Sullivan's string of pearls
Apr. 27th, 2009 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac(I had an urge to listen to some of this a few days ago, and as I don't have a CD of it, I turned to YouTube, which I now inflict on you.)
Princess Ida is the least-known of the ten major Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and also the most problematic. Gilbert was corrosive on every subject to which he turned his satirical eye, but while such institutions as the Royal Navy, the House of Lords, and the late-Victorian aesthetic movement are not particularly close to most of our hearts, satire on the higher education of women is apt to bite a bit deeper.
The topic was in the air at the time. Women's colleges were being founded with some frequency in Britain in the 1870s and 1880s. The title character of Princess Ida is a separatist feminist who founds a cloistered women's college on a remote mountaintop not just to avoid men, whom she despises, in general, but in particular in repugnance at her own involuntary betrothal in infancy to the prince of a neighboring kingdom.
The male characters in this operetta think women's education is either frightening or ridiculous; and while, as is typical for Gilbert, many of these men are imbeciles, not all of them are. And in the end they get their way, so while it's possible to laugh at the chauvinist sentiments, if you want to listen to Princess Ida at all you may find the lyrics and plot are just something one has to put up with.
What you should listen to Princess Ida for is the music. Much of it is only routine Sullivan, to be sure, but there are some lost gems hiding in the fields. In particular, there's a sequence of songs in the second act (this operetta has three acts) that are musically so sparkling they're often known as Sullivan's string of pearls. Let me introduce you to them, and to one other favorite song. I have six selections here, taken from five different productions of the show.
First, the background. In Act I, Prince Hilarion, to whom Ida had been betrothed in their infancy, arrives at his long-expected wedding only to discover that it has been postponed indefinitely for the reasons given above. Accompanied by two friends, Cyril and Florian, Hilarion sets off for Ida's remote stronghold to see if he can win her over.
Act II is set at Ida's college. The first scene introduces some of the students and faculty, demonstrating the strictness of the rules but also revealing undercurrents of dissatisfaction. After they depart the stage, the three men arrive, lamenting their travel-weariness and informing each other of the remarkable goals of the college.
Lyrics
The men find some cast-off academic robes and decide to disguise themselves as female aspirant students.
These performers may not be as good singers as the previous set, but their physical comedy is delightfully energetic. They're having such a good time, they sing this entire song twice. Lyrics.
Ida returns, admits the three "homely ladies" to the college, and after assuring them they'll be happy here, rather oddly sings this sad but beautiful song about the sorrowfulness of life.
I picked this performance because the Ida is so good; unfortunately the men are terrible, and Hilarion forgets his line at 1:10. Lyrics.
One of the professors instructs the new students on the subject of the superiority of Woman and the inferiority of Man, who is naught but a well-behaved Ape.
This is the same production as in "I am a maiden" earlier. Lyrics.
The feint can't be held for long. Both the professor, and the student who walks in at 2:28 of the previous cut, realize that the new students are men. But rather than being repulsed as their teachings demand and as Ida would be (and will be, once she finds out about it), they're actually rather delighted. I could only find a video of the second verse of the resulting song.
Lyrics.
That's the end of the "string of pearls," or at least of what I pulled out of it, but my single favorite song from the operetta is in Act III. To her total disgust, Ida is forced to call upon her highly martial, but extremely dimwitted, brothers as champions to defend her honor. Here, the eldest brother prepares for battle -- by removing his armor, because it's so uncomfortable. And he does it in the form of Sullivan's immensely clever pastiche of a G.F. Handel aria.
What he's taking off ought to be plate armor, so the costuming isn't the best; but the singer - who, as you might be able to guess, is Canadian - could not be bettered. Lyrics.
Princess Ida is the least-known of the ten major Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and also the most problematic. Gilbert was corrosive on every subject to which he turned his satirical eye, but while such institutions as the Royal Navy, the House of Lords, and the late-Victorian aesthetic movement are not particularly close to most of our hearts, satire on the higher education of women is apt to bite a bit deeper.
The topic was in the air at the time. Women's colleges were being founded with some frequency in Britain in the 1870s and 1880s. The title character of Princess Ida is a separatist feminist who founds a cloistered women's college on a remote mountaintop not just to avoid men, whom she despises, in general, but in particular in repugnance at her own involuntary betrothal in infancy to the prince of a neighboring kingdom.
The male characters in this operetta think women's education is either frightening or ridiculous; and while, as is typical for Gilbert, many of these men are imbeciles, not all of them are. And in the end they get their way, so while it's possible to laugh at the chauvinist sentiments, if you want to listen to Princess Ida at all you may find the lyrics and plot are just something one has to put up with.
What you should listen to Princess Ida for is the music. Much of it is only routine Sullivan, to be sure, but there are some lost gems hiding in the fields. In particular, there's a sequence of songs in the second act (this operetta has three acts) that are musically so sparkling they're often known as Sullivan's string of pearls. Let me introduce you to them, and to one other favorite song. I have six selections here, taken from five different productions of the show.
First, the background. In Act I, Prince Hilarion, to whom Ida had been betrothed in their infancy, arrives at his long-expected wedding only to discover that it has been postponed indefinitely for the reasons given above. Accompanied by two friends, Cyril and Florian, Hilarion sets off for Ida's remote stronghold to see if he can win her over.
Act II is set at Ida's college. The first scene introduces some of the students and faculty, demonstrating the strictness of the rules but also revealing undercurrents of dissatisfaction. After they depart the stage, the three men arrive, lamenting their travel-weariness and informing each other of the remarkable goals of the college.
Lyrics
The men find some cast-off academic robes and decide to disguise themselves as female aspirant students.
These performers may not be as good singers as the previous set, but their physical comedy is delightfully energetic. They're having such a good time, they sing this entire song twice. Lyrics.
Ida returns, admits the three "homely ladies" to the college, and after assuring them they'll be happy here, rather oddly sings this sad but beautiful song about the sorrowfulness of life.
I picked this performance because the Ida is so good; unfortunately the men are terrible, and Hilarion forgets his line at 1:10. Lyrics.
One of the professors instructs the new students on the subject of the superiority of Woman and the inferiority of Man, who is naught but a well-behaved Ape.
This is the same production as in "I am a maiden" earlier. Lyrics.
The feint can't be held for long. Both the professor, and the student who walks in at 2:28 of the previous cut, realize that the new students are men. But rather than being repulsed as their teachings demand and as Ida would be (and will be, once she finds out about it), they're actually rather delighted. I could only find a video of the second verse of the resulting song.
Lyrics.
That's the end of the "string of pearls," or at least of what I pulled out of it, but my single favorite song from the operetta is in Act III. To her total disgust, Ida is forced to call upon her highly martial, but extremely dimwitted, brothers as champions to defend her honor. Here, the eldest brother prepares for battle -- by removing his armor, because it's so uncomfortable. And he does it in the form of Sullivan's immensely clever pastiche of a G.F. Handel aria.
What he's taking off ought to be plate armor, so the costuming isn't the best; but the singer - who, as you might be able to guess, is Canadian - could not be bettered. Lyrics.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 07:54 pm (UTC)For me, the gems are the finale to Act I (counting it as a three-act work), and the numbers for the three men commencing with "Gently, gently, evidently, we are safe so far." As with Così (and I do not make that connection lightly!) the truth is in the ensembles, although I also think King Gama's "If you give me your attention" is riotously funny.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 11:12 pm (UTC)