Victoria and Merrie England

[2] An alternate Jubilee composition, a poem submitted to Sullivan by the Poet Laureate, Alfred Austin, was never set.

[citation needed] Sullivan composed the piece mostly on the French Riviera, combining the task with visits to the casino.

Victoria and Merrie England opened on 25 May 1897 and ran for six months at the Alhambra Theatre, which was a generous run for this kind of piece.

Neither Swan Lake nor Sylvia was seen in London complete until the Dyagilev tour of 1911–12 ... cut off from the classical source, Alhambra ballet had developed in a unique direction of its own."

The final scene, after a depiction of Victoria's coronation, ends in a contemporary dance for soldiers from the various parts of Great Britain and its colonies and includes a counterpoint of characteristic tunes representing England, Scotland and Ireland, among which is Sullivan's own mock-patriotic "He is an Englishman", from H.M.S.