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Post by mikef6 on Dec 13, 2017 19:56:57 GMT
I have been assured by an actual historian that this is an authentic Victorian Era joke (and you thought the Victorians had no sense of humor).
OK, I just said they had a sense of humor. I didn’t say they had a good sense of humor.
Also, in about two and a half weeks on New Year’s Eve, we will also be celebrating the premiere performance of TPOP – in New York City – on December 31, 1879. This will be its 138th birthday. (If it had been born in Leap Year on the 29th of February and if you went by birthdays, by a simple arithmetical process you will soon discover it would just be 34 and a half years old.)
The show, which has never been off the stage and is just as popular as it ever was; it’s popularity has never flagged. I saw a production just this last weekend (December 10) that filled a large theater auditorium to capacity.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 18, 2017 22:08:14 GMT
mikef6 very punny, very punny bad enuf even for Doghouse6 to have written it.
Pirates is one of the few G&S's that I have managed to see on stage and I Really enjoyed it. Have you seen the movie?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2018 0:21:09 GMT
The answer was obvious and I still missed it.
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Post by ellynmacg on Jan 7, 2018 9:17:31 GMT
Satyagraha, as someone who is a big fan (for over fifty years) of G&S, I hope you'll excuse my correcting you: the works of Gilbert and Sullivan (as a team) should not be classified--no matter how often they are--as operettas. They are more properly described as "comic operas" or "light operas"--although probably the most precise term (because it sets G&S apart from Mozart and other sometime composers of comic opera) is "the Savoy operas", after the theater where most of them were first produced. What's the difference? There are many differences, but let's start off with these two. First: operettas, though they may have many humorous moments, take themselves seriously; the Savoy operas, though they had occasional serious moments--and one of them, The Yeomen of the Guard, has an arguably tragic ending--do not take themselves seriously. Second: in operetta (including the works of Victor Herbert, Franz Lehar, and Johann Strauss,Jr.), the music is of paramount importance; in G&S, the words are just as important as, if not more than, the music. Even well over a century after their debuts, one still hears quotations from Gilbert's lyrics (without including the music); when was the last time anyone used a quotation from, for instance, Rida Johnson Young, one of Victor Herbert's most frequent lyricists--without also singing the tune it was set to? Sorry for the long-winded correction/explanation, but, as I indicated earlier, G&S is highly important to me. Obsessed? Why ever would you say a thing like that?
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Post by alfromni on Jan 8, 2018 1:16:03 GMT
And to me. A life-long fan!!
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 8, 2018 23:05:05 GMT
in G&S, the words are just as important as, if not more than, the music. Even well over a century after their debuts, one still hears quotations from Gilbert's lyrics (without including the music); when was the last time anyone used a quotation from, for instance, Rida Johnson Young, one of Victor Herbert's most frequent lyricists--without also singing the tune it was set to? Sorry for the long-winded correction/explanation, but, as I indicated earlier, G&S is highly important to me. Obsessed? Why ever would you say a thing like that? So far no one has mentioned that I did just that in the O.P. Hint: the quotation is in the (parenthesis).
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Post by ellynmacg on Apr 22, 2018 19:45:36 GMT
This is true, sir, and thank you for proving (or at least demonstrating) my point. Incidentally, although Mabel is one of my favourite--one simply must use the British spelling in this context--soprano roles (back in my operatic days, I used to do a passable rendition of "Poor Wand'ring One"), I'm not as fond of the character of Frederic--he's such a self-righteous prig*, although he's somewhat redeemed by his duet with Mabel in "Ah, Leave Me Not to Pine". Aside from that, however, I much enjoy the opera, even though it doesn't quite rank with my personal favourites in G & S (not necessarily in order): The Yeomen of the Guard, Iolanthe, and The Mikado. Anybody else care to list his or her top three (or five) Gilbert & Sullivan works? I love discussing G & S! (If the O/P would prefer, I could move this question into a separate thread.) *Although Frederic is a sweetie compared to Alexis in The Sorcerer and Col. Fairfax in Yeomen--those two guys are a disgrace to tenors everywhere!
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Post by alfromni on Sept 28, 2018 10:10:47 GMT
I love the title of the topic, i.e "a joke". Gilbert would love it. He was of course an ultimate satirist.
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