GILBERT & SULLIVAN

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 292, 5 September 1931, Page 20

GILBERT & SULLIVAN

Depression-proof Operas

N.Z. SEASON SOON

(By

H.P.)

There has probably been no sounder test of the popularity and endurance of any form of theatrical entertainment than the phase .through which the Anglo-Saxon world is passing at the present time. Following hard upon the devastating effects of the talkie invasion, the economic stringency has hit the legitimate stage particularly hard, with result* perhaps not so apparent here as in other more densely populated countries where the stage has ever been one of the standard amenities of life. Curiously enough, though nearly every form of theatrical entertainment, including the talkies, has felt the effects of the depression, the one form of entertainment which has come through the test almost unscathed is the GilbertSullivan operas. • At the present time they are running simultaneously in England, America, and Australia. As New Zealand Is dependent upon Australia for our supplies of Gilbert and Sullivan, its devotees will be pleased to learn of the success which has attended the latest revivals of those works, a long and very successful season in Melbourne having been succeeded recently by, >a season in Sydney, where these witty and musical works are helping people to forget their immediate troubles. With the Sydney season under way, it -la possible that , this company may appear in New Zealand at the end of the year. New Zealand has ever been most loyal to Gilbert and Sullivan, and there is no reason to suppose that it will be less loyal in the future than in the past. Musical Paradox. The study of the life of the late Sir Arthur Sullivan reveals something almost paradoxical in composers. Usually when one hears Beethoven, Schubert, and Debussey, it is instantly recognised as such, but Sullivan had two distinct musical facets —he was probably the most serious and impressive of composers of religious music of his time, as he was the most brilliant composers of witty music. JSis church services, his “Golden Legend,” his “Prodigal Son”'and “In Memoriam" were composed at a time when he was keeping pace with the' sparkling pen of Sir W. 8. Gilbert and the insistent demand of the Savoy Theatre. For example, that fine cantata, “The Martyr of Antioch,” was composed during the same year as “The Pirates of Penzance," and “The Golden Legend” was dovetailed in between "The Mikado” and “Ruddigore,” and “The Light of the World” was written a year before the irresistible “Trial by Jury,” which still continues, after 06 years, to convulse audiences. While there have been brilliant writers of comic opera, notably among the French —Offenbach, Von Suppe, Audran, and Planquette—they have in no instance showed such brilliant application to musical composition both grave and gay with, one might say, equal success. It was always supposed by his admirers that it would be by his serious music that he would live in the memory and Jove o£ his people, but now, 50 years after the production of his first triumphant comic opera, “H.M.S. Pinafore,” it is apparent that such has not been the case, for while the repertoire of comic operas is played year in and out, in good times and bad, there are comparatively few of his serious works which, are performed with any marked regularity, if one excepts “The Golden Legend,” which bids fair to live among the immortals. French Staggered. It was out of respect to his ability of serious music that plain Arthur Sullivan was appointed Royal Commissioner for Music at the Paris Exhibition in 1878. He was inclined to take his duties lightly and was wintering at Nice when he received an urgent message to return to Paris to approve the final arrange ments regarding the music. Four days after his arrival in Paris lie wrote a friend: “Yesterday was the meeting of the Musical Commission, which lasted two hours and a half. I prepared my proposition and threw a bombshell mtn their midst—they were staggered, and they called another meeting to consider the question. I said that if they did not agree to my request I, as the representative of England, would withdraw from all further participation in it, and am writing the Prince of Wales to tell him of the state of affairs. I found these French beggars so awfully selfish, and I was glad to have a shot at them, so tomorrow will see the result.” However, it seems that the beggars calmed down, for everything went smoothly afterward, and Sullivan received the Legion d’llonneur for. his services m connection with the exhibition.