Gilbert and Sullivan
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The Sentry’s Song: Politics are Crazy!
In Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1882 hit Iolanthe, a troupe of flighty, gauzy fairies go toe-to-toe with Britain’s venerable House of Lords. Guess who wins? (Spoiler alert: They both do.) Act II of this charming opera begins with a quiet interlude as Private Willis stands on sentry duty. He is dressed as a soldier (although it seems that is an inaccuracy, for the Houses of Parliament are actually guarded by police officers and not the army). We meet him as he’s standing at the door in Palace Yard, at the eastern (or Whitehall) end of Sir Charles Barry’s great neo-Gothic Houses of Parliament – which was only completed five years before Iolanthe was written.…
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Gilbert and Sullivan – Together
In the 1870s, Arthur Sullivan was a rising young composer whose reputation was growing steadily. At the same time, William S. Gilbert was a rising young dramatist whose plays were attracting an increasingly wider audience. They lived in the same city, they had friends in common, and each probably knew of the other’s work—we know Gilbert had heard Sullivan’s music, because he had reviewed Sullivan and Burnand’s operetta, Cox and Box, as the theater critic for Fun magazine. They had even collaborated on a Christmas entertainment, Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old. It was a successful venture in its limited way, but both men evidently considered the project a one-off.…
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Arthur Sullivan and The Golden Legend
Even successful artists like Sir Arthur Sullivan struggle with procrastination, goal-setting, and getting things done! In 1886, 44-year-old Arthur Sullivan was at the top of his career. He’d been knighted in 1883 for his services to music, his collaborations with WSGilbert had brought him a lot of success and financial reward, but success brought increasing pressure into his life. First, there was the pressure to write “serious music,” not comic operas or other popular stuff. High-minded critics thought that an ordinary tunesmith could write a comic opera, but a Knight of the Realm had to compose masterpieces, music for the ages. Second, success at any level comes with its own…
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W.S. Gilbert’s Political Snarkiness
W.S. Gilbert lampooned Victorian politics in Iolanthe, a topsy-turvy tale in which a troupe of fairies take over Parliament after their Fairy Queen is insulted by the Lord Chancellor. He mistook her for the Headmistress of a Ladies’ Seminary, and in revenge the fairies use their powers to pass all the laws the House of Peers can’t stand to see on the books. All the political “hot potato” issues of the day are blithely passed into law — from Marriage to Deceased Wife’s Sister to making a Dukedom attainable by Competitive Examination, the fairies ruthlessly suppress all objections from the peers. How can the legislators rescue themselves and the nation…
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W.S. Gilbert – The Dragon at the Stage Door
Many Victorians assumed that actresses were “no better than they should be” (i.e. very bad indeed). According to Hesketh Pearson, in Gilbert and Sullivan, “In those days actresses were considered to be saleable property. Their social status was extremely low, and the average middle-class Englishman scarcely differentiated the back of a stage from a brothel.” However, that certainly wasn’t the case for the actresses in the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. William S. Gilbert insisted on all his players behaving with utmost propriety. Jessie Bond, the long-time Savoyard actress who created many of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most delightful contralto roles, from Hebe in HMS Pinafore to Pitti-Sing in The Mikado to…
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W.S. Gilbert — a Stage-struck Kid
W.S. Gilbert was a stage-struck kid. As a youngster, he used to write plays that the family performed at home, and his mother and his two younger sisters were interested in amateur dramatics. (Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography, by Michael Ainger) When he attended the well-regarded public school, the Great Ealing School in London, he would write plays, direct them, and even paint the scenery. One of the plays he produced was called Guy Fawkes, in which he also played the principal role. In February 1852, the 15-year-old Gilbert went to see The Corsican Brothers by Dion Boucicault, at the Princess’ Theater in Oxford Street. He was so impressed…
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Gilbert & Sullivan & Pirates, Oh, My!
Arrgh, matey! Since the International Talk Like a Pirate Day was celebrated just a couple of days ago on Monday, September 19, I think that the time is ripe to consider these swashbuckling fellows. So, let us consider why we like pirates. It’s their devil-may-care attitude Along with highwaymen, spies and other rule-breaking rogues, pirates seem to hold a special place in our popular mythology. We know what they do is wrong, and yet … there’s just something about them. I believe that pirates appeal to regular people because: They defy conventions. When society is particularly rigid, or when ordinary folk are systematically denied justice, then the rule-breakers who impose…
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Which Came First, the Music or the Words?
When writing a song, what does a composer start with – the tune, or the lyrics? Do you come up with words to fit a particular melody, or do you read the words and imagine a tune that would fit the words? The answer is, different composers and lyricists work in different ways. For Gilbert and Sullivan, the journey from musical idea to finished song took an interesting path: Gilbert would write lyrics that fit a popular tune he had in mind. Then he would give the words to Sullivan, without telling him what song he’d used. Sullivan would study the rhythm of the words and come up with a tune that…
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How Sullivan’s promotion made “HMS Pinafore” a Success
H.M.S. Pinafore, the beloved Gilbert and Sullivan opera, was almost a flop. Pinafore opened on May 25, 1878, at a London playhouse called the Opera Comique. The production was well-received, but within a week or two London was engulfed in a summer heat wave. Nobody wanted to sit in a hot, stuffy theater in their Victorian wool suits or tight corsets, so people began to stay home in droves. Box office profits dropped precipitously. In July, one of the Opera Comique’s directors, Edward Bayley, wrote complaining to theatrical manager Rupert D’Oyly Carte, “I hope you will get Gilbert & Sullivan’s agreement in writing to a break at once. I do…
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An Unexpected G&S Performance
I was going to do a serious post today, but then I remembered this little gem and had to share it. When I was a mere child of ten, I discovered the very first “Doctor Who” — featuring the first Doctor, portrayed by William Hartnell. Even though I missed some of the finer details of the plot during that first season because the episodes were broadcast in Spanish on Mexican television (I grew up in Mexico City), the Daleks still were capable of scaring the bejeezus out of me and my nine-year-old brother. And so, without further ado, here’s a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan that’s really out of this world.…
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Test your Gilbert and Sullivan Knowledge
Did you know that there is a site dedicated to an online Gilbert and Sullivan quiz? There is! Created by Alexander Scutt, it’s the Gilbert and Sullivan Quiz . So now that you’ve learned all about the fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas from last week’s blog post, you can test your knowledge! There are 20 quizzes in all, so if you’re brave (and have memorized all the lyrics and fun jokes), go for it! Once you’re at the site, use the link at the top right of the page to go to the First Quiz , or check out the Quiz Topics! It’s a fun way to learn all sorts of trivia related to…
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Gilbert & Sullivan 101: All Fourteen Operas
So, just in case you came in late and need a refresher, here is a list of all of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas. (Just to be even more basic, William S. Gilbert wrote the words and Arthur Seymour Sullivan wrote the music.) Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old (1871 Christmas entertainment for John Hollingshead’s Gaiety Theatre, where it received its first performance on December 26, 1871 and ran for 63 performances. Although it has often been described as a failure, it outlasted most of the Christmas entertainments that season.) Plot: The gods on Mount Olympus are old and tired, so they decide to take a holiday. Since somebody…
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“I’ve Got A Little List!”
One of the most famous (and most often-parodied) songs from The Mikado is Koko’s “I’ve Got a Little List.” Koko, a cheap tailor about to be executed for the crime of flirting, finds himself suddenly elevated to the rank of Lord High Executioner by the townspeople of Titipu. They figure he’d be the last person to execute anyone, since he would have to cut his own head off first! But then the Mikado himself writes to say that if they don’t have an execution by the end of the month, the whole town will be downgraded to a village. So, since Koko has to execute someone, he comes up with…
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Shopping — Victorian Style
Women of the Victorian era enjoyed shopping as much as women do today. By the middle of the 19th century, shopping had evolved into a way for middle-class Victorian women to get out and explore the city without male companions. The first prototype of the shopping mall might be said to have been the Great Exhibition of 1851, which displayed consumer goods from around the globe. A Victorian woman in the 1860s on a shopping expedition in London would probably head toward the West End, where the shops catered to fashionable upper-middle-class ladies. She might also go to Regent Street, which was designed as a promenade and shopping area with…
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W.S. Gilbert the Recycler
Today I am plundering the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (which is moving soon to gilbertandsullivanarchive.org) to show how William S. Gilbert “recycled” some of his early literary ideas into the bases of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas we know today. Before Gilbert began writing his comic operas, he was well-known for his witty magazine articles and for a series of comically grotesque poems, collectively known as The Bab Ballads. (“Bab” was William’s childhood nickname, and was the pseudonym he used for this series of poems.) You can find them all collected in the G&S archive here. From “The Student” to “The Sorcerer” In 1865, Gilbert wrote a parody of…
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The Legacy of Gilbert and Sullivan – on TV
Over the 150 years that their works have been shared with the world, Gilbert and Sullivan have had an indelible effect on popular culture in the English-speaking world. Last week, I shared a list of movies that have a Gilbert and Sullivan connection – and this week, I’m offering you a short (and by no means exhaustive) list of G&S television references! Let’s start with some lively tunes from The Mikado. In this clip, popular singer and TV talk show hostess Dinah Shore pairs up with jazz great Ella Fitzgerald and opera diva “La Stupenda” Joan Sutherland for a fun rendition of “Three Little Maids From School Are We”: …
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Legacy of Gilbert and Sullivan – in the Movies
Gilbert and Sullivan’s delightful comic operas were first performed in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s, but their influence is still felt in Western culture. Both American and British musical theater traditions owe a great debt to the duo. Fans of G&S include P.G. Wodehouse, Irving Berlin, Ivor Novello, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Even today, Gilbert and Sullivan’s works pop up in the most unlikely places. The legacy of Gilbert and Sullivan still endures today. As it turns out, it’s so extensive that I got worn out just chasing down all the references to their works that can be found in books, songs, plays, musical theater, children’s shows,…
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The Real Lucy Turner
Why Lucy Turner? Why, you might ask, if I am such a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, would I choose Lucy Turner as my amateur sleuth? Because, as Gilbert’s wife, Lucy had a ring-side seat when it came to nearly everything that Gilbert and Sullivan did during the twenty-odd years of their working partnership. And because she isn’t as well-known to history as the two men, she might well have had certain adventures that are unknown to history! What sort of a person was Lucy? As history tells us, Lucy Agnes Blois Turner was born on November 14, 1847. Her astrological sign was Scorpio. To paraphrase Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs,…
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Because it’s Leap Day, February 29!
In one of the funniest songs in The Pirates of Penzance, the Pirate King explains that young Frederick, having been born on Leap Day, may have been alive for 21 years — yet, if one goes by birthdays, he’s only 5! After they sing, they have the following discussion: Frederic. Upon my word, this is most curious – most absurdly whimsical. Five-and-a-quarter! No one would think it to look at me! Ruth. You are glad now, I’ll be bound, that you spared us. You would never have forgiven yourself when you discovered that you had killed two of your comrades. Frederic. My comrades? King. (rises) I’m afraid you…
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Sullivan’s Musical Humor
[amazon text=Amazon&cat=local&last=5&wishlist_type=Similar]Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan immediately get Gilbert’s sense of humor and wordplay. He was famous for his wit. But when it came to the music, Sullivan was every bit as elegant a humorist. Throughout his collaboration with Gilbert, Sullivan added touches of musical humor to their operas – references which Victorian audiences might have picked up on quicker than we do today. It’s not that recognizing musical references is some kind of lost art; it just depends on how familiar we are with the music that’s being quoted. Today, we understand allusions to recent songs and musical styles. For instance, many of us would catch the reference to…