The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston, Houston's oldest opera company, is dedicated to preserving and sharing the delightful legacy of Gilbert and Sullivan's wonderful operas. As an internationally award-winning stalwart of the arts community, our Society is proudest of showcasing young talent for Houston audiences, as well as awarding over $100,000 in scholarships and career grants to vocal performance and theatre tech students over the years. Contact us at info@gilbertandsullivan.net or call (713) 627-3570. Our mailing address is: The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston - PO Box 741267 Houston, TX 77274-1267.
One of the best I have come across. I love good chorus work and this is the best, surely just what was intended by G & S! And as for the soloists, seriously talented, they know their business!
Terrible. An imitation of the horrible version of the police from the Papp production, complete with an imitation Tony Azito as the Sergeant. It doesn't work. They should be fat, clumsy, and cowardly middle-aged cops -- THAT's funny. And also more like Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops, which is why they were successful in their day -- because they looked like actual police. This is a bunch of prancing ninnies trying to be "funny", which is just painful. And NOBODY here can act at all -- just sing. If Gilbert had done it that way, the shows would never have been the successes they were. To be fair: the singing and enunciation here are excellent.
Not a bad singer, but the problem with watching too many previous productions of the musical as research is that you lose track of which mannerisms are supposed to go with which words. I couldn't help but chuckle when she looped her hands around the line "The ape despite his razor keen...,"which was actually the mannerism devised to indicate his curly mustachios. Unless the dude is looping his razor across over his face. That would hurt. LOL
Having seen the full opera by many different companies, and based on the testimonies of each of these great actors, I can tell you few things I find myself liking about King Gama: 1. You know his type anywhwre: he's the sort of person who speaks his mind and doesn't bother to mince his words on any matter that may come to his notice; he's basically the grumpy, unhinged relative we all have to deal with at the occasional family gathering; 2. Despite his hostile demeanor, he's the sort of character whom you can tell right away isn't an evil, tyrannical ruler; he's just a miserable old man who have some unresolved issues; 3. No matter how contemptuous he is towards Hildebrand, Hilarion and his friends, and even his own sons, he seems to love Ida genuinely, and respect her aims towards feminism and proving herself as a respected figured in a male dominated era. I have heard your soundtrack of Ida on Spotify, dialog, music and all. But is there a DVD of Houston's Ida available? I would love to see how it was acted out in real time. It sounds like it was a marvelous production. And I give props to Alistair Donkin for his direction and design upon this marvelous, underrated G&S opera.
This was really good. In my youth, I saw Pirates many times (in fact all G&S operas because Dad was a fan) and I remember the stage being full of policemen back then. I always found this funny but this was one of the best interpretations I have seen ❤
Thanks for sharing this!! This is one of my favorite songs from Pirates of Penzance movie!! I was a member of our high school’s winter guard (color guard but performed on the gymnasium floor) and we did routines to various songs from Pirates of Penzance. The cops had reminded my grandmother of the Keystone Cops. Our rifles were the cops and they took some of the dancing into their routine, especially one member would do a cart wheel. Again thanks for sharing!!
I'm sure you were honouring the memory of the late Tony Azito who was the police Sargent in the central park production and the Broadway stage musical and in the film version of the musical.
Excellent tribute and as an orchestra member I thank you. All these years I've always looked forward to the summer for being there for the production of these operas. A true highlight for me and I know that many others in the orchestra feel the same. Thank you much Bob Linder for all those wonderful times we had playing under your baton.
“With these tears your grave shall water” doesn’t make sense grammatically, actually-something like “These tears your grave shall water” or “With these tears your grave _I_ shall water” would work but then the meter would be off.
Thank you so much for posting this. I'm Glay's (Elsie's) daughter and this performance was the summer that I was 8. I have such incredible memories of attending every Houston performance with my proud dad, then traveling overseas for the first time, and making even more once-in-a-lifetime memories with our extended family. I remember every castmate my mom had, how kind they were to me, and how highly she spoke of them, and I remember falling in love with theatre because of Houston G&S productions. The energy, the excitement, and the professionalism made an impact on me, even at that young age, and prompted me to get involved in community and college theatre years later. What a beautiful walk down memory lane this has been. Thank you!
I've just figured this out - Encore is an English company that is based in Jerusalem. They do musicals and Gilbert & Sullivan. How incongruous, how wonderful! An English operetta performed in English in Jerusalem.
I am pleased that Mabel and Edith sang in the correct key - not lowered as in the film. This is a great performance, good fun and I am sure G & S would have enjoyed the antics!
I wish the bass Mr. Su had sung "A more humane Mikado", "When the night wind howls", or some other G&S bass aria instead of Titwillow, which didn't really suit him. Frankly, once I heard Peter Morgan's Mikado, I was surprised he hadn't been chosen a winner over Su; he even managed to survive his accompanist's issues with composure and humor. He was a wonderful performer in every way, a complete package, while Mr. Su was clearly less comfortable with the G&S and didn't have the low notes for his second aria. Also, a couple of the other winners seemed to have only learned their G&S selections recently--how else to account for the missed words and intonation issues but unfamiliarity with the material, when their other selections were sung so much better? But perhaps the judges weren't concerned about how the singers performed their obligatory G&S selection, which seems strange to me in a competition hosted by a G&S company. btw, it was nice to see Alistair in all those clips from the shows.
