Taking a break from all the unity and healing to escape into Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
"I don't say I'm better than anybody else--but I'll be danged if I ain't just as good."
I didn't remember how terrific the Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance were.
But don't miss the 1939 Mikado. The costumes and sets alone are enough to recommend it, and amazing things they did with the hair. Obviously it had little to do with a real-life Japan of any era. It was more like Flash Gordon: generic exotic culture on which to project jokes about Victorian pieties.
T99, thank you for the Pirates of Penzance link.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best version of this operetta I've seen. Linda Ronstadt was at her absolute best.
Eric
I so liked the male lead's voice that I hunted for more of his work, only to find that he's a pop singer of a sort I can't bear to listen to, too bad.
ReplyDeleteThanks- I 'll watch it later, gotta go be the very model of a modern major general.
ReplyDeleteI also love that version of "Pirates." Their version of "With Cat-Like Tread" is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI love "When the Foeman Bares His Steel."
ReplyDelete“Go to Glory — And the Grave!”
ReplyDeleteI lost track of how many times our kids watched Pirates.
ReplyDeleteBut don't miss the 1939 Mikado. The costumes and sets alone are enough to recommend it, and amazing things they did with the hair. Obviously it had little to do with a real-life Japan of any era. It was more like Flash Gordon: generic exotic culture on which to project jokes about Victorian pieties.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm trying it, but... Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum?
ReplyDeleteI know, the disrespect for young nubile women troubled me too.
ReplyDelete