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Martyn Green's Treasure of Gilbert & Sullivan
This book contains the complete librettos of 11 operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan:
Trial by Jury
The Sorcerer
H.M.S Pinafore
The Pirates of Penzance
Patience
Iolanthe
Princess Ida
The Mikado
Ruddigore
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Gondoliers
Martyn Green, who acted in the majority of these shows, includes extensive annotations about the staging and his personal experiences.
Trial by Jury
The Sorcerer
H.M.S Pinafore
The Pirates of Penzance
Patience
Iolanthe
Princess Ida
The Mikado
Ruddigore
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Gondoliers
Martyn Green, who acted in the majority of these shows, includes extensive annotations about the staging and his personal experiences.
- GenresMusic
717 pages, Hardcover
First published June 12, 1961
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September 28, 2024
A bundle of charm. Martyn Green was one of the luminaries of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1930s and '40s, and became indelibly associated with a Golden Age of Gilbert and Sullivan in performance. By 1961, he had left the company in disagreement at management and was able to benefit, that year in particular, by G&S going out of copyright. It was the beginning of the end for D'Oyly Carte (although the company's demise would take another twenty years) but Green left us a valuable record here.
The volume contains the full text for the 11 "standard" G&S operas - at the time, The Grand Duke (which has since earned a place on the fringes of the repertory) and Utopia Limited (which has not) had not been staged professionally in at least half a century, even by the company literally devoted to staging the operas. Additionally the piano and voice sheet music excerpts from the earlier 1940s anthology are reprinted. So you get a hefty volume with both text and some music, although both things can be found in better quality elsewhere. The selling point of this volume is Green's own margin annotations of the operas in performance.
The notes range from sly asides about the nature of G&S characters to reminiscences to useful tips on how encores can be navigated for certain songs, through discussions of staging, acting, and singing. Inevitably, given one person's opinion, there are pages with margins stuffed full of comment and others where one short and ultimately unnecessary note is surrounded by blank space. As an insight, though, into these great works from a man who knew them so intimately, backed by the force of Gilbert and Sullivan's own company, where the traditions had been handed down faithfully since the gentlemen's deaths, this can't be beat.
The volume contains the full text for the 11 "standard" G&S operas - at the time, The Grand Duke (which has since earned a place on the fringes of the repertory) and Utopia Limited (which has not) had not been staged professionally in at least half a century, even by the company literally devoted to staging the operas. Additionally the piano and voice sheet music excerpts from the earlier 1940s anthology are reprinted. So you get a hefty volume with both text and some music, although both things can be found in better quality elsewhere. The selling point of this volume is Green's own margin annotations of the operas in performance.
The notes range from sly asides about the nature of G&S characters to reminiscences to useful tips on how encores can be navigated for certain songs, through discussions of staging, acting, and singing. Inevitably, given one person's opinion, there are pages with margins stuffed full of comment and others where one short and ultimately unnecessary note is surrounded by blank space. As an insight, though, into these great works from a man who knew them so intimately, backed by the force of Gilbert and Sullivan's own company, where the traditions had been handed down faithfully since the gentlemen's deaths, this can't be beat.
Displaying 1 of 1 review