To add to this, Gilbert and Sullivan wrote Pirates of Penzance in 1879.
"This was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have had a virtually simultaneous UK/USA premiere, at the end of December 1879. The reason behind this was that any American production earned no money for the composers, since the British copyright laws did not apply there. HMS Pinafore was all the rage then, and there were playing at the time some 40 different productions, all pirated, and none paying the composers anything in the way of copyright fees. There only recourse was to have the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company themselves perform the first American performance of the next opera themselves.
The UK performance, on the 30th, was solely to establish copyright, and was of all places at the Royal Bijou theatre in Paignton, Devon, with the cast wearing odd HMS Pinafore based costumes (since they were then playing that at the time), and some even holding their scripts, as they had had very little time to learn it. The two composers were in New York supervising the American premire, and were sending over the songs as they were written. The Royal Bijou theatre, alas, is no more and the Gerston hotel was built on its site. All that now remains is the 'grand staircase' which is in the hotel . The first London performance, at the Opera Comique, was on the 3rd April 1880. As this opera did not have its first London performance at the Savoy theatre, which became the home of D'Oyly Carte, it cannot strictly be called a 'Savoy' opera. "
(quote from some random website)_
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