and often acting as an important character in its own right. The Sorcerer also confirms a pattern that had been introduced in the earlier collaborations and would be repeated in the other Savoy operas, except for The Yeomen of the Guard, to begin with a chorus number and end with a relatively short finale consisting of solos and chorus music. Sullivan later told his biographer, "Until Gilbert took the matter in hand choruses were dummy concerns, and were practically nothing more than a part of the stage setting." Another Gilbert innovation, following the example of his mentor, T. W. Robertson, was that the costumes and sets were made as realistic as possible. This attention to detail would be repeated in all of the operas. This was far from standard procedure in Victorian drama, where naturalism was still a relatively new concept, and where most authors had very little influence on how their plays and libretti were staged. The Sorcerer also contained several musical techniques that would become typical in the operas. One of the most important ones is the comic baritone's lightly orchestrated, rapid-fire patter song, which would become one of the most distinguishing and popular features of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Following Italian opera precedents, such as "Largo al factotum" from The Barber of Seville, these numbers juxtapose virtuosity in their speed of delivery (requiring clarity of elocution) with their often comic or satiric lyrics. In "My name is John Wellington Wells", the title character of The Sorcerer introduces himself as a tradesman of an ironic kind: "a dealer in magic and spells". Another typical Sullivanian musical technique is the contrapuntal combination of slow and rapid tunes in one song and a tenor aria set in time. Sullivan did this so frequently in the Savoy operas that comedian Anna Russell, in her comedy routine "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera", exclaimed, "the tenor ... according to tradition, must sing an aria in time". Another repeated musical technique was the emphasis of a single syllable to distinguish otherwise identical lines. For example, in the vicar's Act I song, the same melody is sung in each of the two stanzas using the following text: Stanza 1: A saintly youth, by worldly thought untainted Stanza 2: Did I look pale? Then half a parish trembled In the second, the syllable trem has an optional high note to give it