I can't remember the Proms including potted G. and S. versions. Perhaps it was just the broadcast. In the old days it was a G. and S. Prom of highlights from the operettas. I'd like to hear Phyllis's cadenza but also the other version of "Is life a boon?" "Yeomen". Some people mentioned under-acting & I can't stand the opposite. The slap-stick "director" Who "did" E. N. O. so-called "Iolanthe" and "Pinafore" has just made "the Widow" dirty for Glyndebourne.
That title sequence at 1:55 is absolutely stunning. It feels like something you'd see in a classical painting or something. I hope whoever came up with that got a raise.
They were a feature of Old and Middle English. They gradually fell out of common usage, but even now it is not incorrect to roll an r when speaking modern English. People will just think you are pretentious if you do.
When we got married Barados Festival Choir was rehearsing for a performance of Iolanthe, under the direction of the late Norma Bowen. My husband was member of the cast and therefore this production is forever linked to our lives. We will celebrate our 37th anniversary later this month, and I consider video an early gift.🎉
Halas and Batchelor were Great Britain's very own UPA or Hanna Barbara of its time. They were the folks who gave us the 1954 adaptation of Animal Farm and other animated works from across the pond. Gilbert and Sullivan's music works wonders for Animation.
I have to admit, I really like this. It's especially admirable when people try to make something like this more accessible to families. The only gripe is that it suffers from the same problem as the Peanuts musical adaptations and Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, in that it only covers a small fraction of the story. Keep in mind, I get making the film shorter than the play. That makes sense. After all, animation, even of this quality, is expensive and time consuming, but they couldn't make it feature length? The Peanuts musical films were also a little under 50 minutes. (Which is kinda funny considering each stage play actually is short enough to work as a full movie) Even Elf is only 45 minutes. Because of this, the stories can feel rushed and awkward in a few places. At least Shinbone Alley had the right idea. Yeah, multiple scenes are in a different order and they even added a song that wasn't from the stage show, but at least that was feature length and told a much more complete story. And yeah, as poorly executed as this was, even The King and I had a decent length. It's a shame that adaptations like this can't really do that and as such, multiple plot points that need more time aren't really given that. Again, I did really enjoy this, but even making it, like, say, a half hour longer would have been nice.
Fun fact: Ann Hood, who voiced Rose Maybud in this film, would go on to play Mad Margaret in a later production of _Ruddigore_ by Gilbert & Sullivan For All, a smaller theatre company founded by former D'Oyly Carte members Thomas Round and Donald Adams (the latter of whom voiced Roderick here).
I always love G&S, but particularly when sung by voices like these. Every soloist is off-the-charts superb, chorus is great too. Ashley Holland is a wonderfully rich-voiced Mountararat. I only wish the telecast could have been more musically complete, as the performance evidently was. Private Willis is missing altogether!
No matter how many times I watch this glorious, irrepressible, fantastic Jonathan Miller version of this, I am always absolutely knocked sideways by it! I am beyond certain that Schwenk and Sir Arthur would have adored it too! The cast is just magnificent - nothing more need be added and while it seems sacrilegious to elevate individuals by mentioning them, asides from the immortal Eric Idle who joyously brings that unique, Pythonesque, working class hero passing himself off as a nob - who can fail to garland the sainted Dame Felicity in a role she was born to - and absolutely relished? Have you EVER seen a camper Katisha?! Just sensational and it's one of the few highlights - like seeing Callas in Puccini or Sutherland in Bellini - that I don't look back in regret at having missed😄 While unfortunately not catching Idle, I did at least see most of the original cast in the early days and have happily enjoyed several of the subsequent revivals at the ENO. Thanks to our host for keeping it up here for so long, always such a delight to return to....
