Customer Reviews

Gilbert & Sullivan - Master Collection Opera World

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

 

 

For many (most?) of us, this set provides the first chance to see as well as hear all of the principal G & S operas except "Trial by Jury," in all their "innocent merriment." That said, I have to observe that the set is not a source of "unalloyed pleasure." The individual productions range from very good to unmitigated disasters. At the same time, I must acknowledge that it is something of a miracle that any of them are even acceptable because they were produced under conditions that virtually guaranteed that excellence was impossible: the principals apparently worked under the handicap of singing to pre-recorded accompaniment, allowing them no flexibility of phrasing for expression. In addition, each production was rehearsed for only a week and then taped in a week. All are plagued by generally poor diction, especially from the chorus, and by lots of busy, pointless moving around, especially by the chorus. When the chorus has to brandish swords, staffs, lilies, etc., the members rarely are together. Dancing, choreographed by Terry Gilbert (no relation, I'm sure!), is at best passable. Finally, the scenery and costumes mostly look low budget.

Casting is odd. The producers apparently didn't trust the material, so they brought in a "name" performer or two to "star" in each production whether or not they could contribute anything but their names. Some of them are very good, others are disasters. Clive Revill gives excellent performances as John Wellington Wells ("Patience") and Ko-Ko ("Mikado"), and Joel Grey is a wonderful Jack Point ("Yeomen"). Peter Allen brings nothing special to the Pirate King, but he does not disgrace himself or spoil the production. William Conrad as the Mikado can't sing, and he delivers his lines in a strange, falsetto-like voice at odds with the character. Vincent Price can't really sing, either, but he manages to bring off Despard ("Ruddigore") with credit through canny professionalism. Frank Gorshin brings nothing but monotony to King Gama ("Princess Ida").

Peter Marshall and Frankie Howerd combine to utterly destroy "Pinafore." By his own account, Marshall decided to play Captain Corcoran as a song-and-dance man, which has no connection with the character created by Gilbert & Sullivan. Howerd included bits of his standard comic shtick, even though they are totally unrelated to the character of Sir Joseph. Gilbert would have keel-hauled both of them, along with staging director Michael Geliot for letting them get away with it.

"Princess Ida" is staged as a kind of charade or show at some posh estate. This conceit makes the piece mostly unintelligible.

Several distinguished opera singers make substantial contributions in the roles they play. Derek Hammond-Stroud is a superb Bunthorne ("Patience"), but his Lord Chancellor ("Iolanthe") is vitiated by David Pountney's staging, which puts most of the action in the House of Lords, contrary to the libretto; the recognition scene with Iolanthe goes for nothing, when it should be touching. Anne Collins gives enjoyable performances as Jane ("Patience"), the Queen of the Fairies ("Iolanthe"; also compromised by the staging), Lady Blanche ("Princess Ida"), Katisha ("Mikado"), and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro ("Gondoliers"). Elizabeth Bainbridge is a solid Dame Carruthers ("Yeomen"). Stafford Dean is a decent Pooh-Bah ("Mikado"). Richard Van Allan sings Private Willis ("Iolanthe") strongly, but his impact is diminished by Pountney's staging.

One puzzle of the casting is why only two D'Oyly Carte veterans were used. Donald Adams shows his clear mastery of the style in "The Sorcerer" (Sir Marmaduke), "Patience" (Col. Calverly), and "Ruddigore" (Sir Roderic), as does Gillian Knight (Ruth) in "The Pirates of Penzance." Both have exemplary diction and project the characters they are playing while they sing and move. They would have been welcome in many more roles, along with other members of the company.

Each act of each opera is introduced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in stilted, uncomfortable fashion; your DVD player will let you skip him. The booklets with each set have cast lists (including a few errors and omissions) and texts of the musical numbers. Some familiarity with the librettos is certainly useful. In this connection, the ideal companion would be Ian Bradley's "Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan" (Oxford University Press).

In spite of the problems and disappointments, we're not apt to have any alternative to these productions if we want the G & S canon for our home screens. Acquisition of this set should certainly be supplemented by the 1939 film of "The Mikado." It has some peculiarities as a production, but it also has the matchless Ko-Ko of Martyn Green and the first-class Pooh-Bah of Sydney Granville, plus a surprisingly winning Nanki-Poo from Kenny Baker.

This is the "Brent Walker" series, noticeably missing from home video for some time. The set makes up the bulk of the G&S popular canon. Recorded but missing are "Trial by Jury" and "Cox & Box" (more on that in a minute).

I saw the series on PBS when it was originally aired about twenty years ago and enjoyed it very much. Bootleg off-air copies and a short-lived VHS release of the series have been all that's available of the Brent/George Walker set until now. I hear that copyright fights over the videos have resulted in years of delays. There must still be a problem with what would be the 11th DVD in the set: "Trial by Jury", coupled with "Cox & Box", which had been released on the the VHS tapes. Perhaps someone else has the facts about this omission.

Over the years aficionados have argued the videos' production values which seem to vary somewhat from opera to opera. However, the use of close-ups and conventional television effects make for good television, and these are definitely not videos of live stage performances and should not be judged as such.

-True, it's not D'Oyly Carte.
-True, each opera has had some trimming - lines of dialog here and there, a dropped verse or even a song now and then, but they still flow nicely over all.
-True, the choice of comic and romantic lead singers seem strange at times (William Conrad as "The Mikado"!).
-True, these DVDs do have the annoying introduction and intermission lectures by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. which no one I know has ever thought necessary.
-True, optional subtitles might have been nice to have, especially for the some of the rapidunintelligiblepatter songs.

BUT - This is probably the best we're going to get of (almost) everything under one roof.

I purchased the Favorites Collection from the same series, which contains most of the DVDs included in the Master Collection. Let me start by saying I love Gilbert and Sullivan, but the productions in this series are so bad I winced watching them. When Captain Corcoran first appeared on deck, I furrowed by brow and said out loud, "No, it can't be." But sure enough, a check of the credits revealed that the hardy captain of the H.M.S. Pinafore actually was game show icon Peter Marshall. That claim to fame and his constant horse-toothed grin were distracting enough, but his terrible performance made watching this version of Pinafore almost unbearable. Pete should have stuck to the likes of Yahtzee! and Hollywood Squares. Frankie Howerd speaks most of his lines as Sir Joseph. That may have worked fine for Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, but it was a deep disappointment to a diehard G&S fan waiting to hear some of his favorite songs actually sung. The cast includes a plain-looking Josephine and downright ugly (and aging) Ralph Rackstraw. I focus here on Pinafore because it is usually my favorite and was so horribly wrecked here. But the other productions in the series are no better. The choreography is consistently overwrought to the point of being downright silly. The singing, while at times good, is generally uneven. Spoken lines often are poorly delivered. The series was taped in 1982. It shows its age, and not only from the silly looking, big 70s-80s hair on all the men. The camera work is awkward, the sets invariably cheesy. In one scene in Pirates of Penzance, the camera rises from behind a potted plant in an effect reminiscent of early public access cable television. I could go on, and really I'd like to find something positive to say, but I do so love G&S, whose work here is turned into something so bad it's difficult to watch. I was going to sell my boxed set and the extra DVDs I purchased, but I would not inflict them on someone else. Save your money and invest in some of the excellent audio versions that are out there.

This is a rather comprehensive collection of G & S operettas, and (perhaps unfortunately) one of the best resources currently available. The benefits of this collection are that most of the operettas are presented in the traditional style that was intended by the composer and the librettist: Gilbert's stage directions and scenary are generally followed, and costumes are in the authentic D'Oyly Carte tradition. And, these are the only DVD's available for some of these operettas. One can certainly get learn much about the G & S "flavor" by watching these DVD's.

There are some significant downsides, however: several operas, like Trial by Jury, Utopia Limited, and The Grand Duke are missing. The sound quality is also quite poor, and unless one already knows the lyrics or is following along with a vocal score or libretto, most of the sung text is so mushy that it is impossible to decipher. (The chorus numbers are especially bad.) Perhaps most annoying are the fact that many musical numbers are cut altogether, and in some of the productions (such as Yeomen of the Guard), dialogue is unnecessarily modernized, rewriting many of the more brilliant moments of Gilbert's libretti.

But, until a better source is released, this is perhaps the best we have to work with... Tentatively recommended.

The medium of film allows the director the freedom to move in and out of fairyland, inside the Tower of London, from a Japanese Market Place into a Japanese Garden, around the village of Rederring and along the waterways of Venice.

This set of films is a remarkable achievement in many ways. The Brent Walker Organisation announced these recordings back in the early 80's and for a time it was intended to film the stage presentations of the old D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. However, with yet another refusal by the British Arts Council to inject funds into that organisation, (they never did provide any funds although many labour under the misconception that they did), the company had to disband and George Walker had to re-think.

10 operas are presented in this magnificent boxed set (12 in the recent UK release), the 10 Gilbert and Sullivan works from THE SORCERER (1877) to GONDOLIERS (1889) sadly UTOPIA and GRAND DUKE were missed out and of course THESPIS still eludes re-discovery. At the heart of these films is Alexander Faris (himself a guest conductor at D'Oyly Carte from time to time) and he undoubtedly draws some magnificent performances from the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Opera Chorus. These performances are all the more enjoyable now as the digital re-mastering (at lease in the UK release) has not only enhanced the magnificent picture quality, but has provided the soundtracks in three different stereo formats.

The one real sadness of the series is the production of YEOMEN. Not only do the producers advance the action to the time of Charles I (making the costumes for the Yeomen themselves rather less spectacular and somewhat dowdy), but there are numerous cuts; Phoebe loses the 1st verse of her opening number, the act one trio and Fairfax's ballad are both missing, Fairfax's act two ballad, "Strange Adventure", "When a wooer goes a-wooing" and "Rapture, rapture" are absent. The excuse for this was that the piece needed to run no longer than two hours for the purposes of television broadcast, and yet when it was first broadcast in the UK on the BBC, much of the missing material was present. Strange too that, although not the longest of the works, none of the other operas in the series suffer cuts of a similar magnitude.

Some of the productions that seemed so unacceptable in 1982, now are quite charming, once you get past some of the so-called "star" performers. Frankie Howerd is dreadful as Sir Joseph (PINAFORE) but quite charming as the Learned Judge (TRIAL)(one of the works not present in the US release). He is not helped by Peter Marshall who is particularly weak as Captain Corcoran. The production of PRINCESS IDA seems now quite delightful as a play within a play and even Frank Gorshin as King Gama is really quite acceptable, whilst the quality of the musical production, now fully revealed, is stunning. Keith Michell, more associated with the musical comedy repertoire, makes a very good job of Major-General Stanley, Robin Oakapple and Don Alhambra. Joel Gray's American accent grates somewhat on the UK ear in the role of Jack Point but it cannot be denied that he does give an excellent performance.

The gems of this series have to be COX AND BOX (not present in the US set but presented in its full-length 1866/7 version), THE SORCERER and PATIENCE (the latter taken almost entirely from the English National Opera production. Ex-D'Oyly Carte performer Donald Adams makes an invaluable contribution to SORCERER, PATIENCE and RUDDIGORE. It is a pity that his MIKADO was not preserved, but William Conrad (Cannon) gives a surprisingly good performance in the role.

Sadly, no attempt has been made to credit singers who were missed in the credits on the sleeves of the original tapes. For example, I still don't know who plays the Notary in SORCERER or Tolloller in IOLANTHE, they may be named in the end credits, but I never seem to get to watch them.

Each DVD (in the UK release) comes with a copy of the 'production' libretto, missing out the dialogue but giving all the lyrics. One is able to skip the dreadful (and frequently inaccurate and patronising) introductions by Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, there are bonus features about the making of some of the films, picture galleries, and the ability on each DVD to play the musical numbers as if they were a CD (UK, don't know about US release), allowing you to hear the music in the new glorious stereo without the dialogue or the picture.

All in all, twenty years on, this series comes into its own. Anyone who owns the original VHS/NTSC tapes, I would urge you to ditch them and buy this set as a replacement . After all, it is currently the only way to own 10 Gilbert and Sullivan Operas on film.

The UK release is available from www.amazon.co.uk in Region 2 format, so is playable on multiregion DVD players. The cost (depends on the exchange rate) and the catalouge number in the UK is DVD 8228651-11.

...but they definitely could have been better!

It's beyond me why they kept those Douglas Fairbanks Jr. commentaries during the transfer to DVD. Ugh! Useless comments, laughing at his own (lack of) humour, etc.. Thankfully, they can be skipped.

My comments for the most part parallel the previous poster's. I feel the productions showcase the wrong set of people attempting something they really shouldn't have. There are a few (few being the operative word) decent performances. But for the most part, there's an annoying quality about each opera that leaves one feeling less than satisfied.

If the aim was to preserve these operas on film, why couldn't they film them either as a movie (like "Pirates" with Kevin Kline...though possibly not quite so elaborate) or as a stage production (like the grand operas are filmed)? These come off as a cheap rendition of the operas because they are something in between. "Outside" areas look very inside...because they are. At least if you know you'll be seeing a staging, your expectations are geared that way.

I wonder why an opera company with a decent budget couldn't restage these properly and re-film them starting now over a few years. This set is from 1982 and the quality of filming (including special effects [such as those in "Ruddigore"...not sure I liked those]) has improved greatly since then.

On the plus side, the operas are for the most part complete and it's nice to be able to watch the whole production.

Of the batch, "Pinafore" is definitely the worst! I'm not sure what would be the best.

No. I very much like the stage sets and the way we are brought right into the scenes. The sound is as fine as you will find in any production. The negative reviews are by those who have grown up on live productions and would not have it any other way. For me I feel brought into the story and find the sets to be dreamlike and yet real. Some real standout performers are Clive Revell, Donald Adams, Nan Christie. The Sorcerer is really dreamlike amazing and beautiful. Somebody complained of the dancers legs waving up from the Parlimentary benches in Iolanthe as though this were a bad thing. I say pretty legs waving from benches is a good thing. Beverly Mills as Iolanthe was splendid ( I fell in love). And some say Alexander Oliver is too old. No he is right for the time and makes me think of Victorian England. The visual liberties taken like the film sequences are like the fire places in forground, attempts to draw you in and they worked. Good job Judith De Paul and all others. This set is one I would take to a desert Island with and keep my spirits high. Keep in mind this is television and the transfer is likely as good as it will get. If you want to be distanced from Nan Christie's beautiful smile and see things as though they were on the stage do not buy this set. I do believe that a production like this will never be seen again. The taste of the masses is dominating all and our attentions are too divided. Thank goodness there was a time when Movies and TV productions tried for artistic merit and did not stoop to the level of a boxing match. That is perhaps what the reviewers really dread and hate. The lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan had comrades in every walk of life for 100 years and now they are among the obscure. But do not fear. Computer graphics and breakneck scene changes and shallow dialog will force thinking folks to dig back in time and find Gilbert and Sullivan and laugh again in bliss.

The 25 years that have passed since these productions were first aired may not seem much, but in the eyes of the eternity, so don't the 125 years that separate us from the original G&S productions. The effect is pretty much the same - watching these productions, you get a gilmpse right into the past, get to see what was considered funny and well done at the time. And who cares? The people we see seem to be enjoying themselves mostly, both in front of and behind the camera, and that's the main thing. Tastes change anyway.

Sure, some of the productions are rather terrible (Pinafore), but then there are those which are absolutely delightful, with beautiful singers and lovely sets. The cheesy studio feeling is rather a bonus to my eyes, giving the productions a strangely authentic Victorian atmosphere. On some occasions I'm irritated that the "chorus" is too obviously compiled of dancers, who only mime to the pre-recorded music. Also, in some operas the pre-recorded soundtrack has too much echo, whereas the principals who are singing live, have a totally different, dry sound. Other operas don't have that problem.

One has to remember, that in some cases the productions suffer from the fact that they were produced mainly for the audiences in the US. This has influenced the choise of actors, as well as some liberties with the costumes and sets. There are things that would never be done in a real proper D'Oyly Carte production.

But I can't help myself enjoying this set totally. I even enjoy those productions I hate. Thanks Judith de Paul and everyone involved!

Trial by Jury and Cox and Box can be acquired separately, and are heartily recommended.

For a number of the operas, the Brent Walker videos constituted my entire experience for that opera. (Now, of course, I own at least one recording of each.) Sorry about the lenth, but there's a lot to say about this series (much of it less than sanguine, I'm afraid).

The Sorcerer: Best of the series in all probability. Yes, it is riddled with various faults, mainly the cheesy "special" effects. This is (IMHO) Alexander Oliver's best performance in this series. The mustache draws attention away from his age. Donald Adams does wonderfully, and the rest of the cast is pretty consistant. Clive Revels makes a good Sorcerer, though he seems a bit unwilling to go up to his "F" in his opening song (he does it, but he doesn't like it).

HMS Pinafore: Not half as bad as I had expected (though still bad). Frankie Howard makes little effort to stick to the script, and it shows. Peter Marshall as the Captain is acceptable, though his dancing in "Nevermind the why and wherefore" is quite painful (he doesn't have that sort of figure). Ralph was one of the redeeming factors of the production. Yes, he doesn't hit the B-flat at the beginning of the Act 1 finale, but you have to admit, he sings pretty good *and* looks the part. (To be blunt: He's in shape, taller than the soprano, and isn't too old.)

Pirates of Penzance: Dreadful. Honestly, I'd rank this one lower than Pinafore. The only redeeming factor is Gillian Knight as Ruth. The staging and choreography is overdone, and Peter Allen as the Pirate King is so bad he manages to ruin the Paradox trio, let alone the act one finale. The viewer groans every time the pirates enter...for the wrong reason.

Patience: Along with The Sorcerer, one of the best of this series. Sandra Dugdale's Patience sings fabulously and has a pretty good grip on her role (my one complaint is her costume...don't know what they were thinking there). Hammond-Stroud's Bunthorne is not first-choice (and a bit too...portly. But of course, John Fryatt as Grosvener sort of cancels him out). Ella gets some good stuff to do, particularly her business with her cymbals. Anne Collin's Jane is excellent.

Iolanthe: Iolanthe is my favorite of the operas, which makes it impossible for me to fully recommend this version, despite it's assets. The best thing is Anne Collin's Fairy Queen. Fairyland (if that's what it's supposed to be at the beginning, rather than Arcady) looks like Candyland. Too much of the action takes place in the House of Lords, minimizing the impact of Iolanthe's song. (Willis gets a paper background - really.) Pamela Field should have been given Phyllis rather than Leila.

Princess Ida: Almost alright. Yeah, that "play within a play" thing really stinks, but looking beyond that, it's not too bad. Hilarion can actually pass for 22, and Ida (Nan Christie) can sing really well (she also does well as Aline and Gianetta). Frank Gorshin in no way distinguishes himself, and does little to add to one's opinion of Gama's two songs. Arac sounds a little under-powered.

The Mikado: Not the best, not the worst. Pooh-Bah, Katisha (love the goggles), and Ko-Ko are the best (in my humble opinion). I have little to say about William Conrad except he doesn't even try to sing like any other Mikado. The choreography that is present in all of these videos works better in the Mikado than in most. (It also comes across well in Patience, where aesthetic dancing is a boon.) One realizes how flat this Mikado is in some places when viewing the 1939 D'Oyly Carte video (which should have been longer), but it still holds up well enough to see more than once.

Ruddigore: Although I wasn't impressed with it the first time I saw it, it came up fresher than I had remembered. The special effects are again, glaringly...glaring, but very fine singing (and acting) from Dugdale as Rose Maybud, Ann Howard as Mad Margret, and Donald Adams as Sir Roderic help the set considerably. Richard (an amazing singer) does very well too, though his part is cut down quite ruthlessly. Vincent Price (whose claim to fame I was also ignorant of, until I inquired into the matter), is good enough as Despard. He can sing, just not as well as the rest of the cast. The set seems a bit lower-budget than it should have (hey, they had a million dollars for this production).

Yeomen of the Guard: The worst of the series. Pheobe has a wonderful voice, but the all too numerous cuts (which include the second verse of her song), manage to turn the grandest of G&S into a dismal affair. How can you cut "Strange adventure"??? Fairfax sings pretty well, but looks - never mind. Elsie's costume is...incomplete. Joel Grey as Jack Point doesn't even come close to satisfactory, particularly with all these other faults. (Sir Richard and Wilfred are both fine.)

The Gondoliers: Yes, prone to incite boredom among those unfamiliar with the opera (and many familiar with it), but adequate in most areas. Keith Michell (whose best role was Robin Oakapple) doesn't exude Don Alhambra as Kenneth Sandford did in the 1961 D'Oyly Carte recording; part of this is the fact that his voice isn't that of a bass or a more...lyric baritone. Generally good casting for such a myriad of parts. The dialogue cuts are unfortunate but necessary to fit the thing into the two hour frame (minus a few minutes for the Douglas Fairbanks Jr. intros, spurious after or during the first viewing).

Therefore, going by Amazon's standards, this video set deserves three stars ("it's okay," though it almost deserves a fourth star, just for the better videos such as Patience and The Sorcerer). Try your library for a few of this series before investing in the whole thing. (Using interlibrary loan services, I was able to view all 10 in this set, plus Trial by Jury and Cox and Box, sadly omitted here.)

We wait expectantly for the next series of Gilbert & Sullivan Operas on Video.

I bought this for my husband for Christmas and he loves it. We have enjoyed watching each one and following along with the words included. It is well done, but not like a polished movie. It is like watching a good recording of a very good live production. Props are minimal, but musicians are excellent and so are the costumes. The acting is kind of funny at times but very enjoyable. We have always been curious about the lesser known Gilbert and Sullivan shows and now we can see them whenever we want!