Terence Rees

Terence Albert Ladd Rees (24 February 1928 – 15 November 2014) was a microbiologist but was best known as a collector of material relating to the theatre and music in Wales and Britain. He was also a published theatre historian and researcher, and, in particular, was an authority on the works of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan who, as Gilbert and Sullivan, wrote 14 comic operas in the late Victorian era.

Rees was born at Barry in Glamorgan, educated at the local county school, the University of Cardiff (1948–1952), and the University of London (1954–1957). He spent 1965 to 1967 as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Diseases of the Chest at Brompton in London, and between 1967 and 1981 he lectured in microbiology at The Institute of Laryngology and Otology at University College London. Rees later resided in Powys and in Swansea, Wales. Rees was an avid researcher of theatrical topics, and his oft-cited 1978 book, Theatre Lighting in the Age of Gas, has been called "(aptly) illuminating, and pleasantly non-technical."

After considerable research about Gilbert and Sullivan's first collaboration, Thespis, Rees developed, and in 1964 published, a version of the libretto for that work that attempts to correct the many errors noted in the surviving libretto, as part of his book Thespis – A Gilbert & Sullivan Enigma. Rees also prepared a performance version, based on the libretto, which included a few interpolated lyrics from Gilbert's non-Sullivan operas in an attempt to replace the missing songs. A score was supplied by Garth Morton, based on music from lesser-known Sullivan operas, and this version was premiered in 1962 at the University of London and recorded in 1972.

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