Yes, we start the new year of our Opera Course laughing. Specifically, by popular demand, at Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. (On Friday Feb 10th, Zooming at 10.30am.)
We'll be watching the Australian Opera production of 2006, with Anthony Warlow as the Pirate King (listen here!) and David Hobson as the lad who was meant to be a pilot :-). Here they are in action (with the ship as a backdrop - though actually not much sea.)
Now that you've remembered all those tunes and wickedly clever words, here are two brilliant versions to watch in full for free!
The Australian version with Jon English as Pirate King was shot as a TV special in 1994 by the ABC (when they did such things!) and is on ABC iView. Click here.
For those who want earlier, alternative entertainment with superb cast and film style, view the 1983 movie version with Kevin Kline here.
(Yes, it has real water, real sea - the advantages of doing opera about the sea off stage!)
Which brings me to the introduction to our theme for the term.
You guessed, it's just an excuse to explore a lot of very different operas from different contexts and times, to break our pattern of focus on one composer or period. And Pirates of course wasn't about the sea at all, but a satire on Victorian England's works about duty, and along the way, about the morality that accepts piracy by the rich but not by the desperate poor, and the hypocrisy that bestows honour and wealth according to class, not ability. Not to mention sharp observations on gender relations and women's roles (here's the scene from the film where Frederick tries for the affection of a maiden 'whose homely face and bad complexion' have meant she's given up on love!
But of course the most famous song from this opera is The Major-General's Song, much parodied, even - aargh - used in advertising, but retaining its biting satire.
Read all about it on Wiki here.
Sadly, they didn't include any of my versions: 'I am the very model of a modern sociologist' - and more recently 'I'm not the very model of the wife of an astronomer'. (I've forgotten the words. Though I do remember "I like a dinner party not to be a take-away affair...") And of course "I am the perfect parrot for a photo oportunity", my ode to a rainbow lorikeet, for U3A.
Do you feel the need for some 'real' preparation for our course as our first term begins? There are lots of links to lots of fun stuff on the blog that announced our G&S Vacation Festival way back in 2021.
Meanwhile, keep laughing, enjoy the summer days and hum along.
Lyn, 31/1/23
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