Word: sullivans
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Oyly Carte Opera Company began its third week at the Shubert last night, offering that well-tested favorite of high schools, little theaters, and community singing groups--"H.M.S. Pinafore." Like the two previous Gilbert and Sullivan works that we have had the unusual pleasure of seeing, "Pinafore" displayed the competence and professional quality that comes only with long, long experience. The production, though it may have stopped short of absolute perfection here and there, certainly should have been enough to satisfy all but the most picayune faultfinder...
...traditional curtain-raiser began the evening's activities. It is really just a short sketch expanded into a half-hour with music, a kind of parody of coincidence-filled drama, and a wonderful curtain line. Sir Arthur Sullivan was the composer, but the libretto was written by two gentlemen named Morton and Burnand. A few years later Sullivan entered into a much more successful partnership...
With "H.M.S. Pinafore" Gilbert and Sullivan gained their first great popular success, and in their next work they bathed themselves in their new-found virtuosity. Gilbert began to write profounder satire and at the same time became more ambitious in his lyrics, while Sullivan indulged in counterpoint and harmony as he grew more adept at tossing off melodies. "The Pirates of Penzance" was almost as successful as its predecessor, although it dealt with such abstractions as "duty," and had no characters to compare with Buttercup or Sir Joseph Porter K.C.B...
Mabel, probably the most difficult role that Sullivan ever wrote, was sung imperfectly by Helen Roberts, but it would be difficult to imagine anyone acting a winsome part more winsomely. In the somewhat lesser role of Edith, Denise Findley gave by far the best female performance. The sets were as usual wonderful, and the conducting of Isadore Godfrey was for the most part an improvement on the D'Oyly Carte recording. His original use of the accompanying bass and of the French horns was one of the many surprises of the evening. Among other pleasures were the singing...
...death of the last surviving witness in the trial was reported last week. Maid Bridget Sullivan, who died in Butte, testified that when she came upon Miss Lizzie shortly after the murders, her hair was in order and there were no bloodstains on her dress. That testimony helped clear Lizzie Borden-even though gossip about her never died, living on in a well-known jingle...