GILBERT—AND SULLIVAN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18760, 17 July 1935, Page 13

GILBERT—AND SULLIVAN

TALES GRAVE AND GAY

PUNGENT SATIRE MELBOURNE, July 3. Tales, grave and gay of W. S, Gilbert and Sir A. Sullivan were related by Mr. B. Manning, "of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, at the lun'.cheon of the Legacy Club. I "Mr. Manning selected the pleasing imethod of illustrating his remarks on Gilbert's satire and Sullivan's melody by singing several songs irom tlie .operas. .- After remarking dryly that Gilbert ! Was not knighted by Queen Victoria because that ■ . monarch was "not ainused" by Utopia, which showed thp "court of St. James as a minstrel show, Mr. Manmng pointed out that most o.i Gilbert's piingent satiro was at the expense ■of tlie ser\ices and the law. Gilbert had originally bold a cominis•sioh in tlie Gordon ■* Highlanders, ami had forsaken the army for the law. lie was perhaps a little' too hard on iniddle-iaged Women. His works had survived largely because be was a mar tiflet who had permitted no meddling with his operas, but the only one with a real plot was the "Yeomen of ihc Guard," which contained some of Ids most beautiful lyrics. Sullivan, had suffered most of his life i with a kidney disease, and some.of hk| most lovely melodies were written "when he was suffering agonising pain.