Arthur Sullivan's Cox and Box; or, The…

Arthur Sullivan's Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton, is Sullivan's first successful comic opera.

The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two lodgers, one who works at night and one who works during the day.

When one of them has the day off, they meet each other in the room and tempers flare.

Sullivan had written this piece five years before his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Thespis.

The piece premieres at Moray Lodge, Kensington, in May 1866 and will be seen a few times at charity benefits in 1867.

Once given a professional production in 1869, it will become popular, running for two hundred and sixty-four performances and enjoying many revivals and further charity performances.

During the twentieth century, it will frequently be played by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in a shorter format, as a curtain raiser for the shorter Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

Played by numerous professional and amateur companies throughout the world, it continues to be frequently produced.