Word: pattered
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...obligatory happy ending, exactly who has been doing what to whom. But all this hardly matters. The reason for The Mikado's enduring popularity is not the complexity of its plot; it's the play's fast-paced, brilliant comedic development, endearingly ridiculous characters, unremittingly sparkling dialogue and clever patter songs, which include some of the best-known ditties in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire...
What's more, in this opera all the players can actually sing. The majority of the cast deliver their "patter songs"--the quick-paced, witty recitatives that are the trademark of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta--with careful articulation of the words. This allows viewers who aren't familiar with the play to follow the plot and understand the jokes. Yamakawa and Rupp are more conventionally operatic singers. Yamakawa's solos are lovely, and the music occasionally surprises with its beauty, as in the grief-colored "merry madrigal" near the beginning...
...which was visibly pining away on the unused, chop-shopped second stage. Steve Perkins gamely took up that sad, child-like tin-role with normal drums, to surprisingly good effect. The old favorite, although inevitable, was actually made a surprise through Farrell's roundabout, shaggy-dog introduction. His lyrical patter with the audience was, in fact, more a highlight to the concert than not: however dippy, they were drenched with sincerity and often reached unexpected beauty...
Could we soon be hearing the pitter-patter of little John-Johns? More
...There was one magic moment, really, after that speech. When he finished, there was this complete silence. Then, you were listening, from inside the abbey, and you heard this patter ?it sounded like rain. What was happening? And then you realized it was applause, that had started outside the abbey doors, in the crowd. And then it began to spread inside. It was like a wind, like a wave, that came in, and up through the pews, and then receded until it was outside again...