Customer Reviews

Gilbert & Sullivan - Iolanthe / Forrester, Donkin, Stratford Festival

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First of all, so many of the lyrics have been reworded that one can scarcely call this a Gilbert and Sullivan at all! Sullivan, yes; Gilbert,no. For some reason, the director has decided to use a framing device: a fairly inept troupe is putting on a production of "Iolanthe." This works to the extent of a few mild laughs but the whole concept ruins the beauty of the work and detracts from the intended satire. Now and then, as in the Act I finale, Sullivan's music is distorted into something entirely at odds with his score: in this case, a minstrel-show beat for no particular reason. So while this is a visually pleasing venture, it is not what the box advertizes. Caveat emptor, you know.

While I agree for the most part with the other review, I'll add that the G&S purist will be very disappointed by the arbitrary changes and additions to Sullivan's contribution and very, very disappointed by the pretty much irrelevant local references and such arbitrary re-wordings (e.g. to allow a needless change of "five and twenty" to "twenty five". If you really, really like G&S, give this recording a pass.

In 1882, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan introduced a beautiful opera at the Savoy theater. Iolanthe was at once human and funny, moving and satirical. Unfortunately, this Stratford production seems to have latched onto the phrase "comic opera" and decided that drama and acting are insignificant, and that each scene -- in some cases, each line -- should be considered in a vacuum to maximize comic effect. The result is a series of scenes that betray characters as massively inconsistent and unbelievable, and a show that is much less than the sum of its parts.

I don't generally mind rewrites in cases where the original lyrics would be unintelligible; I think it's perfectly reasonable to write "Captain Shaw" or "Ovidius Naso" out of Iolanthe. But to a modern American audience, many of the dated political jokes are no better understood.

All told, the musical changes, the lyric changes, and especially the (lack of nuanced) acting indicates a complete disrespect for the original product, and makes one wonder why Stratford is (at least nominally) doing G&S at all.

Like so many opera films, this presentation is a film of a stage show. Rather than ignore this, the producers include behind the scenes vignettes of the company and stage hands. These brief interludes provided amusing transitions between parts of the opera and were not overdone. The playful spirit is in keeping with the irreverant tone of sirs G&S.

It is too common these days for producers to try to upgrade the words of G&S operas, both for political correctness and to make them more topical. This production is no exception. Unfortunately, the new references often are so topical that they have no relevancy a few years later. For example, the wonderful line, "When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte, as any child can tell, the House of Peers, throughout the war, did nothing in particular, and did it very well!" is replaced by some drivel about the mostly forgotten Falkland war. At least the changes are documented in the DVD version.

There are no captions or sub-titles available on this DVD, which is unfortunate. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful version of Iolanthe. The players are in good voice and they clearly understand that this is comic opera. This Canadian company ranks among the most refreshing modern interpreters of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Every Stratford production of Gilbert and Sullivan appeared to be in a race to hit rock bottom with a thud. They all succeeded. "Oh, horror!" cries the British House of Peers in this comic opera and, for once, with good reason.

With the exception of the Maureen Forrester, it is clear that singing was not regarded as a requirement to appear on the stage at Stratford, Ontario. Fortunately for Forrester, her singing career was glorious enough to survive even this ugly blot. Barely.

Rather than skilled musical performers, the Ontario stage was infested with third-rate clowns who felt free to be "funny" whenever and, alas, however possible.

Evidently, Stratford's dramaturge, a person who might someday hope to aspire to the higher calling of hack, decided that W. S. Gilbert was incompetent and out of date, so Gilbert's words were improved by the addition of Canadian local references and allusions to long-since forgotten political shenanigans in Ottawa.

In the original broadcast, the director carefully explained how he had cut away a century of moldy tradition to return Gilbert and Sullivan to their music hall roots. If he had uttered such preposterous nonsense to Sullivan, who was a gentlemen, the formally trained and very serious composer would have smiled politely and promptly absented himself from such an obvious fool. If the director had made that monstrous suggestion to Gilbert, who was not, the fiery and short-tempered dramatist would first have punched the bounder's lights out and then hauled him into court for slander.

Pitiful, just purely pitiful.

I just watched this VCR with two children, aged 7 and 10, who don't beg, in general, to stay up and finish an opera (ok, an OPERETTA!). We had a joyous time of it in three tranches. To me that's a solid two thumbs way, way up.

Yes, the sound quality is infuriatingly bad and the "videoization" of a stage work intrusive and distracting. The slip-sync dubbing amounts to a face slap at times. And yes, the voices aren't uniformly wonderful.

But the staging is a delight with clumbsy faeries, caped nobles, pop-up book sets, stage hands continually caught in the frame and inventive swinging entries. It kept us all charmed. And glued.

If the story, and its CBC modernizing, is a tad unaccessible, so what! The music and its delivery are riveting and my girls were there giving the TV a standing O as the credits rolled. Way to do, Stratford!

This is a very ideas driven production, mostly well sung and very well shot in 16:9 for Television/DVD.
There is a tendency for contempory productions of 'The Gilberts', to guild the lilly somewhat, in their haste to bring 'a breath of fresh air to these old warhorses'. Well and good and I have no objection to contempory, local references, intersperced in lyrics, where there is a clear anachronism, but to re-write two thirds of The Knightmare Song, is something of a liberty.
Stratford has a long reputation for innovative work in this repertoire. Their 'Gondoliers', was a classic and has been seen round the world, adopted by Opera companies in search of an annual cash cow. 'Iolanthe' may not have that drawing power, but the detail and enthusiasm apparent in this effort is refreshing and effective.
The set design needs special mention, as it is simultaneously ingenious and funny. I'll not do a spoiler here, because the effect is too good.
All in all, while some of the new business is a tad fussy, this is a splendid production.

This review is mostly written for people who don't know "Iolanthe" because over here in America the musical isn't very famous and is seldom put on. I only learned about it myself by accident several years ago when it was produced by a local college in my area. I went to see it without knowing anything about it nor even having heard anything about it. I was bowled over by the genius of the music, comedy, story, humor and everything about this masterpiece as portrayed by the college music and drama students!

After seeing the play at the college, I started looking for CD music and VHS tapes and DVD's of Iolanthe. Apparently there are only TWO versions on video --- VHS or DVD---this one and one done in Canada by "The Stratford Festival Company". I have both of these. Is this one and the Stratford any good? Some reviewers apparently think not. But, the play---the words and music--- are "almost indestructable" in my humble opinion because of the genius of the two creators, Mr. Gilber and Mr. Sullivan. Of course, "they could be better" in this aspect or t'other on the tape and DVD versions. But, I am just grateful that there are ANY video versions of this masterpiece available at all! Buy one or t'other of these...don't be too critical ("the glass is half full rather than half empty" type of attitude), listen to the music and the clever words, and I know you'll enjoy!

Afterword: One part of the musical play that I thought was especially funny and clever is the song, "Loudly Let The Trumpets Bray". This is the song and music when The Arrogant Lords, who are really silly things, come arrogantly marching on stage with their Beefeater Costumes and their noses arrogantly in the air. As they march on stage they sing: "Bow ye tradesmen bow ye masses, bow ye lower middle classes." They are acting as though they are "superior" to these "masses" thus telling the masses to bow to them---the Lords of The House of Lords. And, of course, these "noble lords" are actually very silly and stupid! The effect of being told to "bow" to these silly guys is very funny I assure you! :o)

One more word, I see the price of the DVD is $126.00!!! Actually, you can get the VHS Tape version for less than $10.00 used on Amazon. Email Boland7214@aol.co

Of the two versions of IOLANTHE available this is bar far the best. The purists will certainly balk at some of the tampering, but ever since the Joseph Papp Broadway version of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE nobody seems to be able to leave the G&S works alone! All things considered this version is easy to digest and captures the spirit of the thing! Now that The D'Oyly Carte is long gone all we Savoyards have is our memories of traditional productions.

The production, quality of acting and singing, and presentation of this show is truely excellent.

The singing is wonderful, the dancing is just delightful. The pre-show, backstage scene is great.

My one complaint is that the Stratford Festival people take far too much liberty with the words of Gilbert. For some unknown reason they replaced the last 2 verses of the "Nightmere Song" with their own words. Gilbert's verses are absolutely delightful. Why change these. They "modernized" other parts of Gilbert's libretto as well.

Why would anyone presume to write G&S dialogue better than Gilbert. When references are dated or localized, it is a joy to study these references and discuss them. My goodness, that is one of the delights of G&S.