Jon Johanning wrote:
>This set me to thinking about the great collaboration of Gilbert and
>Sullivan, and how uneven it was. Whereas the former was absolutely
>brilliant at his trade (with a few blemishes, as noted below), Sullivan
>must have been one of the worst composers who ever lived. Good grief, what
>awful stuff he turned out! Does anyone disagree? (I expect some one will.)
YES. I adore G&S. And it's a fallacy to think that this great canon of
masterpieces (yes, Jon, I use the word advisedly) is simply due to the
genius of Gilbert; Sullivan's music provided the perfect match (did you
know Gilbert had a pair of horses for his carriage which he called "Bryant
& May" because "they were the perfect match?") and is often inspired. I'm
not going to go through all the works to point out their excellence - just
listen to "The Mikado". The Madrigal - Sing a happy holiday - is wonderful
quintet writing. Listen to the Katasha aria "The hour of gladness" - is
there anything more heart-rending? Or what about "Tit Willow"? Hackneyed
now - but still a great piece of writing.
And as for the charge of political correctness: can we really judge
somebody who lived in a different time, different century, for not meeting
the standards which are slowly evolving in our time? Agatha Christie
suffered the same fate with her masterpiece, initially entitled: "Ten
Little N*"; it was later renamed "Ten Little Indians," but this title had
to be changed under pressure. What the current title is I don't know. But
can we judge Christie for using a word which had a totally different
connotation then to the one it has today? Can we judge Gilbert for doing
the same - and doing it nearly 75 years earlier?
>Quite a few other examples of racist and sexist language can be found
>in the operettas, of course; it's a shame that such brilliant writing
>is marred by these specimens of 19th-century culture.
Some is due to a particularly childish humour which is unique to Gilbert.
Pitti Sing, for example, is his childish pronuniciation of "Pretty Thing"
(there's a movie of that title - so that must be okay). Yum Yum is just
that - or is it part of a wicked anti-feminist plot. That latter is quite
possible, as Gilbert was, in line with many people of his time, against
giving votes to women. He is quoted as saying: "If these suffragettes
continue chaining themselves to railings demanding votes for women, I shall
chain myself to the railings outside Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital
and demand beds for men."
>Come to think of it, I haven't heard much of G & S at all in recent years,
>and it may be that, in this country at least, this linguistic problem is
>part of the reason for the decline
I see no linguistic problem at all. G&S are products of their period -
just as "The Merchant of Venice" is a product of its period. And that they
are still highly enjoyable today is shown by the excellent Jonathan Miller
production of The Mikado for the English National Opera. Here the town of
Titipu becomes a holiday resort on the south coast of England (Brighton?)
and the whole opera takes place in the Roaring Twenties. It is delightful
- and I'm sure, knowing Jon as a man of good taste, that he could get a lot
of enjoyment from it.
Jonathan
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