A study of the correlation between the so-called Savoy operas and Sullivan's other major works seems at first glance a non-controversial subject of musicological inquiry. Sullivan was by no means unique in writing works that succeeded on the popular stage and in the concert hall. Elgar and Copland are highly respected composers who wrote popular marches or ballets in addition to symphonies and concertos. Leonard Bernstein is famous – aside from his great conducting career – as the composer of West Side Story, but Age of Anxiety, Jeremiah or Chichester Psalms are not proscribed because of his Broadway popularity. George Gershwin wrote popular songs and Broadway musicals. He also wrote concert works and the great American opera. His reputation in both fields is exemplary.

Sullivan's comic operas and serious works were frequently performed during his lifetime. After his death in 1900, the comic operas retained enormous popularity, while the concert works gradually sank into oblivion. Very early acoustic recordings were made of The Yeomen of the Guard and HMS Pinafore in addition to extensive excerpts from The Golden Legend and Ivanhoe. World War I precipitated the collapse of the Victorian–Edwardian world order – the society of which he was a distinguished member – thus terminating Sullivan's reputation as a great composer. Only in those works that stood aside from – indeed parodied – that now discredited sociopolitical system did Sullivan's music live on as a vital force.