Victorian Music and Culture: A Reflection

This semester has been a wonderful exploration of the music and culture of Victorian England.  Although we still have several weeks to go, I felt as if a reflection was in order for this, my final blog.  As one can tell immediately from viewing my blog in this class, my primary focus during this era are the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.  As a specialist in this field, it has been wonderful to really explore a variety of areas both directly and indirectly connected to these works.  The other subjects covered, such as the music hall, the opera house box, various gender concerns, other composers of the time; these all help me contextualize my work with the Savoy Operas, and I hope open my eyes to the full environment in which these works were created. 

I have enjoyed sharing my G&S expertise with my classmates, and look forward to next week’s discussions of Princess Ida. I have had a little experience with the show, having twice performed it for fun with a group called The Sunday Afternoon Gilbert and Sullivan Society, singing Cyril both times.  I was a finalist in the fall 2007 auditions for NYGASP’s production of Princess Ida, one of four tenors seriously considered for the role of Cyril, out of 35 who auditioned.  Finally, there was a ‘pot-luck’ Princess Ida one night at the Festival Club in Buxton last summer.  They had a Cyril, but were lacking a Hilarion.  I spent 1 hour learning as much of the role as I could, and sight-read the show.  It was a crash-course in the other principal tenor, but then again, very few of the Savoy Operas give you the chance to have two lead tenor parts.

Princess Ida has a lot to say, and can cause varying degrees of controversy.  In an earlier conversation with one of my classmates, there was a degree of anger expressed at the way in which Princess Ida is presented in the Youtube clips posted for our class.  However, when I explained my own take on the topics of controversy, my classmate said that that was nothing like what they got out of the videos.  It will be an interesting discussion next week, and I hope to add to the debate by presenting the thoughts of Dr. Carolyn Williams, whose new book, Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre and Parody I just received directly from the author.  I will be reading the chapter on Princess Ida this weekend.

This kind of lively debate / discussion is what has made this class so interesting and enjoyable throughout the semester.  It will be be a shame to see it all go in a few weeks.

Gilbert and Sullivan Parody

  An interesting, and sometimes frightening, thing can occur when music moves from the realm of copyright into the public domain.  In the case of the music to the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, there has been plenty of both.  There have been parodies ranging from Forbidden Broadway’s original season (‘Poor Warbling Star’, ‘I am a Kevin Kline’, etc.) to a version of ‘Baby Got Back’ sung in the ‘style’ of G&S with video footage from the Pabst Pirates of Penzance movie staring Kevin Kline.  The latter is found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJdEFf_Qg4

Gilbert and Sullivan tunes have been used for advertising purposes from nearly the moment they became public domain.  One example I know is an advertisement for Brillo pads to the tune of “Willow tit-willow” from The Mikado.  Another is for Blue Bonnet margarine, to the tune of “I’m called little buttercup” from H.M.S. Pinafore.

Then there have been very witty parodies that have been used for sending messages, or educational purposes.  A few are linked below:

Here, Pinky and the Brain sing about the importance of knowing your history to the tune of “When I was a lad” from H.M.S. Pinafore. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPlTB0eJbQQ

In this video, the elements of the periodic table are identified by Tom Lehrer, to the tune of “I am the very model of a modern major-general” from The Pirates of Penzance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Finally, one of the most recent uses of that same song comes from a video about President Barrack Obama.  In this video, the lyrics are brilliantly set to send the political message of Obama’s success in office thus far.  A professionally edited video, the cast is impressive.  Not only does Ron Butler look fairly like Obama, but he has a clear voice that effectively presents the words intelligibly and musically.  One of the most impressive aspects of this video, in my opinion, is the incorporation of a chorus of office employees that wrap up each verse and add a layer of fun and amusement that most other parodies of this song miss.  If only more parodies of the music to the Savoy Operas were this well presented...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Topsy Turvy: The other characters portrayed

In class on Thursday we began the landmark G&S film Topsy Turvy.  This work is well known in the G&S realm, and on the whole, I believe, rather well-liked  Early reviews from Savoyards truly in the know praise the accuracy of the work in its entirety, seeming willing to put aside the relatively minor anachronisms in favor of this very real portrayal of these people at this point in their famed careers.  The G&S Archives has several reviews of the work, the most telling by SavoyNet notable Peter Parker.  In his review, he emphasizes that the highlight performance in a movie filled with good performances was that of Jim Broadbent as W.S. Gilbert.  It is true that Broadbent stands out, and his very true-to-life portrayal of the famed librettist is a delight to watch.

What might be a bit confusing to my classmates are some of the other characters portrayed in the movie.  As man undoubtedly know (and which is of course obvious from what we've seen), Richard D'Oyly Carte was the impresario of the Savoy.  It was at his urging that Gilbert and Sullivan first worked together, and he was a strong point in keeping the team working throughout their long joint career.

The characters that particularly interested me were the performers who were shown.  Of course, the lead comic man, George Grossmith, was a very important figure in the realm of the Savoy Operas.  Making his debut with G&S as John Wellington Wells in The Sorcerer, Grossmith was from that point on the primary patter man for the company.  The original patter man, for both Thespis and Trial by Jury, was Fred Sullivan, Sir Arthur's brother.  Unfortunately, Fred died before The Sorcerer came into being.

In the upcoming conclusion, you will get to see more of the performers.  I encourage anyone who has any interest to look at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte on the G&S Archives to get a better idea of who these people were, historically, before seeing them all at work in the premiere of Mikado.  I believe this film is a wonderful portrayal.

Women in the Hall

The two readings for Tuesday were very interesting.  A major connection between the two of them were women working in the Music Hall.  However, two very different approaches were discussed taken by women who performed.  In the first reading, performing women were discussed via their portrayal in fictional writing.  The focus was on actresses and the various ways they were portrayed.  Acting was not considered the most 'appropriate' profession, but there were some views that women were doing an honest work to support themselves or their families.  It was seen by some as a viable option for work-class women, who really only had the option of shop work if they wanted to be out of the house.

The second chapter we ready focused on a very different way for women to make a living in the Hall.  The naked tableaux vivants were a phenomenon that caused much controversy.  The trick into making these nude portrayals acceptable in the public was the concept of comparing the women to statues.  By becoming stationary recreations of noted works of art, there was a decrease of the perceived vulgarity of the naked female form.  While there was certainly no way to completely avoid accusations of vulgarity on the stage, there was nonetheless an acceptance by enough to consider this a legitimate entertainment at the Hall.

The tableaux vivants saw life again, in controversy, in the 1930s and 40s at the Windmill, under the sponsorship of Laura Henderson (made popular to today's population in the 2005 film Mrs. Henderson Presents).  The 'Windmill Girls' presented tableaux vivants in the nude under a legal loophole that basically said 'if it moves, its rude'.  As long as the girls stayed still, there was no legal course that could be taken against them for vulgarity.

I wonder if the rise of the tableaux as a separate art form is connected to the popularity of the final tableaux in works of theater.  It was considered a powerful theatrical device, to reinforce the final image seen by the audience by re-showing the pose after a brief drop of the curtain.  I was in a production once that used this technique, and as the final pose was rather tragic, it proved to be quite effective.  I could easily see this inspiring a whole 'performance' of tableaux images.