Page "Savoy opera" Paragraph 2

Gilbert, Sullivan, Carte and other Victorian era British composers, librettists and producers, as well as the contemporary British press and literature, called works of this kind " comic operas " to distinguish their content and style from that of the often risqué continental European operettas that they wished to displace.

Most of the published literature on Gilbert and Sullivan since that time refers to these works as " Savoy Operas ", " comic operas ", or both.

However, the Penguin Opera Guides and many other general music dictionaries and encyclopedias classify the Gilbert and Sullivan works as operettas.