery: How Magicians are seen in Paintings, Prints & Cartoons
04 December 2025Charles Dickens: Man of the Theatre
06 November 2025The Art of Ballet
02 October 2025Banksy: Fraud or Genius?
04 September 2025Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc: Abstraction and Apocalypse
03 July 2025A History of Opera
05 June 2025250th Anniversary of Jane Austin - the Making of a Literary Superstar
01 May 2025Ways to Look at Painting
03 April 2025How Raphael became the Prince of Painters
06 March 2025Charles Rennie Mackintosh
06 February 2025T.S.Eliot and Art
05 December 2024West End Winners - the Rise of the British Musical from Noel Coward to Lionel Bart
07 November 2024The Gold Lyre of Ur
03 October 2024Mary Cassett: Painting in Paris
05 September 2024Buckingham: The Handsomest Man in Europe & his Patronage of the Arts
04 July 2024The History of Cartoons: from William Hogarth to Private Eye
06 June 2024In the Land of the Buddha: Buddist Art & Architecture in India
02 May 2024Rembrandt: Life, Loss & Legacy
04 April 2024Who Dunnit? Agatha Christie's Life & Crimes in London
07 March 2024The Enigma of Cezanne & the Foundations of Modern Art
01 February 2024The Stirling Prize: British Architecture Oscars
07 December 2023The Changing Face of London: A Painted Documentary
02 November 2023Late Constable
05 October 2023Banned: Savitsky and the Secret Hoard of Avant Guarde Art
07 September 2023Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World
06 July 2023Bandstands – History, Decline, Revival
01 June 2023Black Artists working in Britain since the 1980’s
04 May 2023Painting the Modern Garden – from Monet to Matisse
06 April 2023The Enigma of Edward Elgar
02 March 2023Faber and Faber – 90 years of excellence in Cover Design
02 February 2023Turner's Modern World
01 December 2022Baroque on a Roll - Classical Music in the Modern Media
03 November 2022Dame Laura Knight
06 October 2022Sickert and the Camden Town Murder
01 September 2022Blondes Have More Fun - The Colourful World Of David Hockney
07 July 2022Me, Myself and I: Self-Portraiture through the Ages
16 June 2022Happy and Glorious - Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Accession to the Throne of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her Coronation
05 May 2022The Faberge Connection between Russia and England: Edwardian Demand for Treasures from St.Petersburg
07 April 2022The Power of Photography
03 March 2022The Art of 1935
03 February 2022A Dutch Leonardo: the Extraordinary Career of Jan Van Der Heyden
02 December 2021Great Railway Stations
04 November 2021Dora Maar: The Image in her Hands
07 October 2021Unravelling the Silk Road - A Textile Journey
02 September 2021Masters of America from Copley to Bellows
01 July 2021John Piper: Master of Diversity
03 June 2021The Many Faces of William Morris
06 May 2021How to pick a favourite Church
01 April 2021Lucien Freud: Paintings to Astonish, Distort, Seduce and Convince
04 March 2021Modern Architecture
04 February 2021Five Famous Paintings: some useful hints when trying to decipher Art
03 December 2020Representation of Women in Western Art – Who are you looking at? Twentieth century Art and Feminism - ZOOM LECTURE
05 November 2020Genius of the Renaissance in Rome – 500th Anniversary of Raphael - ZOOM LECTURE
01 October 2020Moorish Architecture: the Legacy of a Vanished Kingdom - ZOOM LECTURE
10 September 2020Gertrude Bell: Traveller, Archaeologist, Orientalist, Imperialist - ZOOM LECTURE
02 July 2020Great Railway Stations – evoking the spirit of Romance and Adventure
04 June 2020Masters of America from Copley to Bellows CANCELLED
07 May 2020How to pick a favourite church CANCELLED
02 April 2020Lucien Freud: Paintings to “Astonish, Distort, Seduce and Convince” CANCELLED
05 March 2020Edouard Manet and Music
06 February 2020The Genius of Beethoven
05 December 2019It’s Not Just Tchaikovsky: the Music of Ballet
07 November 2019Salvador Dali – Draughtsman or Designer
03 October 2019“Through a Glass Darkly”: a history of Glass through the Eyes of the Artist
12 September 2019From the Mazarin Chest to Madame Butterfly: the fashion for Japan in Europe
04 July 2019Mad Men or Artists: how the advertising industry has exploited Fine Art
06 June 2019Vincent Van Gogh: Life and Letters
02 May 2019The Arts of Bloomsbury and Omega
04 April 2019Sorolla, Painter of Sunlight, returns to London
07 March 2019Joseph Wright of Derby and the Men and Art of the Lunar Society
07 February 2019Picasso in Britain: Art, Politics and Outcry
06 December 2018I am the Very Model: Parodies of Victorian Society in Gilbert and Sullivan
01 November 2018Knights in the Sky: Chivalry, Art and Reality during the Great War
04 October 2018Aqua Triumphalis: Power and Pageantry on the Thames Celebrating the Cultural History of London’s Royal River
13 September 2018A Highland Thing? 18th to 20th century Scottish Art
05 July 2018John Singer Sargent: The Power of the Portrait
07 June 2018The Art and Culture of fin-de-siècle Vienna
03 May 2018Northern Lights: Scandinavian Design in the C20
05 April 2018Paint Brushes at Dawn – Great Art World Feuds, Disputes and Rows
01 March 2018Indestructible Theatre: 1900 to Now
01 February 2018The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Architecture of Frank Gehry
07 December 2017The Fascinating World of Playing Cards
02 November 2017The Gilded Stage: A social and cultural history of opera
05 October 2017Gold of the Gods: Treasures of South America and the search for El Dorado
14 September 2017The Venice of Giovanni Bellini
06 July 2017Underground Cathedrals ~ The architecture of the underground above and below street level

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Lecture: Gilbert and Sullivan: Their Topsy-Turvy World Lecturer: Jamie Hayes Thursday 02 July 2026

The story of two remarkable Victorians and the birth of English comic opera. Their quarter of a century long partnership began in 1871, when the pair were brought together by the remarkably entrepreneurial theatre manager Richard D’Oyly Carte, with whom they collaborated on fourteen unique comic operas.  Perhaps best known for The Mikado, H.M.S Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe, their satirical brilliance can still inspire and impress today. Enjoy the bouquets, brickbats and their extraordinary popularity and fame. Their success was unprecedented in the history of music theatre and their creativity inspired the likes of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Their legacy not only inspired amateur companies to flourish but also left London with three great theatres and three world famous hotels.