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Utopia, Limited restoration

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12-hour cleanup job to fix up a historic poster of Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia, Limited, which had evidently fallen apart into 32 separate squares, done for the Gilbert and Sullivan archive ( [link] )

It shows the drawing room scene, which is... pretty much completely superfluous to the plot, but which Gilbert spent quite a lot of money on. This is speculation, but, it's known Sullivan wanted more chances to show off his music, without Gilbert's lyrics, and Utopia has three lengthy instrumental compositions. two of which are largely superfluous to the plot. Perhaps Gilbert felt he had to make it spectacular, because so little was going on? In any case, the opera failed not due to unpopularity, but because it was so expensive to produce, so it backfired a bit.

Original is c. 1894 and by Strobridge Lith. Co., Cincinnati, and is available at [link]

Please credit Adam Cuerden when reusing this, which may otherwise be done freely.
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3019x1259px 1.92 MB
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RD-DD1843's avatar
As you may well know, George Bernard Shaw thought highly of UTOPIA, LTD. Probably because the story line was somewhat Shavian in its targets in British society.