National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company

The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company (formerly the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company) is an English professional repertory company that performs Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. Founded in 1995 to perform at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, the company generally stages from two to four productions each summer, giving up to a dozen performances or more.

The company performs full-scale productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan works, with orchestra, using generally period settings and costumes. Since 2010, in addition to its performances at the festival, the company has generally performed one or more of its productions in an additional venue either before or after the festival. In 2014, for the first time, it toured some of its productions to multiple British cities in repertory, giving 42 performances on the tour.

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performed Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas continuously, year-round, for over a century, closing in 1982. Until the Gilbert and Sullivan copyrights expired in 1961, no other professional theatre or opera companies were allowed to present the Savoy Operas in Britain, although professional companies performed the operas elsewhere, and numerous amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies performed around the world. After 1961 other professional groups began to perform the operas in Britain.

In 1994, the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was founded by Ian and his son Neil Smith partly to fill the gap left by the closure of D'Oyly Carte, and it has been held every August since then in England. On weeknights, the festival features a competition among amateur companies from all over the world. On weekends, however, the festival offers professional performances given by companies such as the Carl Rosa Opera Company, Opera della Luna, the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, Charles Court Opera, and the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company.

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