Word: gilbertians
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...oblong, dimly Gothic House of Lords, a furious drama unrolled between two Empire characters each fit to be popped straight into Gilbert & Sullivan. One was the Lord Chief Justice of England, tiny, rolypoly Baron Hewart. The other was the Lord High Chancellor, tall, severe, ascetic Viscount Sankey. Distinctly Gilbertian. with exactly the right lilt, is Lord Sankey's famed remark: "My first brief fetched two guineas-but afterward, roses, roses all the way!" Not since Sullivan set tunes to Trial by Jury has Justice provided a more diverting tale than that told on himself by Lord Sankey...
Hollis-"Patience." One of best of the Gilbertian series, with the regular Civic Light Opera cast including Frank Moulan, William Danforth, and Vivian Hart. Opening Monday...
...make the most of the two best ingenue parts in the Savoy Operas. Gilbert, in a particularly happy mood, made them two pert, attractive little baggages with minds of their own. Tessa and Gianetta steer a refreshing course, avoiding the Victorian doldrums (insipid Mabel, elfish Yum-Yum) and the Gilbertian caricatures (whining Ruth, tasteless Katisha). "When a Merry Maiden Marries" comes off with admirable airiness and grace, and so does the romping fantasy, "'Tis a glorious thing, I ween, to be a Regular Royal Queen." The right note of plaintiveness without nagging is reached in Tessa and Gianetta's advice...
...Gondoliers" is a thing apart from the other Savoy Operas. It is true that the plot reveals the old familiar Gilbertian shreds and patches. Again you see the playwright, with the help of a Latin Little Buttercup, mix those children up, and not a creature knew it. Again, in republican Barataria, he puts down the mighty from their seat; and "ambassadors and such as they grow like asparagus in May, and dukes are three-a-penny." But the music, the whole atmosphere of the piece, is a different matter. It is flowing, Verdian, Rossinian, lightly serious, made of Latin lyricism...
...Frank Moulan, as the Executioner, is even cleverer, if less Gilbertian. A wizened-eyed little wisp of a man, he capers about constantly, kicking up such a breeze with his furious fanning that he all but blows himself into the wings. He takes frequent encores by singing the most irreverent variations on the text, translating "The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring, Tra-La" into every dialect but the Scandinavian. He expands the patter-song "I've Got a Little List" to include the more recent nuisances. Even in Gilbert's day this song was progressively altered to include...