Word: lording
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...libretto for Iolanthe is one of the best he furnished Sullivan. In addition to his usual plot about young lovers kept apart until the end by some silly rule, he filled the stage with fairies, half-fairies and mortals, aimed his barbed burlesque at the House of Lords and, through the character of the Lord Chancellor, at the legal profession (of which Gilbert himself was a member). Although his libretti were largely drawn from ideas in his earlier Bab Ballads, they show a greater infusion of dazzling wit and a range of metrical experimentation that was positively Aristophanic...
...soon meet the Lord Chancellor, who is defendant, prosecutor, judge and jury rolled into one. (Sullivan effects a pun on the legal and musical meanings of canon by repeatedly associating the Lord Chancellor's appearances with fugal imitations in the orchestra.) This part, and others that used to be done by the late Martyn Green, have been for a quarter century the province of John Reed, who remains a lively and comical performer, despite the excessive doffing and donning of pince-nez. The nightmare number is the greatest of all the G. &. S. patter songs; and Reed, in the encore...
...Britain Really Ruled," a parody of patriotic songs like "Rule Britannia." In their spoken Act II discussion they capture to perfection Gilbert's portrait of Victorian dim-witted stuffiness. They are fine, too, in the sure-fire trio "He Who Shies," as they try to catch the lithe-limbed Lord Chancellor indulging in undignified capers (including even a touch of the Charleston...
...amusingly summons up the inflections of the late Dame Edith Evans. Barbara Lilley's Iolanthe and Jane Metcalfe's Phyllis are acceptable but not outstanding. Metcalfe needs to work still on her diction when singing. And why doesn't Lilley use the prescribed veil in her encounter with the Lord Chancellor, who is supposed not to recognize...
...Dutch scientist Van Helsing, I.M. Hobson offers a startling reincarnation of the late Zero Mostel. On opening night, the player of Lord Godalming was not yet secure in his lines. As for the other roles, they are standard summer stock...