REMINISCENCES OF GILBERT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1289, 7 January 1915, Page 36

REMINISCENCES OF GILBERT.

Mr. Richard Weathersby has been concerned with the original productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and knows his' subject to his finger tips. “It is quite wrong,” says the producer, “to think that the first performances were adhered to in a hard and fast way by Sir William Gilbert. Grossmith sometimes gagged and introduced new business. It was' always promptly reported, however. Sometimes Gilbert approved, sometimes he didn’t. There were one or two brushes', but Gilbert’s word was law. I always feel that I am, in a way, a trustee of these operas when I am 'Charged with their stage direction. It would be a thousand pities to interfere with the spirit of the operas, to buffoon them, or otherwise affect the constant ripple of humor. Strange as it may seem to many, it is the rarest thing to find an actor wanting to do this. They all have a profound admiration for Gilbert’s genius. ‘lf we could only get lines and lyrics like these always! is the burden of their remarks on the subject.

“Gilbert got his Japanese ideas for The Mikado from a Japanese village at Knightsbridge. He has a reference to it in the opera, but as the village has ceased to be for thirty years the allusion fell flat. Stage managers were given permission to localise the place'when companies were on tour. This I have always done. There is also a gag that was unknown until the phrase became common in pubic and private speech. It comes in when Nanki-Pcoh reminds Pitti-Sing that ‘this interview has already lasted four hours and three quarters.’ To this Pitti-Sing replies, ‘Silly little kipper!’ The business of Pooh-Bah rolling over Pitti-Sing and Ko Ko was arranged at the last reproduction in London supervised by Sir William Gilbert. It has been generally adopted.”